Facebook’s Controversial Policies: Silencing Armenian Narratives Armenian Weekly
Day: October 24, 2023
At the conclusion of a summit in Tehran on Monday, the foreign ministers of Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey issued a communique pledging to recognize the inviolability of each other’s borders.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had invited the summit, known as the “Consultative Regional 3+3 Platform,” which was attended by foreign ministers Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia, Sergey Lavrov of Russian, Jeyhum Bayramov of Azerbaijan and Hakan Fidan of Turkey.
During the meeting Mirzoyan emphasized the need to address “very complicated problems” in the region, “otherwise, the region is doomed to remain in the past.”
Stressing that it will not be possible to implement future plans if “the red lines of regional coexistence defined by international law are not respected by all,” Mirzoyan indicated that the goals and principles of the United Nations Charter and in particular the exclusion of the use of force and the threat of force, the principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty, inviolability of borders and the protection of fundamental human rights should be the guidelines.
“Furthermore, it is important to adhere to these principles both in our actions and in our rhetoric. In conditions of aggressive and threatening rhetoric, it is difficult to imagine the creation of a favorable environment, which will allow the implementation of ambitious regional projects. Armenia, for its part, is loyal to those principles,” Mirzoyan told his counterparts in Tehran.
The Untied States used caution when discussing the summit, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller telling reporters on Monday that some of the countries involved in the initiative were not “reliable partners.”
“We welcome any good-faith engagements that contribute to peace and stability for the people of the South Caucasus regardless of where those talks happen or who is hosting them. But that being said, we recognize the South Caucasus’ delicate geographic position regarding Iran and Russia, but we have not found these countries to be reliable partners, to understate matters,” Miller said.
The following are the nine points highlighted in the statement
- Taking into account the importance of developing friendly relations between countries based on mutual interests and good neighborliness, they emphasized in this regard the importance of peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for sovereignty, political independence, territorial integrity, inviolability of internationally recognized borders, non-interference in internal affairs, prohibition on the threat or use of force and respect for human rights based on all the principles of the United Nations Charter.
- While expressing their views on various international issues, they discussed the most significant issues in the region and emphasized the importance of platforms like the Consultative Regional Platform “3+3” in providing opportunities for constructive dialogue and establishing mutually beneficial cooperation between the countries of the region that have the primary role in this regard.
- Highlighted the positive impact of the economic cooperation on strengthening mutual trust, the well-being of nations and the stability of the region.
- Emphasizing the importance of cultural cooperation, people-to-people contacts and joint projects in the field of education, science, tourism, culture and sports.
- In order to enhance lasting peace and economic development of the region, they will strengthen bilateral and multilateral consultation and interaction.
- Welcoming the ongoing processes of normalization and development of relations between all the countries of the region.
- While positively evaluating the results of this meeting, they reaffirmed the openness of this Platform for equal participation of Georgia.
- The Ministers also exchanged views on the situation in Gaza. They emphasized the need for immediate termination of targeting innocent civilians.
- The Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Turkey and the Russian Federation thanked the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the good reception and successful holding of this meeting.
“With an assessment of the regular meetings of the “3+3” Regional Platform in expanding and strengthening the environment of trust and cooperation in the region, they agreed that the next meeting will be held in Turkey on a date that will be coordinated through diplomatic channels,” the announcement concluded.
Arthur Khachatryan, a lawmaker representing the opposition Hayastan bloc in Armenia’s parliament, said Tuesday that the Tehran announcement should compel Azerbaijan to pull out its troops from Armenia’s sovereign territories.
“The definition of the territorial integrity, according to the Helsinki Final Act, means the resolution of territorial disputes peacefully. Yes, all countries, especially neighbors, must resolve relations without the use of force. Thus, Azerbaijan, who adopted that statement yesterday, should pull back its occupying troops from Vayots Dzor, Syunik and Gegharkunik as early as today,” Khahtryan said Tuesday.
“But having adopted such a statement on one hand, and simultaneously maintaining its occupying troops in Armenia, Azerbaijan is sending out a clear message that it does not intend to go for peace if that peace treaty is short of a capitulation statement by Armenia,” the lawmaker added.
Khachatryan said that Armenia must take all measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the political rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, including their right to self-determination.
Categories
NPR News: 10-24-2023 7PM EDT
The GM200 radar system
The Mistral missile short-range missile
YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu underlined France’s commitment to helping Armenia “defend itself” on Tuesday one day after holding talks with his visiting Armenian counterpart Suren Papikian followed by the signing of first-ever arms deals between the two countries.
