Photos featuring the April war win a prize at international contest

February 17, 2017 By administrator

Photos taken during the April war in Nagorno Karabakh have taken the 2nd place of the Photo series at international photography contest LensCulture Exposure Guide – 2017, Artsakhpress reported.

The author of the series entitled “Military Mobilization” is Areg Balayan, who served as a volunteer on the frontline during the war days.

As the official website of the contest informs, selected by a diverse international jury, the award-winning photographers hail from 22 countries – five continents, representing an intriguing and inspiring cross-section of contemporary photography of out days.

U.S. envoy Mills: 4-day war showed effect of corruption on national security

February 2, 2017 By administrator

The public discourse during and after the four-day war in April highlighted the corrosive effect corruption can have on national security and brought the issue into the public spotlight, U.S. ambassador to Armenia Richard M. Mills said in his remarks to American Chamber of Commerce of Armenia on Wednesday, February 1.

Azerbaijan on April 2, 2016 launched an overt military offensive against Nagorno Karabakh, which claimed hundreds of lives on both sides. Armenian and Azerbaijani defense officials reached an agreement on the cessation of hostilities on April 5 in Moscow.

According to the ambassador, the lack of a resolution to Nagorno-Karabakh fuels corruption because it keeps Armenia’s borders closed and, when borders are closed, he said it is easier for powerful business people and others to control economic markets and close off competition.

“While the link between corruption and economic development, and between corruption and rule of law, have always been apparent, recently we’ve seen more discussion in Armenia about how corruption can impact and threaten national security,” Mills said.

“The government must strengthen and empower public institutions at all levels and send a clear message from on high that corruption will not be tolerated and that no one is above the law. Absent this message, no truly transformative change can occur.

“First, I suggest that the government strengthen the independent role and responsibilities of the Ethics Commission on High Ranking Officials. I applaud the government’s recent step in this direction. Significant changes have been made to the Administrative Violations Code and Criminal Code, providing for fines, criminal sentences, and limitations on holding government positions for 3 years for individuals who submit false income declarations. But more needs to be done. One fix would be for the Government to make clear that the launching of an investigation into possible corrupt activities by a government official does not require specific evidence of an actual bribe paid or a favor given, but could be triggered by a prosecutor’s assessment that the assets declared by a government official are so great as to trigger reasonable grounds of suspicion. Armenian media has done a very good job of analyzing ethics declarations and identifying instances where officials declare assets that are 40, 50 or one hundred times greater than their government salaries, but there was no indication of follow up by the Government.

“And I respectfully suggest that the government consider establishing a fully independent anti-corruption body with full investigative and prosecutorial authority. This was a specific recommendation by Mr. Peter Ainsworth, the Senior Anticorruption Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice whom the Embassy brought to Armenia twice in the last year for consultations with government and civil society. This seems a propitious time for the government to consider this suggestion, as we understand the Prime Minister is currently deciding how to restructure the existing Anti-Corruption Council and formalize the connections and lines of authority between the Anti-Corruption Council and other bodies with anti-corruption mandates.”

Is Iraqi Kurdistan heading toward civil war? urging Massoud Barzani to step down

January 4, 2017 By administrator

Thousands of people took to the streets of several towns in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on for the past weeks, urging its long-time president and KDP leader Massoud Barzani to step down and demanding payment of their salaries, Oct. 2015. Photo: AFP

Dr. Denise Natali | Al-Monitor

The campaign against the Islamic State (IS) in Mosul has diverted attention from simmering problems inside the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that will affect post-conflict stabilization. Within the last several months alone, there has been another assassination of a Kurdish journalist, an “honor” killing of a university student, death threats against a female Kurdish parliamentarian, bombing of an Iranian Kurdish party office that killed seven people and a string of foiled terrorist attacks in Sulaimaniyah province. These incidents have occurred alongside ongoing demonstrations by civil servants for unpaid salaries, a nonfunctioning Kurdish parliament, swelling numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons, an expanded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish airstrikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq. They have not only reversed most gains the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has realized since 2011, but also leave the Kurdistan Region increasingly vulnerable to financial collapse and internal conflict.

