Tag: Artsakh

Armenians Shouldn’t Alienate Foreigners And Complain that ‘no one Cares about us’

As the publisher of a newspaper, I frequently receive what is supposed to be factual ‘news,’ but, after doing some checking, I find out that most of what I was told is baseless rumor.

A good example of gossip mongering happened last week when Israeli travel blogger and journalist Alexander Lapshin arrived in Los Angeles. His visit generated rumors and hateful words by some Armenians.

For those who are not familiar with Lapshin, he visited Armenia on several occasions and went to Artsakh in 2011 and 2012. Azerbaijan blacklisted him, considering his visit to Artsakh illegal. Pres. Aliyev then asked Belarus in 2016 to arrest and extradite Lapshin to Azerbaijan. After being held in a Belarus jail for two months, Lapshin was sent to Baku on Feb. 7, 2017, on the personal airplane of Pres. Aliyev, where he was put through a sham trial and sentenced to three years in jail. On September 11, 2017, Lapshin was attacked in his prison cell by four masked Azeri agents who broke his jaw, ribs and arm, partially paralyzing him. He spent three days in the intensive care unit of a Baku hospital, after which Pres. Aliyev issued him a pardon and expelled him to Israel, where he spent another two weeks in a hospital. Azeri officials falsely claimed that Lapshin had tried to commit suicide which he strongly denied. Several independent medical examiners confirmed that there was an attempt on Lapshin’s life in Baku.

Ever since his release from jail, Lapshin has toured dozens of countries exposing Azerbaijan’s dictatorial regime and its human rights violations against its own citizens and Armenians in Artsakh.

Contrary to the unfounded rumor that he is an Israeli agent, Lapshin has had a major conflict with the Israeli authorities who repeatedly warned him that if he knows what’s good for him and his family, he should stop criticizing Azerbaijan. Israeli officials described Azerbaijan as ‘an ally of Israel’ and told him that his actions were contrary to Israel’s interests. Lapshin was given the same negative message when he met with American Jewish organizations. Israel also warned Lapshin that his Moldovan wife would not be granted Israeli citizenship unless he stops vilifying Azerbaijan.

Lapshin is currently on a tour of Canada, the United States and Mexico where he is meeting with human rights organizations and elected officials to expose Azerbaijan’s brutal violations and defend the interests of Artsakh Armenians.

My source for this information is neither Lapshin nor his critics. There are two official documents — the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee — which independently verified the information submitted by both Lapshin and Azerbaijan’s government.

Lapshin filed a complaint against Azerbaijan to the European Court of Human Rights in 2018. The Court, in a 32-page decision in 2021, found credible that Azerbaijan had attempted to murder him and ordered Azerbaijan to pay Lapshin 30,000 euros in compensation, which Azerbaijan has refused to do.

In 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee, in a 10-page report, recognized that Belarus violated several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by arresting and extraditing Lapshin to Azerbaijan, thus putting his life at risk.

Here are some interesting facts from the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on the case of Lapshin vs. Azerbaijan.

The Government of Azerbaijan falsely told the European Court that Lapshin had written two letters from his Baku hospital allegedly thanking Pres. Aliyev for pardoning him and stating that the prison guards saved his life. Lapshin denied that he wrote these letters. The European Court concluded that Azerbaijan’s allegation is “particularly hard to believe in view of the difficulties which the applicant [Lapshin] had with his writing arm.” Yet there are some Armenians who rather believe Azerbaijan’s lies and forged letters than the European Court’s ruling that there was no reason to doubt Lapshin’s word. The Court also found Lapshin’s assertion ‘plausible’ that there was an attempt to murder him in his Baku prison cell.

The Azeri Judge Latif Huseynov, who was a member of the seven judges assigned to the Lapshin vs. Azerbaijan case, refused to participate. He was replaced by another Azeri Judge, Ceyhun Qaracayev, who voted with the rest of the judges unanimously “in favor of a finding of a violation of Article 2,” which is the ‘Right to Life’ of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In conclusion, those who accuse Lapshin of being a spy without any evidence are alienating a supportive non-Armenian who has risked his life to defend the rights of Artsakh Armenians. This is contrary to the constant Armenian complaint that no one in the world cares about Armenia’s and Artsakh’s destitute situation.

