Category: Southern Caucasus

Is Armenia a failed nation?

I think it is a failed nation. I am not trying to be offensive but there are some things to realize why they are failed.

Average Armenian still lives in 1915. If you try to make a sensible conversation with an average Armenian the conversation ALWAYS comes to “genocide” at some point. It literally sounds like they are BRAGGING about being a victim all the time; it’s bizarre and annoying because it doesn’t add anything to any conversation and it blocks the development of the relationships between their neighbors hence the rest of the world.

They always talk about how they survived a genocide etc and they think their neighboring countries are the ones who should be blamed for their poor economy and social infrastructure. But they don’t see the fact that Israel, a real holocaust survivor nation, was born from their ashes and now they are one of the strongest and most influential countries in the world.

Another thing; A nation’s progress happens through their folk. They need to accept their history and move on. There’s no point to feed the younger generation with hatred. The below pictures are average Armenian’s mindset and the lack of respect for national symbols are saddening. These kids are growing with hate. I’ve seen many similar scenes in Los Angeles. Kids and their grandmas/grandpas are stepping on Turkish flags like they are getting revenge, i think this is pathetic.

(the people in the picture above are Armenian officials..)

I’ve met and interacted with MANY Armenians who live in California and I can honestly say most of them are decent people but extremely ignorant due to their parents. God forbid if you don’t agree with their genocidal claims they become hostile.

I personally don’t think Armenia will be a developed country ever because their mindset is a huge block on development.

Damien Roth

December 23, 2022
Why Azerbaijan Will Keep Attacking Armenia

The conflict centers on a region disputed for decades.

The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh has long been at the heart of tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but with a majority ethnic Armenian population, it declared independence in the late Soviet period.

A years long war between Armenia and Azerbaijan followed, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving hundreds of thousands displaced. It ended in a 1994 cease-fire that left Armenia in control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts that were legally part of Azerbaijan. During the war in 2020, Azerbaijan — with powerful Turkish backing including attack drones — recaptured much of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. The death toll was in the thousands, and tens of thousands of people were forced to flee.

November 30, 2022
Baku Cancels Talks With Yerevan

Armenia, Azerbaijan: Baku Cancels Talks With Yerevan, Threatens Nagorno-Karabakh

What Happened: Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev backed out of the Dec. 7 round of peace talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after the latter insisted that French President Emmanuel Macron also be present, Reuters reported Nov. 28. This came as Azerbaijani officials accused Armenia of using the “Lachin corridor” to supply weapons to the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region and as Azerbaijani media began to speculate about the need for a new military offensive in the region.

Why It Matters: Pashinyan and Aliyev failed to meet in Brussels, Belgium, for peace talks in November, and the potential further delay to their December meeting is a clear sign that talks have stalled. The two sides’ failure to make greater progress in peace talks and the recent shift in Azerbaijani rhetoric suggest that Azerbaijan is increasingly motivated to use force to demonstrate its leverage, meaning the possibility of renewed violent episodes either on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border or in Nagorno-Karabakh is rising. A renewed uptick in violence would make a breakthrough in peace talks even more unlikely to occur by the end of this year.

Background: On Nov. 23, Pashinyan refused to sign Collective Security Treaty Organization documents related to providing assistance to Armenia. On Nov. 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, but the talks did not result in any breakthrough toward a peace agreement. On Oct. 12, Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said Armenia and Azerbaijan were set to agree to a peace agreement by the end of the year that will include the issue of border delimitation, although he indicated that the treaty would not reference the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Stratfor

November 29, 2022
British Media Failed to Cover Terror Attack on Embassy in London

By Azer Hasret

On August 4, 2022, a group of radical Shia Islamists had attacked the Embassy of Azerbaijan in London. The action happened early afternoon at a worktime. What was strange British police was present and they did not prevent attackers from this wrongdoing.

According to media reports radicals approached Embassy’s building, entered, took away some of the belongings and damaged them.

Then a dozen of members of the group went on the balcony of the Embassy, hoisted so-called flag of Huseyn. Some of them wrote something in Arabic language on the walls and windows of the Embassy which is located at the 2nd floor of the building.

