According to Sekhrana Rzayeva, head of the Light Industry Standardisation Department of the Azerbaijan Standardisation Institute, ” Halal medicines should be transported and stored separately from other medicines,” Azernews reports.
Day: November 20, 2023
Victims of the Khojaly tragedy
The Azerbaijani State Security Service reported the arrest of another suspect in the Khojaly massacre of 26 February 1992. The suspect, Rashid Beglaryan, stated that about 200 residents of the village were shot in the vicinity of the Askeran fortress, where they were laterburied.
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“Rashid Aramaisi Beglaryan, suspected of committing torture against Azerbaijani captives held in the children’s hospital number 3 in the city of Khankendi, war crimes, participation in the activities of illegal armed groups, was charged under Articles 112, 113, 115.2, 279.1 318.1 of the Criminal Code of the AR, and arrested. The persons who were tortured by the mentioned person were identified, they were recognised as victims in the criminal case,” the report circulated by the SGB of Azerbaijan says.
It is noted that Beglaryan confessed to participation in the Khojaly massacre:
“During interrogation, the accused Rashid Beglaryan said that on 25 February 1992, the Armenian armed forces and illegal Armenian armed formations acting under their subordination from the town of Khankendi attacked the densely populated town of Khojaly.
According to him, in accordance with a prearranged plan, false promises were made to the surviving peaceful Azerbaijanis that they could safely pass through the Askeran district in the direction of the Agdam district. On 26 February 1992, these armed groups, of which Beglaryan was a member, ambushed almost 200 civilians, most of them women, children and elderly, who were moving along the Gargarchay River in the direction of the Agdam district, and shot them with automatic weapons with the aim of mass extermination of Azerbaijanis near the Askeran fortress.
After the personal belongings of the victims were looted by the members of the criminal group, their bodies were buried in the vicinity of Askeran fortress.
During the investigative actions Rashid Beglaryan gave detailed information about this, clearly indicating the places of committing criminal acts against the civilian population.”
According to official data of the Azerbaijani authorities, 613 people were killed (including those who froze to death on the way), including 63 children, 106 women, 70 old people.
Eight families were completely wiped out.
487 people, including 76 children, were wounded, 150 people were missing, 1,275 people were taken hostage, and 5,379 people were expelled from their places of permanent residence.
Of the captives, the fate of 150 people, including 68 women and 26 children, is still unknown.
In early November 2023, the State Security Service of Azerbaijan reported the detention of Madat Babayan, who during the investigation pointed to the places of mass graves of victims of the Khojaly tragedy in the territory of Gozlukörpu village of Kelbajar district.
Armenia’s rejection of CSTO assistance
“Armenia has asked its partners to withdraw the document on assistance to the country from the agenda.” This statement was made by the secretary general of the CSTO military bloc operating under the auspices of Russia.
Official Yerevan, which has recently been denying rumors about leaving the CSTO and changing the vector of its foreign policy, has not yet commented on this information. Armenian experts consider the current stage of Armenian-Russian relations to be the most dangerous. In their opinion, the country should have announced its withdrawal from the CSTO when it receives clear security guarantees from its Western partners.
Armenia asked for help, then refused it
CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov reported Armenia’s decision to refuse the assistance of partners in the bloc during a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“The Armenian side, although all other allies supported this decision, did not express any interest in this document and, moreover, in the final part of our work they asked to remove it from the agenda altogether.”
This is about the document which in November 2022 the Armenian Prime Minister refused to sign during the CSTO summit held in Yerevan. The document was called Draft Decision of the Collective Security Council on joint measures to assist Armenia.
Nikol Pashinyan explained his decision this way:
“Since May 11, 2021, Azerbaijan has used armed forces three times and occupied approximately 140 square kilometers of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. What do we expect from the CSTO in this regard? A statement of this fact in the form of a clearly formulated political assessment. To refrain from such an assessment by saying that there is no border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is to say that there is no CSTO zone of responsibility. And if there is no zone of responsibility, there is no organization.”
“This is not a demarche”, but Armenia will not participate in the CSTO Council meeting
The next meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council is scheduled for November 23 in Minsk. In a telephone conversation with Lukashenko, the Armenian prime minister said he would not be able to participate.
“And expressed hope that the CSTO partners will take this decision with understanding,” the official statement reads.
According to a spokesman for the Belarusian president, Lukashenko suggested Pashinyan “not hurry, not make hasty decisions, but seriously consider the next steps that could be aimed at disintegration.” And Putin’s spokesman expressed regret and emphasized that “such meetings are a very good occasion for exchanging opinions, for checking the clock.”
The Prime Minister’s Office did not say why Pashinyan would not be able to travel to Minsk and take part in the meeting. He expressed his position on this issue himself. Pashinyan reminded that the bloc did not respond to the security challenges faced by the member of the bloc and Armenia’s repeated appeals for help, which is not normal. He also explained the refusal to participate in the activities of this organization:
“The CSTO refuses to fix what is its zone of responsibility in Armenia. By silently participating in these conditions [in the CSTO events], we can simply join the logic that in any way questions the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia”.
Armenia’s parliamentary opposition considers this approach a “diplomatic demarche” and says the “change of camp” could have serious consequences for the country.
In response, the representative of the ruling team, Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan objected that the refusal to participate in the meetings is “not a demarche”, the Armenian side has questions regarding the position of the CSTO and expects to receive answers from its partners.
In May 2021 and September 2022, when the Azerbaijani Armed Forces advanced deep into the sovereign territory of the country, the Armenian authorities appealed not only to the CSTO but also to Russia for assistance. All appeals remained unanswered.
After that, in 2023 Armenia refused to host CSTO military exercises, gave up the quota of deputy secretary general in the bloc, recalled its ambassador to the organization and did not appoint a new one. Against the backdrop of strained Armenian-Russian relations, Pashinyan and other senior Armenian officials boycott not only CSTO meetings but also CIS events. At the same time, the country’s authorities declare that they “do not intend to change the foreign policy vector”.
Comment
Political scientist Suren Surenyants
“Yerevan has asked its CSTO allies to withdraw the document on assistance to Armenia from the agenda. And at the same time it declares that it is not changing its foreign policy vector, just diversifying its foreign policy. A real adventure. With Nikol Pashinyan’s light hand, the burden of ensuring Armenia’s security is removed from Russia and the CSTO with all the unfavorable consequences that follow,” Surenyants wrote on Telegram.
Political observer Armen Baghdasaryan
“This is the most dangerous stage. In our situation, it can be dangerous to abruptly abandon one security system without getting substantial guarantees from the other. I think we should not discuss the question of which security system is more reliable, but we should discuss the question of how dangerous it is in this situation to change the security system without guarantees,” Baghdasaryan said.
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Armenia’s rejection of CSTO assistance
Vəkil Bəhruz Bayramov: “Nərmanov məhkəməsində həbs qətimkan tədbirini 3 ay uzatdılar. O, məhkəmədə çox çətinliklə dururdu. Bundan şikayət verəcəyik. Səhhətində ağırlaşma var. Artıq ona insulin vururlar, şəkəri normallaşdıra bilmirlər.”.
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