July 28, 2023
Russian-Israeli Blogger’s Bold Efforts To Support Armenia and Artsakh

I just read a very important article in the Armenian Mirror-Spectator in which Aram Arkun interviewed Russian-Israeli blogger Aleksander Lapshin who is currently on a tour of Canada and the United States. He already met with Armenians in Toronto, Canada, on June 3, and New York City on June 11. He also met with the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists to brief them about the dire situation in Artsakh.

Lapshin was born in Russia and moved to Israel when he was 13. His wife is from Moldova and moved to Israel 14 years ago. However, she is still waiting for approval to become a citizen of Israel since 2017.

During his many visits to Armenia, he travelled three times to Artsakh from 2011 to 2016. Azerbaijan’s government issued a warrant for his arrest and asked Belarus to send him to Baku for “illegally crossing Azerbaijan’s border” from Armenia. Belarus extradited him to Azerbaijan in 2017 where “he was sentenced to three years in prison, but was given a pardon in September and flown to Israel after what he describes as an attempt by four masked men in prison on his life. The Azerbaijani government, however, claimed that he had tried to commit suicide,” Arkun reported.

Lapshin said that Israel’s Security Agency repeatedly urged him to stop supporting Armenia because “Azerbaijan is our ally.” He was also advised to withdraw his complaints against Azerbaijan from the European Court of Human Rights and United Nations. Lapshin replied: “No, no way. I will go to the end and I will win.”

On May 21, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Lapshin’s favor in his lawsuit against Azerbaijan for attempted murder, torture and illegal imprisonment. However, Azerbaijan has refused to pay him the compensation of 30,000 euros. “Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Committee adopted a resolution on July 19, 2022 condemning the Belarusian authorities for illegally arresting Lapshin and extraditing him to Azerbaijan,” The Mirror wrote.

Lapshin told the Mirror that because of his criticisms, he cannot visit Russia and the former Soviet countries, ‘except Armenia,’ but added, “I just said except Armenia, but who knows? Armenia is under huge Russian influence.”

“Lapshin continues to pursue his own case against Azerbaijan’s violations of human rights but is committed also to helping Armenia. He understood, he said, that ‘it would be better for me, my family and for our safety, to just leave it aside and continue our old life.’ However, he continued, ‘I just cannot abandon what I do in favor of Armenia and Artsakh because I have many friends in Armenia. Some of them were killed during the second Karabakh war. I actually love this country, so I feel in Armenia like my second home,’” Arkun reported. “Lapshin added, ‘Look, six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. A lot of Armenians actually supported Jews and saved their lives. So, I feel the same.’”

Lapshin told the Mirror: “‘Of course I do not receive any support from the government of Armenia.’ Furthermore, the fact that Armenia, facing an existential threat, is trying to sign a peace agreement with both Azerbaijan and Turkey, seems to create complicated motivations. ‘Even some of the politicians in Armenia tried to convince me to leave it aside, for some political reasons. What I do against Azerbaijan, somehow, in some ways, is against the national interests of the current Armenian government…So I feel a bit alone in this fighting, but this time, fortunately, I have a lot of friends, both Armenian friends, and American and European friends, who actually support me.’”

“While in Armenia, Lapshin met several former prisoners of war who had been raped in [the Baku] jail and tried to convince them to go with him to the US and Europe to testify about this, but, Lapshin said, they felt uncomfortable about talking about such experiences openly due to Armenian social norms or culture,” Arkun reported. The former Armenian prisoners of war told Lapshin: “there were strict warnings from Armenian intelligence services for them not to communicate with journalists or human rights activists. One can speculate that if true, this is due to the precarious current situation of Armenia, which is doing anything in its power to avoid a new war of aggression by Azerbaijan.”

Lapshin told the Mirror that members of the U.S. Jewish community do not support his human rights activities for Armenia. They told him: “Why do you need to deal with Azerbaijan, because Azerbaijan is actually the ally of Israel. Okay, you had a bad experience with Azerbaijan, but still, you have to think globally. This is realpolitik. What you do against Azerbaijan is against the national interest of Israel.”

