Azerbaijan aware Armenia strong enough to retaliate – Larisa Alaverdyan

September 9, 2015 By administrator

Russia’s national interests did not allow President Vladimir Putin to share his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan’s concern over the border tensions, Larisa Alaverdyan, Executive Director of the Foundation Against the Violation of Law (FAVL), told reporters on Wednesday.

“He cannot because it is the right moment for trading with Azerbaijan – arms sales. This is called politics, with Putin defending Russians interests. This is also a challenge to Armenia’s authorities for them to defend their national interests,” Ms Alaverdyan said.

Armenia must feel equal with its strategic allies, and no one is guilty.

“We must make ourselves strong,” she said.

Small states unable to achieve peace must hope or their own peoples’ potential, including diplomatic potential.

“In the wars triumvirates allow to be waged, Armenia is able to oppose. Azerbaijan is well aware of it. The sates and transnational corporations, such as British Petroleum, are well aware of it as well,” Ms Alaverdyan said.

Armenia must maintain long-lasting strategic relations along with defending its national interests.

Russia will continue fighting to prevent the United State feeling a superstate in the region.

“I am for competition. No state must be dominant, but unable to establish global peace. If Russia begins playing a superstate, but proves unable to establish global peace, I will be against that state,’ Ms Alaverdyan said.

Unable to retaliate on front-line, Azerbaijani troops vent their anger on civilians – Movses Hakobyan

September 4, 2015 By administrator

The situation on the frontline is under full control, and the advanced detachments can adequately retaliate against Azerbaijani armed actions, Vice-Chief of the Joint Staff, Armed Forces of Armenia, Lieutenant-General Movses Hakobyan told reporters on Friday.

“The situation is really tense on the border – not only now or on the threshold of the military exercises.

Tension has been growing for two years. And increased tension on the threshold of the military exercises is mere coincidence and has nothing with the exercises, which were planned last November,” Mr Hakobyan said.

Speaking of the latest Azerbaijani aggression against civilians in Armenia’s borderline regions and of a possibility of events similar to those last August, he said that nothing can be ruled out.

“But we are doing our utmost to prevent a situation similar to that last August. As to civilians, if we recall the war, we can see the enemy is in the habit of doing it and we should not be surprised. When the enemy cannot retaliate on the frontline, they begin using arms against civilians,” Mr Hakobyan said.

Armed forces are not for sniping at civilians, but for defending them, he said.

Armenian armed forces retaliate, cause losses to enemy – Artsrun Hovhannisyan

July 25, 2015 By administrator

Spokesman for Armenia’s Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan, in a Facebook message, reports that the Armenian side had to retaliate against the Azerbaijani armed forces, causing losses to them.

“On July 24 evening, from 7:00pm, the enemy resumed intense ceasefire violations, particularly on the border of Artsakh and of the Tavush region. Shooting continued throughout the night. Both arms of different calibers and 60mm and 82mm mortars were used. In all, more than 160 ceasefire violations were recorded. The Artsakh military units retaliated when necessary and the enemy suffered losses. The Armenian side did not suffer any losses. The situation is relatively calm on the border,” Mr Hovhannisyan wrote.

Azerbaijan has been disseminating disinformation on the situation on the border for several days.

Mr Hovhannisyan is urging the people not to succumb to such provocations and trust only the official information by the Armenian side.

Karabakh Retaliate or not to retaliate?

November 20, 2014 By administrator

Editorial November 11-22

Edmond E. Azadian

Armenia should it retaliate against Azerbaijan or not? It is a Shakespearean dilemma at the border between Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Even if the answer to the question is a foregone conclusion, we know from the Armenian side of the border that sooner or later the Armenian forces will react to the provocation of Azerbaijan, who shot last week an Armenian military helicopter M1- 24 operating near the line to stop the fire, accompanied by another helicopter.

At the time of writing, recovery attempts have failed. The helicopter was shot inside the no man’s land and the bodies of three soldiers remained on board are inaccessible, the area remaining under intense fire from both sides. The Armenian side takes to prevent crime Azerbaijani forces, Armenians fear that the enemy lays a missile in the crash zone to try to prove that Armenian forces hostile intentions. Azerbaijanis take to keep the Armenian forces in distance and probably maintain tension and repel a possible solution to the conflict.