Afterwards one of the assailants approached the flag of Azerbaijan, took it away and dropped on the street.

The national flag of Azerbaijan, pictures of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his father, former President Heydar Aliyev were walked through by the radicals on the street.

And these actions were perpetrated before the eyes of London policemen who were very tolerant towards these wrongdoings.

After some 2 hours of the action policemen arrested several perpetrators. Everything was filmed and aired live.

Wasn’t this strange?

That was.

In the center of the city like London a group of radicals attack an embassy, damage belongings and policemen present do not take action to prevent this vandalism…

That was strange appearance in the most known and most secure city of the world…

So as this action happened one could think that the UK media would cover this kind of attack in the city. But what happened to the most “independent” and “free” UK media?

According to the reports most mainstream media of the UK preferred to keep silence regarding this terror attack on the Embassy of Azerbaijan…

Being a citizen of the new democracy – Azerbaijan we were really shocked not due to action of vandalism taken against the Embassy, but due to the silence of the UK mainstream media.

Wasn’t that really news worth case? Imagine, a group of radicals claimed to be Shia Islamists attack an embassy, damage its property, and this happens in more than two hours period in front of the UK police. And this story is not news worth for the UK media.

But we remember even one man whatever does in London and across the world the UK media covers it. Usually, they like to show while someone claiming to be Muslim takes any radical action. The UK media covers this kind of cases bringing to readers/viewers/listeners as a case of “radical Islam”.

Now what happened? A group, attacking Azerbaijani Embassy claimed to be Shia Islamists and they are known as radical group. They claim to be “Mahdi Servants Union” and stated an attack as response to the Azerbaijani Government “repressions” against Shia Muslims.

Just to remind, Azerbaijan is a secular new democracy, and no religion is suppressed here. But some people misusing Islamic religion for dirty purposes by the order of the Islamic Republic of Iran are trying to destabilize Azerbaijan. So, the Government of Azerbaijan takes preventive measures in order to assure stability and security. In this case radical religious groups claim to be oppressed and the likewise groups as “Mahdi Servants Union” use this opportunity to showcase against Azerbaijan.

And in this case the UK mainstream media keeps silence, turns blind eye and thus shows its bias towards the nations and countries.

That was the UK media which used to cover even the garbage dumps in Azerbaijan during the 1st European Games staged in Baku in 2015. They were paying very high “attention” on Azerbaijan using any small opportunity.

But what happened now? Why the UK media failed to follow the principles of impartiality and media ethics and prevented itself from covering a brutal attack on the Embassy?

Was that due to the Embassy being the Azerbaijani one? What would happen if the radical “Muslims” would attack any other country’s embassy like for example the Embassy of Armenia or etc.?

We believe, that the UK media would cover this attack as “terror attack of Muslim group on Christian country’s embassy”.

Then they say that the UK and even all Western media are free and independent…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjNnNaigNB4

August 8, 2022
Azerbaijan, Armenia eye preparations for future peace treaty

Azerbaijan, Armenia eye preparations for future peace treaty

By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan have discussed work on preparations for a future peace treaty between the two countries.

Bayramov made the remarks on his official Twitter account on April 11.

“Had a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan. We had an exchange on the work on the preparation of future peace treaty, the convening of the Joint Border Commission, as well as humanitarian issues,” Bayramov tweeted.

The direct phone conversation between Azerbaijani and Armenian ministers, the first in about 30 years, is a follow-up to the agreements reached at the level of both states’ leaders in Brussels on April 6.

Meanwhile, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar expressed support to direct contact and engagement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“Important development following last week’s Brussels meeting. EU is supportive of direct contacts and engagement,” he tweeted in response to Bayramov’s publication about the telephone conversation with his Armenian colleague.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and European Council President Charles Michel met in a trilateral format in Brussels on April 6.

The meeting was held for a continuation of the discussions on the situation in the South Caucasus region and the development of EU relations with both countries.