Instead of “inevitable Kurdish statehood” after the defeat of IS, a more realistic scenario is weakened autonomy, political entropy and armed conflicts. The KRG launched “independent” exports in 2014, but the Kurdish economy is now in tatters. KRG debt exceeds $22 billion. The availability of electricity has decreased to 2005 levels, or about four hours a day in many areas without private generators. Tens of thousands of youths continue to migrate from the region. The once-touted Kurdish energy sector is being undermined legally and politically. Although the KRG exports about 600,000 barrels of oil per day to Ceyhan, these exports remain contentious, are dependent on Turkey and are largely sourced from Kirkuk — still a disputed territory — and not the Kurdistan Region. International oil companies have thus far abandoned 19 oil fields in the Kurdistan Region, including ExxonMobil’s withdrawal from three of its six fields.

Emails between the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources and Turkish officials released by WikiLeaks reveal the depth of the KRG’s financial crisis and the political fallout. In the eyes of some Kurds, the ministry’s attempt to secure an additional $5 billion in loans from Ankara and offer Turkey a larger stake in Kurdish-controlled oil fields may help protect the economic interests of the Kurdistan Region. Others, however, including parliamentarians in Erbil, see things differently and oppose the ministry’s proposal as the “selling of the Kurdish land to Turkey.” Iraqi officials in Baghdad have also reacted critically, arguing that the KRG does not have the legal right to sell oil fields to Turkey.

Expanded PKK influence in northern Iraq is feeding off these crises and reinforcing intra-Kurdish power struggles. In addition to its base in the Qandil Mountains, PKK groups are now embedded in the Sinjar Mountains to protect the Yazidis against future incursions by IS and to control this strategic territory. While the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Gorran support or tolerate the PKK, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) officials have threatened to potentially use force to eject the PKK from Sinjar. Ankara has also warned that it will intervene in Sinjar in the spring if the peshmerga fail to drive out the PKK. Although acting PKK leader Murat Karayilan has recently said that PKK forces are prepared to withdraw from the Yazidi district of Sinjar, it is unlikely that PKK-affiliated groups will depart entirely. Divisions between those that support the KDP and those against it in northern Iraq are also palpable. Concerns have emerged about the possibility of another birakuji, Kurdish civil war.

Indeed, the idea of armed conflict between the Kurds or internal instability may be difficult to imagine. Much has improved since their four-year Kurdish civil war (1994-98). The Kurdistan Region has developed economically, matured politically, gained international recognition as part of a federal Iraqi state and has become a key local partner in the battle against IS. Although the Kurdish parties are bickering, the risks of sustained violence are too high for leading KRG officials, who are deeply vested financially in the region. Iraqi Kurdish parties are also too fractured and reliant on President Massoud Barzani to effectively challenge the KDP, even if they oppose it politically.

Still, part of the current crises is beyond the KRG’s control and is not so different from what led to the Kurdish civil war. At that time, Iraqi Kurdistan was politically and economically unstable, despite its international safe haven status. Baghdad’s withdrawal from the Kurdish north after the 1990 Gulf War and international sanctions against Iraq had left the newly created KRG unable to pay civil servant salaries, provide services, resettle hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees and reconstruct the villages destroyed by President Saddam Hussein’s Anfal campaign, which involved chemical attacks. Although individual traders tied to Kurdish political parties found creative ways to break sanctions and profit, the majority of Kurds were poor and reliant on international aid.

Power struggles were also salient between the KDP and PUK over leadership and access to revenues and resources. These tensions drew in Turkey, Iran and rival Kurdish parties, including the PKK, much like what has happened today. Back then, for instance, to check the PKK insurgency raging in southeastern Turkey and to secure smuggling revenue at the Habur border, the KDP negotiated commercial and security arrangements with Turkey. Ankara, in turn, launched a series of cross-border military campaigns from 1992 to 1997 — Operation Steel-1 and Operation Hammer — to pursue the PKK across the border. At one point, Turkish interventions involved 35,000 troops penetrating 37 miles inside the Kurdistan Region. The PUK gained support from Iran and backed the PKK. Islamic groups also took advantage of the instability to form and radicalize, including the precursors to Ansar al-Islam.