Lapshin regretted that the American “Armenian community is so divided and weak.” “There is mistrust of the Armenian government and each other, he said, and this situation made him feel emotionally depressed,” Arkun reported.

“If someone wants to invite me for meetings with human rights activists or politicians even on the state level I will be more than happy [to oblige],” Lapshin told Arkun. After Toronto and New York, he is going to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Miami, and probably Chicago, as well as Vancouver, Canada. Later this year, he plans to visit Armenia again. However, he added, due to the unstable political situation, “I can never know if I am going to be allowed to enter Armenia.”

June 25, 2023
Presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan Split The Loot of the 2020 Artsakh War

While Armenia has been licking its wounds of the 2020 Artsakh War, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey wasted no time to get together and split with their families and cronies the loot they acquired after occupying the territories in and around Artsakh.

Azerbaijani journalist Ulkar Natiqqizi posted on the eurasianet.org website his investigative article on October 24, titled: “‘Brotherly’ Azerbaijan and Turkey build lucrative Karabakh business ties.” It reveals how the two presidents have divided among their family members and close associates what they plundered from Artsakh.

Natiqqizi wrote that “Companies close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have received at least hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts, particularly in the reconstruction of the territories in Karabakh that Azerbaijan retook in the war…. In one large new agricultural complex in the Zangilan region, members of Erdogan’s family are business partners with members of President Ilham Aliyev’s family.”

In October 2022, Erdogan and Aliyev together toured “Dost [Friend] Agropark, a $100 million project that will eventually employ 500 people raising up to 10,000 head of cattle.” The two presidents placed ‘Made in Karabakh’ labels on the packages of meat products from the cattle brought to the region by Dost Agropark.

Accompanying Erdogan was “Abdulkadir Karagoz, the owner of Dost Ziraat, the Turkish investor in Dost Agropark.” Karagoz is “a member of Erdogan’s family; he is married to Erdogan’s niece, the daughter of Erdogan’s brother Mustafa Erdogan.” Shortly after his 2016 marriage, when Erdogan’s family members joined his company, “Karagoz began winning conspicuous amounts of government contracts, in many of which his firm was the sole participant.”

President Aliyev’s official website stated that “office buildings, 5,200 square meters indoor and 113,000 square meters outdoor animal husbandry complexes, social facilities, café, cinema, recreation area, swimming pool, and buildings for service personnel were built in the first phase of the [Agropark] project. A total of 3,500 head of cattle were brought to the complex and production of tillage carried out. Harvesting of wheat and barley planted last year was completed with the participation of both presidents.”

One of Erdogan’s allies managing Agropark is Mehmet Zeki Tugrul, the company’s CEO, a former board member of the youth wing of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party.

“On the Azerbaijani side, the investor [in Agropark] is Pasha Investments, part of the Pasha Holding company that brings together all of the firms owned by the family of Aliyev’s wife who is Azerbaijan’s first vice president, Mehriban Aliyeva,” eurasianet revealed.

Joining Erdogan’s entourage during his last month’s visit was “Cemal Kalyoncu, chairman of Kalyon Holding; Mehmet Cengiz, chairman of Cengiz Holding; and Yıldırım Demiroren, chairman of Demiroren Holding. All three had also joined Erdogan in his previous Karabakh visit.”

“Cengiz and Kalyon are two of what has become known as the ‘Gang of Five’ Turkish firms that have close links to Erdogan and the ruling party and which have been awarded most large government tenders during Erdogan’s rule.” The Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet reported that within one year of his marriage, Erdogan’s cousin “Karagoz obtained a total of ten tenders from Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality companies and certain public companies.”

Natiqqizi reported that “Both Kalyon and Cengiz have been awarded lucrative contracts for work in Karabakh, …including the construction of roads and operation of three mines, particularly of gold and copper. Kalyon is constructing the Horadiz-Aghband railway line that is envisaged as part of the transport route connecting Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhichevan to the mainland via southern Armenia. That project is projected to cost over $180 million and to be completed in 2023.”

