Day: January 16, 2024

The European Union warned Azerbaijan of “serious consequence” if Armenia’s territorial integrity is violated.

The European Commission spokesperson Peter Stano told Armenpress that such a clear message has been continuously passed to the authorities in Baku.

“The EU has been using every opportunity to pass clear messages to Azerbaijan that any violation of Armenia’s territorial integrity would be unacceptable and will have severe consequences for our relations,” emphasized Stano. “We remain firm and steadfast in this stance.” 

“The President of the European Council Charles Michel, the High Representative /Vice-President Josep Borrell and the EU Special Representative Toivo Klaar continue their engagement for a sustainable and lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Stano told Armenpress’ Brussels correspondent Lilit Gasparyan when asked to comment on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest threats and territorial claims against Armenia.

In remarks last week, Aliyev continued to not only press for a so-called land corridor connecting to Nakhichevan through Armenia, he also threatened that without such an access Azerbaijan would not open its borders with Armenia—a condition of the peace talks.

Azerbaijan has also snubbed effort by the EU to mediate talks with Armenia, opting to not show up at a scheduled meeting in October in Granada, Spain. In subsequent phone call with the European Council President Michel, Aliyev accused Armenia of occupying eight Azerbaijani villages.

“The European Union has spared no diplomatic efforts to help reach a mutually acceptable settlement of the conflict over the past few years,” said Stano.

“We have been in close contact with the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaderships, tirelessly reiterating our support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity of both countries and the resolution of issues exclusively by peaceful means. Our communication channels remain open,” the spokesperson added.

A shipment of Russian weapons, which according to Armenian officials had been delayed, has arrived in Armenia.

The announcement was made Tuesday not by Armenia’s Defense Ministry or military brass but rather by Gagik Melkonyan, a member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party who sits on the parliament’s defense commission.

Melkonyan told Azatutyun.am’s Armenian Service that shipment, which reportedly arrived in Armenia recently, is part of a recent contract signed between Yerevan and Moscow.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry neither denied or confirmed the report of the Russian weapons delivery when asked by News.am.

Armenian lawmakers, as well as some government officials, had recently complained that Russia was not keeping its end of the deal to deliver weapons despite having been paid “hundreds of millions of dollars” by Armenia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov all but acknowledged the delays last month, effectively saying that the Ukraine conflict had stretched the country military manufacturing sector.

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—An appeals court in Azerbaijan confirmed on Monday a 15-year prison sentence given to an Armenian from Nagorno-Karabakh who was arrested by Azerbaijani security services last summer during his aborted medical evacuation to Armenia.

The 68-year-old Vagif Khachatryan was among Karabakh patients escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Armenian hospitals for urgent treatment. He was detained at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor and then charged with killing and deporting Karabakh’s ethnic Azerbaijani residents at the start of the first Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

During his trial, Khachatrian repeatedly denied any involvement in the alleged killings of 25 Azerbaijanis from the Karabakh village of Meshali captured by Karabakh Armenian forces in December 1991. He had lived in another village close to Meshali during and after the 1991-199 war.

A military court in Baku sentenced him to 15 years in prison on November 7. Khachatryan, who refused to be represented by an Azerbaijani government-appointed lawyer during the trial, appealed against the verdict. The appeal was predictably rejected by the higher Azerbaijani court.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned the “sham trial” late last year. It demanded the immediate release of Khachatrian and other “Armenian POWs and civilians still held hostage in Baku.”

They include eight former political and military leaders of Karabakh who were arrested at the Azerbaijani checkpoint during the mass exodus of the region’s ethnic Armenian population resulting from Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive. They are facing various grave accusations rejected by the Armenian government as well as current Karabakh officials.