These patterns are repeating themselves in the Kurdistan Region. Even if the KRG and Kurdish party officials have much to lose from internal conflict, other groups may not and could benefit from the weak Iraqi state, angry populations and managed instability. In addition, as the KRG becomes increasingly dependent on Ankara, the Kurdish problem in Turkey remains unresolved, the Kurds in Syria demand autonomy and the PKK expands its influence, the KRG will inherit the transborder PKK problem. The PKK in turn will attempt to benefit from the political void growing in the Iraqi Kurdish street, where many see it as an authentic Kurdish nationalist party. The PKK and other radicalized groups are also useful to regional states, including Iran, that seek to counter Barzani-KDP power and Turkey.

Left unchecked, these tensions will continue to undermine the economic growth and internal stability of the Kurdistan Region — even after Mosul’s liberation — and the KRG’s ability to act as an effective local partner to defeat IS. More serious attention should be paid to strengthening Iraqi state institutions, including the KRG and provincial administrations, economic diversification, revenue-sharing between Baghdad and Erbil, border security and relations between Ankara, Baghdad and the KRG. The PKK issue inside northern Iraq also needs to be addressed by including ways to reinstate a cease-fire with Ankara and resolve the Kurdish issues in Turkey and Syria.

Dr. Denise Natali is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University, where she specializes in regional energy politics, Middle East politics, and the Kurdish issue.

1st published at al-monitor.com

April victims greatest loss of 2016 – politicians sum up year

December 28, 2016 By administrator

The Armenian soldiers who fell in the fierce battles over Nagorno-Karabakh in April were the heaviest loss of 2016, politicians said today, summing up the past year.

“The four-day war in April was a kind of litmus test in terms of both domestic and foreign policies. It revealed who our strategic allies are and who provides aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan,” a deputy leader of the Free Democrats party, Angela Khachatryan, said.

In her words, the hostage standoff, which followed the petrol police regiment’s armed occupation in summer, was yet another sign of the increasing tension in the country.

Speaking of achievements, Edgar Arakelyan of the Rule of Law party said he is blessed and honored to see that two Armenian republics are entering into the new year after heavy tests. As for the losses, the politician cited the increasing emigration rate noting that it adds to the number losses suffered in April.

Summing up achievements and losses, political figure Azat Arshakyan singled out Armenia’s new cabinet. Initial expectations about Armenia’s Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan vanished after he joined the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA). So many people joining the ruling party was “like seeing a dentist to have your tooth removed.”

“I hoped Karen Karapetyan would not see the dentist,” Mr Arshakyan said.

Artak Davtyan summed up the passing year in terms of foreign and domestic policy. According to him, it is a rather difficult year.

“This year has been full of external challenges, but I agree that ‘that which does not kill us makes us stronger.’”

With respect to the premier’s membership in the RPA, he said:

“But did they think the government could be formed without the RPA? The government and premier are supposed to do what the RPA stated as the RPA is backing it in the form of coalition. The RPA membership of the premier and ministers implies consistent steps,” he said.

Mr Davtyan highlights tougher political control of the army.

“A civilian appointed as minister was a message and a specific step in the context of lessons drawn from the April war – what is the course of Armenia’s progress.”

War, repressions and silenced opposition – Italian TV channel on Azerbaijan’s corrupt regime

November 24, 2016 By administrator

Journalists in prison, offshore businesses in Panama, silenced opposition, and war on the border: this is Azerbaijan which disguises all this behind the veil of friendship with the West, the Italian TV channel Rai says in a recent broadcast uncovering the Azerbaijani government’s repressionist policies.

In the 50-minute footage, the anchor, Milena Gabanelli, features President Ilham Aliyev against the background of Luka Volonte, a corrupt Italian lawmaker who accepted € 2.390 as a bribe to vote against the report on Azerbaijani political prisoners (at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe).
“With its energy carriers and caviar, Azerbaijan silences the Council of Europe, which proclaims democratic values and human rights. The Azerbaijanis now know how fragile the European institutions are; they have caught hold of its weak point, which practically begot the caviar diplomacy.
The Aliyev clan is on the Panama papers which reveal scandalous facts on 11 states’ leaders. The authors note that just one day before the documents’ leakage, Azerbaijan unleashed the four-day war against Nagorno-Karabakh in an effort to silence its society’s reaction to the millions of Dollars’ theft.
“The world is disrespecting the 150,000 people’s desire for a peaceful life in their Homeland”.
“Will democratic Europe go on eating caviar like Luca Volontè, who lined his pocket with petrodollars flowing through four British companies?