According to a second eurasianet article titled, “Turkish Firms Benefit from Azerbaijan’s Victory,” stated that “another company run by Mehmet Cengiz won a contract from Azerbaijan’s state water management company for the construction of a massive hydroelectric dam, the Organized Crime and Corruption Project reported. Following the award, a company controlled by Cengiz made a payment to an offshore company which in turn bought a luxury apartment in London, in which the son of the then-head of the water company lived.”

Furthermore, Kolin Insaat, another ‘Gang of Five’ company, “also has gotten a lucrative road construction contract in Karabakh, to build the ‘Victory Road’ to Shusha [Shushi] along with an Azerbaijani firm, Azvirt. Kolin also was involved in the establishment of a market (located on ‘Turkey-Azerbaijan Friendship Street’) in the village of Agali, where the first few Azerbaijanis to resettle in Karabakh have moved.”

Another major Turkish firm, Demiroren Holding, got in 2021 a 10-year contract to run Azerbaijan’s state lottery, and “signed a memorandum of understanding with Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Economy “to build a $40 million pharmaceutical plant.”

Natiqqizi reported that “In total, the Azerbaijani government has allocated nearly $2.9 billion for reconstruction and restoration projects in Karabakh. Data have not been published breaking down which countries’ companies get contracts, and other countries perceived to be friendly, including Italy, Israel, and the United Kingdom, also have gotten contracts. But Turkish firms appear to be the biggest winners of the contracts. There are roughly 30 Turkish companies operating in Karabakh, according to the Turkish embassy in Baku. ‘These companies have already invested $1 billion, and these investments will continue to grow,’ said Yakup Sefer, Turkey’s chief trade counsellor in Baku.”

Natiqqizi wrote that when an Italian journalist asked Pres. Aliyev about the prospects of Italian companies getting a piece of the action in Artsakh, Aliyev said that “Italy would be in second place — behind Turkey. ‘It is our neighbor and they have very prominent construction companies,’ he said of Turkey. ‘Because it is our ally and close friend.’”

November 1, 2022
Putin Finally Reveals His Solution to the Artsakh Conflict

Publisher
The California Courier

After Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted and failed to establish a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenians around the world have been wondering why is he so reluctant to intervene more forcefully in the Artsakh War and stop the bloodshed.

There have been many speculations about Putin’s unexpected hands off approach to the Artsakh conflict, including several conspiracy theories which are not worth mentioning.

During an interview with a Western journalist last week, Putin finally revealed his plans to resolve the Artsakh conflict.

This is what Putin stated: “You said that Russia has always had special ties with Armenia. But we have always had special relations with Azerbaijan too. More than two million Armenians and about two million Azerbaijanis live in Russia. These are not only those people who came for temporary work, but also those who live here almost permanently. Working in Russia, they send billions of dollars to support their families. All these people have very stable, close ties in Russia at the humanitarian level, interpersonal, business, family. Therefore, for us, both Armenia and Azerbaijan are equal partners. And it is a great tragedy for us when people die there. We want to build full-fledged relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. In each case of building relations with each of these countries there is something that distinguishes our relationship with another partner. Well, with Armenia this is Christianity. But we have very close ties with Azerbaijan in other areas as well. As for the religious component, I want to draw your attention to the fact that almost 15 percent of the population of the Russian Federation is Muslim. And even in this sense, Azerbaijan is not a foreign country for us. But what we definitely cannot forget is what happened in the fate of the Armenian people, the Armenian nation, during the First World War; a huge tragedy for the Armenian people. This is the second part. The third is that this conflict began just as an interstate conflict and a struggle for territories. It began as an ethnic confrontation. It is also unfortunately, a fact when in Sumgait [Azerbaijan], and then in Nagorno Karabagh, cruel crimes were committed against the Armenian people. We must take all this into account in a complex. At the same time, we understand that a situation in which a significant part of the territory of Azerbaijan has been lost by the country cannot last forever. Over the course of many, many years, we have proposed a variety of options for resolving this crisis in order to stabilize the situation for a long historical perspective. I will not go into details now, but believe me, it was hard work to bring the positions closer together. At some moments, it seemed that a little more, a little more, one more step, and we would find a solution. Unfortunately, this did not happen and today we have a conflict in its worst form. And the tragedy is that people are dying. You know, there are many losses on both sides. According to our information, there are more than two thousand dead on each side. The total death toll is already approaching five thousand. I draw your attention to the fact that 13,000 Soviet soldiers died in the 10 years of the war in Afghanistan. And in Karabagh, in such a short period of time, almost five thousand people have already died. How many were injured! How many people are suffering, how many children! Therefore, this is a special situation for us. Yes, the Minsk Group was created in 1992. Russia, France, and the United States as co-chairs, we are responsible for organizing this negotiating process. It is clear, I am 100 percent sure here that all participants in this process sincerely strive for the situation to be resolved. However, no one is as interested in this as Russia. This is happening in a broad sense with our people with our friends, with our relatives. Therefore, we take a position that would allow us to enjoy the trust of both sides and play an essential role as mediators in the settlement of this conflict to bring their positions closer. I would very much like this compromise to be found. As you know, I am in very close contact with both President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan. I talk to them on the phone several times a day. Our foreign ministers, defense ministers, heads of special services are in constant contact. You know the foreign ministers of both countries came to visit us. They met in Washington on October 23rd. I very much hope that our American partners will act in unison with us and help the settlement. Let us hope for the best.”

