AND IN OTHER NEWS: Alarms Rise As Azerbaijan Increases Attacks On Armenia

Civilnet
Article Published: 16 Jun, 2023 22:14
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Evidence of the United States’s focus on resolving the Karabakh conflict, the State Department Spokesman’s account has been routinely tweeting about it. At the end of May, it noted hopes for a summit in Moldova, but nothing came of that meeting. In fact, Azerbaijan dropped out of the next planned US-moderated meeting as well. The reference to “aggressive rhetoric” most likely is a call out to President Aliyev, who just prior had demanded the entire leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh be handed over to him to perform an act of submission.

The weeks that followed saw further escalations with multiple ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan, which in turn made repeated and apparently baseless accusations against Armenia of doing the same. The firing on Yeraskh, a border town, is unique because the city is on the western border of Armenia next to Nakhichevan – quite distant from the Karabakh region.

This shooting was also remarkable because the two wounded were not Armenians but Indian workmen constructing a plant owned by US citizens. While India did not directly respond publicly, it has been working closely with Armenia by selling defense equipment, and opposes Azerbaijan for its close ties with foe Pakistan. This shooting will likely make the conflict more personal for India.

The dust had barely settled in Yeraskh when an Azerbaijani provocation at the recently-established border checkpoint (which has been condemned by the EU and USA) resulted in a shoot-out. Azerbaijan immediately announced it is instituting a complete blockade on the bridge, including of the Red Cross’s humanitarian missions. Some have tried to claim using Google Maps that the Azerbaijanis were still on their territory when they raised their flag, but others countered that what matters are Soviet maps, which shows the incident as having occurred on Armenian territory. Based on comments from Azerbaijani officials on Twitter, the flag raising occurred on and may have been in celebration of National Salvation Day, which commemorates Heydar Aliyev’s seizing of power in 1993. It was likely conducted to create justification for closing the bridge, strengthening their complete blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian peacekeepers escorted the Azerbaijani soldiers who raised the flag, and the video boomeranged throughout social media as further evidence suggesting the two sides are working together against Armenia.

The US Ambassador to Armenia was just at the scene of the clash by the village of Tegh only a week ago, calling for “safety and security”. Some Azerbaijani accounts reacted to her tweet with fury, ridiculously claiming her use of binoculars in the direction of Azerbaijan amounted to a violation of the nation’s rights, or even that she was there to spy for the United States and/or Armenia. Consider as well Azerbaijan’s recent cancellation of US-mediated peace talks, and it seems lines have been drawn with Azerbaijan and Russia working towards common goals, despite Azerbaijan’s claims to be an ally of the West in opposing Russia.

Just before these violent events, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Belgium tweeted a “final warning” to Armenia, signaling it is planning an escalation. This in addition to Nagorno-Karabakh being essentially cut off, Armenia’s eastern border besieged, and now the western side under fire as well. The noose is being tightened.

This video is being included in the round-up because it went truly viral for just how ridiculous it was. In a Zoom event on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s victory hosted by the Hudson Institute, the DC think tank which has become notorious for the sheer heights of anti-Armenian sentiment of its fellows like Mike Doran and Luke Coffey, editor-at-large of Turkish Radio and Television TRT World Yusuf Erim described Turkish nationalism as “multi-ethnical” due to its “pride in its Ottoman heritage”, and thus inclusive rather than based on ideas of racial superiority. The video received a flood of bemused and confused quote tweets for obvious reasons. Also present at the discussion was Svante Cornell, whose think tank was revealed as working as a lobbyist for Azerbaijan while also taking money from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to advise on the Karabakh conflict, a clear conflict of interest. This is a reminder that no matter how absurd or divorced from reality their opinions might sound, there’s a financial reason for that and influential people are listening.

An interesting report which was shared and commented on widely was about “coexistence in Georgia”. For decades, villages in Georgia, peacefully populated by both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, have been viewed with surprise given the deep emotions exacerbated by the Karabakh conflict. Georgia had long been a country for attempts at bridge-building between the two peoples. This new report serves as a check of sorts, investigating how that side-by-side living has truly been impacted since the 2020 war, and how inaccurate these almost-utopian narratives really are.

In the art world, this French culture blog released a video calling out artists who accepted money from dictatorial regimes to perform for them, such as Rihanna in Azerbaijan, overlaid with exposes by investigators from organizations like the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

This message was amplified by Serj Tankian, who also called out Formula 1’s cooperation with the Aliyev regime to host races. His call was picked up by the rock and metal site Loudwire.

Despite the threats they are under, Armenians continue to go about their lives and that includes appreciating culture. The municipality celebrated the anniversary of Aram Khachaturian’s birth with three beautiful evenings of performances of his works with the Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Opera and Ballet. As one European visitor commented: “I can imagine few other cities where so many thousands would turn out for ballet.”

Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh showed that same resilience, as heard in this speech.

Meta (Facebook)’s Oversight Board ruled on one of many videos which appear to depict the abuse of Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijan ones. It was found that while the video violates the company’s Community Standards on “Promoting Crime”, Facebook was correct in keeping the video on the site because of newsworthiness. It notes that while “concerns regarding human dignity are acute” in such situations, “such exposure can inform public debate and raise awareness of potential mistreatment, including violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law.” Meta published the public comments it received on the matter, which overwhelmingly came from Armenians, who were mostly in favor of allowing the video to remain as evidence of Azerbaijani war crimes. Some comments were received from assorted human rights organizations from various parts of the world, some highlighting the importance of maintaining evidence of war crimes, while others cited the Geneva Convention’s protections for POWs as a reason to remove the video or at least pixelate the faces of the POWs involved.

Finally, the Caucasus Heritage Watch reports on another case of historic destruction by Azerbaijanis. Keeping to its mission of protecting all cultural heritage, it also recently reported that the Azerbaijani side is digging bunkers within a historic Azerbaijani cemetery.

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