“The Luca Volontè case is being investigated in Milan. Irrespective of the results, lobbyists continue their ‘caviar hunt’ in Europe, while the Rai TV presenter and investigative journalist have been declared personae non gratae in the homeland of caviar diplomacy. Azerbaijan does not like those refusing bribes,” says the presenter.

In Geneva, Armenia Ombudsman presents Azerbaijan atrocities during April war

November 22, 2016 By administrator

karabakh-war YEREVAN. – Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, on Monday met with Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) Chief of Operations, Barbara Bernath, in Geneva, Switzerland.

In particular, they discussed the main domains of cooperation in the fight against torture, Office of the Human Rights Defender informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Tatoyan also met with Secretary General of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), Gerald Staberock.

The interlocutors focused especially on the practical implementation of joint projects and cooperation.

In addition, the Armenian ombudsman drew the OMCT chief’s attention on Azerbaijan’s atrocities during the four-day war it had unleashed against Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), in early April.

Will President Trump Reverse Obama/Erdogan Plan For “Seizing, Holding, And Occupying” Syrian Territory In Raqqa

November 9, 2016 By administrator

erdogan-terrorist By Brandon Turbeville

As the U.S. Presidential selection draws to a close, the United States and Turkey have announced a new plan to defeat ISIS, the same terrorist organization both countries have created, funded, armed, and facilitated, in Syria. The plan revolves around the conquering, occupation, and governing of sovereign Syrian territory in the East, most notably Raqqa.

According to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, after meeting with his Turkish counterpart, that “The coalition and Turkey will work together on the long-term plan for seizing, holding and governing Raqqa.”

The statement by Dunford seems to confirm the fact that the United States will not move forward in its campaign for Raqqa without working closely with the Turks, who are themselves concerned about the makeup of the proxy forces destined to hold power once the campaign is over. The Syrian Democratic Forces, the proxies of choice in this battle, are made up of many Kurdish militias and fighters, an issue that provides much worry on the part of the Turkish government.

The battle for Mosul has barely begun, but the civilian toll is already being tallied

October 18, 2016 By administrator

mosul-childern Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, on Monday, Oct. 17, 2016, urged warring parties in Iraq to spare the lives of civilians and not use them as hostages or human shields during the military’s efforts to dislodge Islamic State militants from Mosul. Hadi Mizban AP

Stories have emerged of nervous Islamic State fighters barring Mosul residents from leaving as they seek to preserve their narrative of a “caliphate” that was welcomed and defended by locals. Without agreed-upon escape routes for civilians, Iraqi military commanders have asked families to stay put and fly white flags from their homes, a prospect that Save the Children dismissed as impractical in a brutal urban conflict and, worse, an opening for “civilian buildings being turned into military positions and families being used as human shields.”

The United Nations shares the concern that ordinary families could be forced into acting as shields for the Islamic State.

“Families are at extreme risk of being caught in crossfire or targeted by snipers,” said Stephen O’Brien, the U.N.’s coordinator for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief. “Tens of thousands of Iraqi girls, boys, women and men may be under siege or held as human shields.”

Even if families make it out alive, there’s little guarantee that they’ll find sufficient shelter in seven emergency camps. Aid groups expect more than 200,000 people to flee Mosul in the early stages of the battle, but there are only enough tents for 60,000 right now. Humanitarian workers are bracing for a million-person exodus overall, with the vast majority of those – some 700,000, the U.N. says – projected to require food, water and medical assistance.

By Hannah Allam

WASHINGTON

The battle to retake Mosul from the Islamic State is only a couple of days old but already chilling stories of civilian suffering are emerging.

Dispatches from humanitarian aid workers on the ground tell of children dying of thirst or being killed by land mines as they try to flee the battle, which began Sunday. Staff at a Save the Children station in the area said a severely dehydrated baby arrive there on the brink of death.

Other children showed up barefoot after a 36-hour trek along a route dotted with homemade bombs planted by the extremists. A family that lost two children to hidden explosives told aid workers they couldn’t retrieve the bodies for fear of another blast.

This misery, humanitarian agencies warn, is likely only the beginning of what’s expected to be a protracted fight with a dire toll on civilians who either can’t escape or who manage to flee but find no sanctuary in overcrowded camps.

In the past few days, international aid agencies have issued urgent appeals for parties to the conflict to protect the 1.5 million people trapped in Mosul. More than half a million children are among those at risk, according to the United Nations.