I transcribed this lengthy translation of Putin’s remarks without any omission in order to provide the full context of his statement.

Obviously, Armenians are not happy with Pres. Putin equating with Armenia Russia’s relationship with Azerbaijan. Armenia is a strategic ally of Russia with a mutual defense treaty and with a Russian military base located on its territory. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, is a puppet of Turkey and has taken many steps to undermine Russia’s geopolitical interests, such as the Azeri gas and oil pipelines that reduce the need for Russian oil in Europe.

Furthermore, the involvement of the Turkish military on Azerbaijan’s territory, a part of the Russian sphere of influence, undermines Russia’s interests. Even more alarming is Turkey’s recruitment of Syrian terrorists and their transfer to Azerbaijan to fight against Artsakh. This is an obvious danger to the national security of Russia. Putin did not mention the nefarious role of these terrorists.

The Russian government has made it clear, however, that the mutual defense treaty with Armenia only applies in case of a foreign attack on the Republic of Armenia, which excludes the territory of Artsakh, even though there have been several missile attacks on Armenia’s mainland.

Russia, on the other hand, has other interests with Turkey that it takes into consideration. These are:

— Russia’s attempts in recent years to win over and separate Turkey from NATO.

— Multi-billion trade between Russia and Turkey with Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missiles and the planned construction of a Russian nuclear power plant in Turkey.

— Russia’s unwillingness to go to war against Azerbaijan and Turkey to protect Artsakh.

— Russia and Turkey have conflicting interests in Syria and Libya where they have an uneasy understanding. The Artsakh conflict would place further pressure on the Russian-Turkish relationship should Russia become actively involved in the Artsakh war against Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Most significantly, as Putin said in his above quoted statement: “a situation in which a significant part of the territory of Azerbaijan has been lost by the country cannot last forever.” In other words, Putin implies that he is willing to accept that Azerbaijan militarily reoccupies the seven regions surrounding Artsakh and then negotiate the settlement of the final status of Artsakh. This is totally unacceptable for Armenia and Artsakh. It is imperative to counter the military moves of Azerbaijan and Turkey in order not to allow them to create new facts on the ground which would weaken Armenia’s bargaining position. Furthermore, the loss of the territories surrounding Artsakh — the buffer zone — would further threaten the existence of Artsakh.

Even more alarming, Putin announced that “many countries, including Turkey and a host of European states” should work together to find a consensus. Armenia and Artsakh would categorically reject Turkey’s involvement. How could Turkey, the instigator of the war, be considered a neutral mediator?

Armenians are somewhat reassured that in recent days, various Russian officials have confirmed Russia’s treaty obligation to defend the territory of the Republic of Armenia from any attacks by Azerbaijan or Turkey.

Armenia and Artsakh have difficult days ahead, left all alone to their fate. Only a resolute defense will safeguard the Armenian population of Artsakh.

November 3, 2020