Category: Southern Caucasus

Former Armenian Army Officer Charged With Spying For Baku

YEREVAN — An Armenian citizen has been charged with spying for Azerbaijan, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports.

Representatives of Armenia’s National Security Service told RFE/RL that former Armenian Army officer Gevorg Airapetian and a foreign national were arrested in a special operation earlier this week.

Airapetian was released from the Army in 2007 for unspecified “violations of military and service regulations and discipline.”

Airapetian was an lieutenant colonel at the time of his discharge.

He has been officially charged with “treason in the form of espionage” and might face 10 to 15 years in prison if convicted.

No other details about the charges have been released.

Source: www.rferl.org, October 22, 2009

October 22, 2009
Armenia Thanks U.S. For Help In Normalizing Turkey Relations

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Tina Kaidanow, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, meet in Yerevan.

October 21, 2009

YEREVAN — Armenia’s President Serzh Sarkisian has told visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Tina Kaidanow expressed gratitude on behalf of the Armenian nation to the U.S. leadership for its contribution to the normalization of relations with Turkey, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports.

Kaidanow held talks with Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian in Yerevan this week.

Sarkisian told Kaidanow that normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia is very important for Yerevan, and to stability in the region.

Kaidanow said the United States is pleased with the progress in Turkish-Armenian relations, adding that relations should be established in reasonable terms and without preconditions.

Kaidanow stressed the importance of democratic reforms in Armenia, especially paying attention to the recently endorsed amnesty, which, as she said, was a very important step toward further democratization.

In a separate meeting with Nalbandian, Kaidanow discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

https://www.rferl.org/a/Armenia_Thanks_US_For_Help_In_Normalizing_Turkey_Relations/1857541.html

October 21, 2009
Azerbaijani Opposition Party Visits Turkish Soldiers’ Graves

The memorial to Turkish soldiers on the Alley of Martyrs in Baku on October 21.

October 21, 2009

BAKU — An opposition party has protested against the removal of Turkish flags from a memorial in Baku, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports.

The Azerbaijan People’s Front Party (APFP) put wreaths on the graves of the Turkish soldiers, who helped defend Azerbaijan from Armenian forces in 1918.

The protesters said their goal was to show the eternal solidarity of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Police detained three youths who raised both country’s flags.

Turkey’s flags were removed from the same cemetery last week, days after Baku sent a protest note to Turkey because the Azerbaijan flag was banned from a Bursa soccer match attended by the Armenian and Turkish presidents.

Government officials explained the removal by saying the law on national flags allows foreign flags to be displayed only in front of international organizations and diplomatic missions.

Azerbaijani lawmakers have begun revising the law to allow the Turkish flag at the cemetery.

https://www.rferl.org/a/Azerbaijani_Party_Visits_Turkish_Soldiers_Cemetery/1857826.html

October 21, 2009
Turkey Officially Protests Removal Of Its Flag In Baku

October 21, 2009

BAKU — Turkey has officially protested the removal of its national flag from a building in the Azerbaijani capital that belongs to the Turkish Embassy in Baku, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov told journalists that the ministry received an official note from the Turkish officials and is investigating the incident.

Muzaffar Shahin of the Turkish Embassy told RFE/RL that several men in civilian clothes removed the flag on October 21 from the building housing Turkish Embassy’s Office for Religious Affairs without explanation.

On October 17, Azerbaijani authorities removed Turkey’s national flag from Baku’s Alley of Martyrs shortly after the Azerbaijani flag was not allowed at the historic Armenian-Turkish soccer match in the Turkish city of Bursa that was attended by Armenian and Turkish leaders.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey have grown tense since Armenian-Turkish fence-mending protocols were signed in Zurich on October 10.

https://www.rferl.org/a/Turkey_Officially_Protests_Removal_Of_Its_Flag_In_Baku/1857829.html

October 21, 2009
Turkish Foreign Minister to Meet with Azeri Counterpart, President

ANKARA (Combined Sources)—Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will travel to Baku on Thursday for a ministerial meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) where he will also address what Turkish media is describing as growing concerns by Azerbaijan over Turkey’s push to normalize ties with Armenia, the Turkish Hurriyet Daily reported.

Davutoglu is expected to meet with his counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov and President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the meeting, Hurriyet said.

The meeting will come a week after Aliyev threatened to derail the Western Backed Nabucco pipeline project to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe via Turkey.

Media reports in recent weeks have said the historically strong Turkish-Azeri alliance is in danger of breaking down due to Baku’s uncompromising demands for the Karabakh conflict to be linked to Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.

Although Aliyev presented his threat as a purely commercial move, analysts believe the underlying motive was to send a signal on the Turkish-Armenian deal.

Baku’s outbursts have been seen as a tactic to force the Karabakh linkage on Armenia, which is already under heavy international pressure to quickly normalize its relations with Turkey and resolve the Karabakh conflict.

“The timing of Aliyev’s announcement, less than a week after the accord between Yerevan and Ankara was signed, left little doubt.” Said Brian Whitmore, a senior correspondent at RFE/RL. “Baku had argued strenuously that a deal to reestablish relations between Ankara and Yerevan should not be signed while Armenia continued to occupy Nagorno-Karabakh, and it threatened to take unspecified countermeasures if one was.”

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, meanwhile, phoned his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday to brief him on discussions with US President Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev on the Karabakh conflict, the Anatolian News Agency reported.

The two leaders also discussed the recent removal of Turkish flags from a diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan a monument for Turkish soldiers who fought for Azerbaijan in the early 20th century. The move, a breach of international agreements between Azerbaijan and Turkey, was officially protested by Turkey’s ambassador to Azerbaijan.

Diplomatic sources have said Turkey and Azerbaijan are confident that the two countries will overcome “this period of strain” and will continue their cooperation for providing regional stability.

According to the Anatolian, Gul and Aliyev agreed that “misunderstandings and misperceptions brought about by some emotional reactions” while the two countries “were passing through hard times have been cleared.” It added that the two leaders “confirmed that impressions that ties between Turkey and Azerbaijan had weakened were not good for both countries.”

The Turkish flag was removed after Azeri flags were banned by FIFA at the Turkey-Armenia World Cup qualifying match soccer match in Bursa on October 14. The Turkish flags were replaced Tuesday, Azeri media reported, speculating that the decision to remove the flags came in response to a “Turkish ban” on Azeri flags in Bursa.

Asbarez

October 21, 2009
Armenian claims for Nakhchivan:

Javid Huseynov [[email protected]]

and from Armenian Foreign Ministry record, interviewing the initiators of Karabakh separatism:

“Q– Not also Nakhichevan ?

Mikoyan: You see, as a matter of principle, Nakhichevan is also an Armenian land. It’s a pity that the authorities of that region did everything during the last decades toward changing the ethnic proportions of Nakhichevan, so that now only one or two percent of the population is Armenian.

Q– I think presently there are not more than 5,000 Armenians out of a population of approximately 250,000 people. That is, there are a quarter of a million Turks in Nakhichevan, as against only 5,000 Armenians.

Mikoyan: But if we compare that with those Armenian lands which are now in Turkey, one must understand that even if there are very few Armenians living on our ancient lands, still we believe those territories to be Armenian in spite of the ethnic change, especially when the change is realized through actions we will never forgive or forget.

October 21, 2009