“With no clear safe routes out of Mosul, thousands are now in danger of getting caught up in the crossfire,” said Aleksandar Milutinovic, the International Rescue Committee’s director for Iraq. “Civilians who attempt to escape the city will have little choice but to take their lives into their own hands and pray that they are able to avoid snipers, landmines, booby traps and other explosives.”

Refugee agencies say 4 million Iraqis have been displaced and more than 24,000 killed since the Islamic State’s rampage through much of north and western Iraq in 2014. While the extremist group has been routed from some key territories, retaking Mosul – Iraq’s second-largest city – will be a test for Iraqi security forces eager to redeem themselves after their collapse during the 2014 Islamic State march that took the insurgents almost to the capital, Baghdad.

Some 5,000 U.S. forces are now in Iraq, advising and training Iraqi security forces, including on the front line. U.S. air strikes are also helping, including 70 in and around Mosul this month alone, according to the Pentagon.

“As Iraqi security forces push toward Mosul, they are already identifying and working to identify escape routes and communicating also directions to civilians as the offensive proceeds,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday without elaboration.

The United Nations shares the concern that ordinary families could be forced into acting as shields for the Islamic State.

If there’s no space in the camps, aid workers say, families are likely to seek shelter in abandoned buildings, schools and mosques around Mosul. U.N. workers and other responders have positioned mobile teams in hopes of reaching the most vulnerable and containing the humanitarian crisis by offer vaccinations against polio and measles.

The International Rescue Committee, for example, is on standby to send mobile response teams to displaced people on the outskirts of the city; they’ll be able to provide $420 cash to 5,000 families, representing about 30,000 people, and another 30,000 will receive essential items and medical attention.

The Rescue Committee also is among the handful of agencies that will monitor the mandatory security screenings of all men and boys over age 14 who leave Mosul; Iraqi and Kurdish authorities imposed the checks to make sure no Islamic State fighters flee among ordinary families.

Thousands already have made their way out of nearby Hawija as coalition forces fight their way toward the city. Aram Shakaram, Save the Children’s deputy country director for Iraq, said the flow out of the area – traumatized families arrive starving and near collapse after journeys through explosives-laced mountain trails – is a harbinger of the coming crisis.

“This is just the start and we fear it is going to get much more,” Shakaram said. “The conditions for people fleeing Hawija are an early warning sign of what will happen when far greater numbers flee Mosul itself.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article108827562.html#storylink=cpy

The return of Turkey’s ‘dirty war’ against the Kurds

September 17, 2016 By administrator

kurd-depressed The mystery of Kurdish politician Hursit Kulter has renewed concern the Turkish state is forcibly disappearing people with impunity. His case highlights an all-out assault on the Kurdish movement.

Where is Hursit Kulter? The last message the Kurdish politician sent to his family carried an ominous tone, one that has human rights organizations concerned he has joined hundreds of other people disappeared by Turkish security forces over the years.

“Forgive me with your blessings,” the 33-year-old texted to his family from the besieged city of Sirnak on May 27. “There is not much time left. Give my regards to everybody.”

As a provincial executive of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Kulter was an advocate for Kurdish rights and autonomy. He had decided to stay with his people during an open-ended curfew implemented in March in Sirnak as security forces battled Kurdish militants.

Two witnesses reported seeing Special Operations teams take him into an armored vehicle on May 27. Several days later, a Twitter account believed to be associated with Special Operations in the region shared a post saying he was being interrogated. The tweet was later deleted and the account closed.

Turkish officials deny Kulter was ever arrested and claim to not know his whereabouts.

Southeastern Turkey has witnessed a surge in violence since a two-year ceasefire and peace process between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) broke down last year, leaving thousands of security forces and guerrillas killed and at least 300 civilians dead.

In response to PKK militants and armed youth groups occupying urban areas in the southeast and declaring autonomy, Turkish security forces used heavy-handed tactics and open-ended curfews to root out the rebels. Several towns have been heavily destroyed and more than a million people displaced.

Widespread abuses during months of counter-terror operations in southeast Turkey have been reported.

“We have received repeated and serious allegations of ongoing violations of international law as well as human rights concerns, including civilian deaths, extrajudicial killings and massive displacement,” UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said earlier this week.