With little regard to the statement by President Aliyev Hilham consider airspace Karabakh as fly zone, President Serzh Sargsyan arrived in Stepanakert airport to board a military helicopter, accompanied by the Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanian. They were both dressed in military fatigues, given the war situation, and the president made a strong speech, evoking an appropriate response to the severity of the assault, a severe speech enough to deter further aggression of Azerbaijan .

International observers have studied the logic of the Karabakh conflict are of the opinion that the Armenian side will not be silent much longer.

Despite the rise of the rhetoric of war and violations of the ceasefire regime resulting fire, all parties seem convinced that the option of an open war is not yet payable of the day. President Sargsyan, who threatened reprisals in his strong speech, said that the threat of open war was not imminent.

The international response to the shot that killed the helicopter was predictable. Jan Psaki, the US State Department, members of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have put together also warned against any further provocation, knowing full well that party was responsible for this new incident.

The fact that the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan has praised who fired the missile proves that he is not an accident or the result of a miscalculation; it was a decision taken at the highest level of the Department of Defense.

Last June, the cease fire was raped many times and Armenian forces responded to provocations on three fronts, causing many Azeri losses. In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, advocating moderation. Other meetings at the highest level followed. The US Secretary of State John Kerry and French President François Hollande called the presidents of both countries to meet and at the border, a drop in blood ensued.

Moreover, whenever a meeting was held with the participation of two presidents and hopes were high for a peaceful solution to the conflict, Azerbaijan immediately violated the ceasefire regime ruining the chances for peace. This time, it took some time before this scenario does not happen again, but there was a more aggressive way than before.

The opposition daily Haykakan Jamanak believes that Aliyev is not 100 percent sure of the conclusion of the war and that any miscalculation would not be the end of the Aliyev dynasty with the loss of enormous wealth stolen from the coffers of the state and the life of exiles that follows.

Many in Armenia wondered why Moscow weapon Azerbaijan as massively as the only enemy of the latter is Armenia, strategic ally of Russia.

Answers and speculation are numerous and varied; answer is that Russia definitely wants Baku joins the Eurasian Union to complete its hegemony over the Caucasus. Others believe it is in the interest of Russia to maintain a certain fever in the region, without open war, to pose as the savior for both parties.

Another frequently asked question is: why Aliyev he chose to shoot the helicopter and why at this time?

Again, the answers are many and varied. During a recent military ceremony, echoing the voice of his master, the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan Zakir Hasanov criticized the “inaction” of the Minsk Group. He expressed exasperation and announced that the only alternative is the military option, with respect to “restore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.”

This rhetoric seems to be climbing a response to dissatisfaction with a restive population vis-à-vis the repressive regime of Aliyev, exposed to severe criticism issued by Western governments, mainly. Therefore, to divert the discontent, it takes Aliyev a scapegoat, that is to say, the Karabakh conflict. While he collects his profit the wealth of the nation, he wants to give him a patriotic picture, and sometimes, in spite of common sense, his vanity led him to take adventurous postures.

Knowing full well the influence of Moscow on Armenia, Aliyev expressed his impatience to force the hand of Moscow to act and force Armenia to withdraw its forces from Karabakh.

While theories abound and speculation, a source in Armenia think that the recent provocation comes from the West, forcing Azerbaijan to undertake another bloody conflict while Moscow is busy on its border with Ukraine.

This possibility remains remote, even if Russia had not committed anywhere in the world. The answer is given in an interview by a prominent Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhaur. Whether the defense pact covers Armenian-Russian Karabakh has always been a much debated question. The analyst said he believed Russia could intervene if Armenia was attacked by Turkey, a distant prospect at the moment. “But if the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian pact with Armenia would not play. The most that can be Russia, is to require both parties to cease hostilities. “ This is the protection of our strategic ally, Russia.

As if the troubles in Georgia were not enough, snaps of the Armenian border with Azerbaijan is intensifying with incalculable consequences.

Concerning the response of Armenia, it is believed that in all environments is rejected. This solves the Shakespearean dilemma, but tell us when this response will be or what form it will take place.

Gilbert Béguian translation Armenews