One of them calls for the South Caucasus nation’s purchase of three sophisticated radar systems from the French defense group Thales. Lecornu and his Armenian counterpart Suren Papikyan also signed a “letter of intent” on the future delivery of French-manufactured surface-to-air missiles. No financial details of these agreements or delivery dates were made public.
“Armenia must be able to defend itself and protect its population,” Lecornu said in a series of tweets posted on the X social media platform in French and Armenian.
“Happy to progress, with you dear Suren, on the three pillars of our defense relationship,” he wrote, listing the planned arms supplies, training of Armenian military personnel and technical assistance to the ongoing “transformation” of Armenia’s armed forces.
Lecornu reaffirmed that a senior French officer will be sent to Armenia to advise its military on those reforms and that teams of French instructors will teach Armenian troops new combat techniques. The training courses will focus on “mountain combat and precision shooting,” he said.
The French minister also pointed to the “upcoming audit” and “reinforcement” of Armenia’s air defenses that suffered serious losses during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and last year’s border clashes with Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army’s heavy use of Turkish and Israeli-made combat drones and the Armenian side’s failure to neutralize them determined, in large measure, the outcome of the six-week war.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Papikyan on Monday, Lecornu said Armenian officers will be trained to operate the GM200 radars and short-range Mistral missiles that are also due to be sold to Yerevan.
GM200 can simultaneously detect and track multiple warplanes, drones and even rockets within a 250-kilometer radius, allowing air-defense units to hit such targets. France supplied two such systems to Ukraine earlier this year.
France, which is home to an influential Armenian community, is the first Western country to have pledged to provide major weaponry to Armenia. Papikyan again thanked Paris for its military support when he met with senior French lawmakers on Tuesday.
Russian State-Run Television Airs Program Disparaging Pashinyan and Saying Russia Should Control the “Zangezur Corridor”
The escalation of tensions between Armenia and Russia took on new form when Russia’s state-run Channel One aired an hour-long program criticizing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for his government’s handling of the Artsakh issue, and, among other issues, advancing the imperative for the opening of the so-called “Zangezur Corridor” to be controlled by Russia.
The program, which aired on Monday evening, was deemed so “insulting” that Armenia’s Foreign Ministry handed a protest note to Russia after summoning its ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin on Tuesday.
“In connection with the program aired on October 23 on the all-Russian federal TV channel Channel One, during which insulting and absolutely unacceptable statements were made against high-ranking officials of the Republic of Armenia, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Sergey Kopyrkin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Armenia,” a statement by the foreign ministry said Tuesday when the protest note was also presented.
The growing rift between Moscow and Yerevan has also spilled into other facets of bi-lateral relations, with the Speaker of the Russian Duma, Viasheslav Volodin, announcing that it has tabled a measure that would recognize Armenia-issued drivers’ licenses as identification.
“We thought it appropriate to delay the [ratification of] the measure, which grant additional privileges [to Armenian citizens], since Armenia’s National Assembly members and the government have not taken any steps on the issue of the status of the Russian language,” Volodin said.
He explained that Belarus and Kyrgyzstan have also determined the status of Russian language in their countries through Constitutional amendments.
Then on Monday Channel One, the leading state-run television channel, aired an hour-long program entitled “Nikol Pashinyan: The Bearer of Calamity,” in which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his circle, including National Security Chief Armen Grigoryan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan were labeled as “Soros agents,” referring to the American billionaire George Soros whose “democracy-building” contributions to emerging democracies have caused domestic havoc in some of the recipient countries.
The program did not shy away from emphasizing the more than 30 billion-ruble (over $320 million) annual funding Armenia receives from Moscow, as well as that four Russian military basis operating in Armenia where some 4,000 Russian border units are deployed, Azatutyun.am reported having translated the content of the show.
As relations have worsened between the two countries, Russia has signaled its support for the controversial land corridor from Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan through Armenia—a move Yerevan vehemently opposed and called an infringement on Armenia’s sovereign territory.
The Channel One program also featured a government official who, according to Azatutyun.am, claimed to have participated in meetings of the deputy prime ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, who are tasked with untangling the transport routes between the two countries and the more complex task of delimiting and demarcating the borders.
The Russian official featured on the program did not mince words when asserting that Russia’s goal and desire is to take control of the so-called road connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan.
“The 45-kilometer [almost 15 miles] road, called the Zangezur Corridor, has to be built,” the official said on the Channel One program. “We don’t understand why Armenia is against it.”