The Turkish state has a troubling history of forced disappearances, extrajudical murders and torture during the height of the PKK conflict in the 1990s. During the so-called “dirty war,” thousands of people were extrajudicially killed, disappeared and tortured with impunity.

Kulter’s case raises concerns the state is again resorting to the method of forced disappearances as it prosecutes its war against the Kurdish movement. In Sirnak alone, more than 200 people were disappeared after being arrested in the 1990s. The last case in the province was in 2001, when two Kurdish politicians disappeared.

“Fifteen years later, it raises a lot of concern that a young Kurdish politician all of a sudden disappears when only security forces are present and nobody is allowed to go out on the streets,” Sebla Arcan of the Turkish Human Rights Association’s Commission for Enforced Disappearance under Custody told DW.

All applications for state authorities to investigate have gone unanswered, human rights organizations and Kurdish politicians say. An independent investigation is also not possible due to an ongoing curfew in Sirnak, despite the government calling an end to military operations in June.

“The government should explain what happened to Hursit Kulter. If he was arrested, then why the denial? If he wasn’t arrested, then his whereabouts should be investigated. Why does the government just remain silent?” Arcan said.

Adding to the sense of growing impunity, the Turkish parliament in June passed a law granting immunity from prosecution to members of the security forces conducting counter-terror operations.

Leyla Birlik, a parliamentarian from Sirnak for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which is close to the DBP, said she is blocked by security forces from entering the city and judges, prosecutors, police and the governor ignore her calls for any investigation.

She told DW by phone from a internally displaced persons camp outside Sirnak that 70 percent of the city had been destroyed and 60,000 civilians forced out. Meanwhile, scores of wounded people were not allowed to be evacuated to a local hospital and were left to die during the curfew earlier this year. “This is in effect a form of extrajudicial execution,” she said.

Activists and social media users have sought to keep Kulter’s case active, for example, through a campaign asking #HursitKulterNerede (#WhereisHursitKulter). The Saturday Mothers, a group of families of the forcibly disappeared and human-rights activists peacefully protesting on Istanbul’s main pedestrian thoroughfare every week for nearly two decades, has also taken up his cause.

In some ways, Kulter’s case has fallen by the wayside, becoming one questionable event among many as part of the Turkish state’s vigorous effort to clamp down on the Kurdish movement.

The assault on the Kurdish movement has gained momentum with sweeping emergency powers granted in the wake of July’s failed coup attempt, as the state goes after all of its enemies with massive purges.

What last year started as a hardened military response to the PKK has since warped into military intervention in northern Syria in part to thwart Kurdish gains there and an offensive against Kurdish politicians at home, most recently this week with the replacement of 24 elected Kurdish mayors over allegations of ties to the PKK.

“The government has launched a multi-pronged assault against the PKK, its political affiliates, and sympathizers, carrying its military battle for the first time to Syria as well,” Amberin Zaman, a public policy fellow at the Wilson Center think tank, told DW.

“The aim is to weaken the Kurdish movement to the point where the government feels it can impose rather than negotiate a solution,” she said. “It is not going to work, it’s proven unsustainable in the past.”

Since 1984, nearly 40,000 people have died in fighting between the Turkish state and PKK, which fights for greater political and cultural rights for Kurds.

Iranian Studies specialist: Tehran made it clear to Baku that it will not tolerate military solution to Karabakh conflic

August 20, 2016 By administrator

tehran-baku YEREVAN. – Iran has made it clear to Azerbaijan that it will not tolerate a military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iranian Studies specialist Karen Mkrtchyan noted at a press conference on Saturday.

When asked how the normalization of Iranian-Azerbaijani relations can impact the resolution of this conflict, the Armenian specialist responded: “If the Iranian side is against any military action, it means it is in favor of maintaining the status quo.

“With such viewpoint, this is certainly beneficial to the Armenian side [in the conflict]. Furthermore, the Iranian side has always said that it is for resolving the problem solely through peace talks.”

Mkrtchyan recalled that during the Russian, Iranian and Azerbaijani presidents’ meeting in Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku, President Hassan Rouhani had stated that resolving the Karabakh conflict through negotiations is very important to Iran.

“In doing so, Tehran made it very clear to Baku that it will not tolerate a military solution to the Karabakh conflict,” concluded the Iranian Studies specialist.