The leaders took stock of developments since their last meeting in Brussels in December 2021 and their videoconference, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, in February 2022. They reviewed progress on the implementation of undertaken commitments. The leaders discussed the recently reported tensions and reiterated the necessity of adhering fully to the provisions of the 9/10 November 2020 trilateral statement.

Both Aliyev and Pashinyan expressed a willingness to work quickly toward a peace agreement between their countries. To that end, it was decided to instruct foreign ministers to begin work on drafting a future peace treaty that would address all of the issues.

At the same time, it was also agreed to convene a Joint Border Commission by the end of April. The Joint Border Commission’s mandate will be to: delimit the bilateral border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and ensure a stable security situation along and in the vicinity of the borderline.

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz /TURKİSHFORUM – ABDULLAH TÜRER YENER

April 13, 2022
Azerbaijani NGOs Appeal to the International Community

By Azer HASRET

As is known, on September 27, 2020 Occupational Armed Forces of Armenia had started military offensive against Azerbaijani positions and civil settlements. As a result Azerbaijani Armed Forces had to react and started counter-attacks. Thus the war, which lasted 44 days and ended with the victory of Azerbaijan, had started. Day by day Armenian Army had to step back and on November 10, 2020 the sides signed a Statement to stop war operations. The Statement was initiated by the Russian Federation.

During those terrific days Armenian Armed Forces launched hundreds of rocket attacks on civil settlements. Mostly those settlements were outside of war scene and even hundreds of kms off. Thus one of the most suffered cities was Ganja, some 60 km away from Karabakh and war zone.

On October 3, 2021, on the eve of the first Armenian rocket attack on Ganja, a group of Azerbaijani NGO representatives traveled to the city to express their solidarity with the suffered people and even with the all inhabitants. The city of Ganja was attacked with rockets 5 times and saw huge damages to the city killing dozens of peaceful civilians.

NGO representatives, visiting one of the most suffered areas, convened a conference in Ganja dedicated to the attacks on the civil settlements. At the end of the conference participants adopted An Appeal to the International Community which is included below.

An Appeal to the International Community in Regard to the Military Crimes Committed by Armenia Against Cities and Districts of Azerbaijan in 2020

03 October 2021, Ganja City

As a reply to the next military provocation committed against our country by armed forces of the Republic of Armenia on September 27, 2020, the armed forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan had started contra attack operations and had liberated the lands belonging to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

As a result of successful military operations conducted by our army the military forces of Armenia were completely destroyed. With the aim to compensate the loss in the field of battle the Government of Armenia had chosen the civil population living in the cities and districts out of the frontline of the war shooting from different types of heavy weapons including artillery and ballistic rockets committing crimes and military crimes against the mankind and killed civil population including women and children making damage to the property of population as well as infrastructure facilities in a large scale

Thus, the second largest city of Azerbaijan Ganja faced heavy artillery and rocket attacks during the dates of October 4, 5, 8, 11 and 17. In general, as a result of these horrible terroristic acts 26 persons lost their lives, 175 persons were wounded, and a huge number of civil infrastructure facilities and vehicles faced significant damage.

In general, based on the order of the Government of Armenia not only Ganja and Barda, also Yevlakh, Beylagan, Tartar, Gabala, Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Khizi and other cities and districts were attacked with ballistic rockets and other type of heavy artillery weapons. As a result of this military aggression 454 civilians were wounded, 93 civilians died including 12 children and 27 women, totally 12.292 residential and non-residential areas as well as 288 vehicles had been significantly damaged.

Because of this above-mentioned reasons, we as the NGOs of Azerbaijan with the deep feeling of concern would like to attract the attention of international community to the crimes committed against mankind by the political and military government of Armenia a year ago and we are stating that the international humanitarian law especially Geneva Convention adopted in 1949 had been seriously violated.

We, the NGOs that are active in Azerbaijan who are signing this appeal on behalf of civil society of our country would like to apply to human rights protection organizations, NGOs, media representatives, parliament members and governments in all over the world calling them to express their protest regarding the military crimes committed against the civil population of Azerbaijan by Armenia and to announce this type of military acts against civil population as unacceptable.

Signed by 49 NGOs

October 7, 2021