Day: April 1, 2024

JERUSALEM — Thousands of Israelis took to the streets in Jerusalem on Monday, continuing a three-day protest against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanding new elections. 

The protests have gathered in intensity as the war in Gaza nears the end of its sixth month and anger at the government’s handling of the 134 Israeli hostages still held by the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza has grown. 

“We’re here to protest. To ask for having elections as soon as possible. We feel like we got it to the edge. We really need to get rid of Bibi,” said Timna Benn, a protester in Jerusalem, using Netanyahu’s nickname. 

Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition faced some of the biggest protests in Israel’s history last year, when hundreds of thousands joined weekly demonstrations against plans to overhaul the powers of the Supreme Court, which protesters saw as an attack on Israel’s democratic foundations. 

Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out early elections, which opinion polls suggest he would lose, saying that to go to the polls in the middle of a war would only reward Hamas. 

He has pledged to bring the hostages home and destroy Hamas, the Islamist movement that ruled Gaza, where more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s months-long assault, according to Hamas-run health authorities. 

But after months when the crisis in Gaza put the normal rules of politics on hold, Netanyahu has faced increasingly vocal opposition. 

Surveys indicate that most Israelis blame Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, for the security failures that led to the devastating attack by Hamas fighters on communities in southern Israel on October 7, in which around 1,200 were killed, according to Israeli tallies, and scores of hostages taken. 

“They are not concerned about what happens in the country and with the people. They are concerned about maintaining their position in government. They work for themselves, not for the people. Simple as that,” said protester Refael Shakked-Gavish. 

Adding an additional complication, Netanyahu also has faced protests by ultra Orthodox Jewish demonstrators, angry at the removal of exemptions that have kept young students from religious seminaries from compulsory military service.

Expert: It was obvious mistake to appoint Yurii Husiev as ambassador to Azerbaijan  Censor.NET

Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Romania amounted to $670 million last year, says minister  AZERTAC News

Armenia continues to deploy its troops along conditional border with Azerbaijan – MoD (VIDEO)  Trend News Agency

Azerbaijan-Romania trade turnover keeps growing: Minister  News.Az

Israeli strike on Iranian consulate in Damascus kills key commander, Iran says  The Washington Post

Russian security agency says suspects detained in the Caucasus are linked to Moscow attack  Devdiscourse

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan questioned at the weekend Azerbaijan’s stated respect for Armenia’s territorial integrity while reaffirming his readiness to unilaterally hand over some of the contested border areas to Baku.

The four areas used to be occupied by four Azerbaijani villages occupied by Armenian forces in 1991-1992 and later incorporated into Armenia’s northern Tavush province. For its part, Azerbaijan seized at the time large swathes of agricultural land belonging to several Tavush villages. It continues to deny occupying any Armenian territory.

Pashinyan first signaled plans to give away the four uninhabited and ruined villages on March 12, prompting uproar from many Armenian residents of adjacent Tavush villages. They argue that they would lose access to their existing agricultural land, have trouble communicating with the rest of the country and be far more vulnerable to Azerbaijani armed attacks.

The Armenian opposition has also condemned Pashinyan’s plans, saying that they would not only hurt Tavush residents but also encourage Baku to make further territorial claims to Armenia. Opposition leaders have dismissed as scaremongering the premier’s claims that Azerbaijan will invade Armenia unless the latter makes the unilateral territorial concessions.

“Azerbaijan is trying to find excuses to start a new, large-scale war in the region,” Pashinyan told members of his Civil Contract party in the southern town of Artashat. “Our political position, message is that Armenia has no claims going beyond its internationally recognized territory, including to the territory of the villages mentioned by Azerbaijan.”

He complained that Baku is reluctant to reciprocate his stance by explicitly recognizing Armenia’s territorial integrity and committing to a genuine demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

“If Azerbaijan … really wants to embark on a delimitation and demarcation of the border, we are ready for that, and the application or non-application of the formula mentioned by me will enable us to bring clarity into this matter and draw conclusions,” he said.

Yerevan has said, at least until now, that the two sides should use Soviet military maps drawn in the 1970s as a basis for the border delimitation. Its position has been backed by the European Union but rejected by Baku.

“At this stage, Azerbaijan has separated the issue of those four villages from other issues of the demarcation package,” Tigran Grigoryan, a political analyst, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday. “The Armenian authorities’ expectation that this [unilateral Armenian withdrawal] could happen parallel to an agreement of the maps is, of course, unrealistic.”

Pashinyan’s political opponents say that Armenia is not gaining anything in exchange for more and more concessions offered by him to Baku and that this appeasement policy will not lead to a lasting peace between the two South Caucasus nations.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation of Artsakh held its 28th Regional Convention in Yerevan over the weekend, electing a new Central Committee.

The Convention, once again, affirmed that the ARF, with all its resources, will stand in solidarity with defending and reestablishing the inalienable rights of the people of Artsakh.

The ARF will continue to present the essence of the Artsakh issue and the inalienable right of Artsakh citizens to collective return to their homeland on all platforms. He will continue his cooperation with the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh and all those political and social forces that keep the above-mentioned issues on their agenda.

The ARF will use all platforms and arenas to continue to advance the Artsakh issue that includes the alienable right of Artsakh citizens to collective return to their homeland. The party will continue its cooperation with the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh and all political and social forces that keep are committed to the aforementioned agenda.

At the conclusion of the Convention, a seven-person Central Committee was elected. Ara Poulouzian was chosen as it chairperson.