Day: July 10, 2024

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, pledged to continue talks toward a peace treaty during a meeting mediated by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday in Washington.

Blinken announced earlier in the day that he would host talks between the two top diplomats on the margins of the NATO summit currently underway in Washington to mark the group’s 75th anniversary.

“The parties noted the progress Armenia and Azerbaijan have achieved towards the conclusion of a historic agreement on peace and establishment of interstate relations, and agreed to continue the work,” a statement from the Armenian foreign ministry said, without further elaborations.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry issued a similarly-worded statement after the meeting.

Until Tuesday, the Armenian foreign ministry insisted that a meeting between Mirzoyan and Bayramov was not scheduled.

“Over the last year, year and a half, Armenia and Azerbaijan have done very important work toward negotiating and concluding a peace agreement – one that is durable, one that is dignified, and one that would open extraordinary possibilities for both countries, the region that they share, and for their relationship with the United States,” Blinken told reporters before his meeting, adding the U.S., along with the European Union, has sought to be helpful and supportive throughout the negotiation process between Yerevan and Baku.

Today is an opportunity to take stock in the progress that’s been made, what remains.  But based on all of the engagements that we’ve had, including in recent weeks, I believe both countries are very close to being able to reach a final agreement, one that the United States would strongly, strongly support,” Blinken said before the talks with Mirzoyan and Bayramov.

The Armenian foreign ministry reported that Blinken and Mirzoyan spoke briefly Tuesday night during the official opening reception of the NATO Summit.

“Views were exchanged with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on bilateral agenda and regional topics,” said the foreign ministry statement.

Before traveling to Washington, Bayramov had warned Yerevan to be prudent and take advantages of the “new opportunities that have emerged in the region for establishing new realities, peace, stability, and cooperation.”

“It is time for the Armenian side to choose regional cooperation over territorial claims,” Bayramov said.

Azerbaijan’s leaders, headed by President Ilham Aliyev, have insisted that Armenia change its constitution as a precondition for signing a peace deal.

Bayramov, as recently as Monday, insisted on the change to Armenia’s constitution before the signing of the peace treaty.

”The Armenian constitution still includes territorial claims against Azerbaijan, which must be addressed for full peace to be achieved,” he said, saying eliminating threats to his country’s sovereignty is “the main priority.”

Yerevan has scoffed at Baku’s demands, saying the Armenian Constitution and any amendments to the document are internal matters for Armenia.

The foreign ministry said last week that Azerbaijan was creating artificial obstacles to the peace process, pledging Yerevan’s readiness to sign a peace treaty “within a month.”

The post After Meeting with Blinken, Baku, Yerevan Pledge to Continue Talks appeared first on Asbarez.com.

SANTA FE, New Mexico — A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday said Alec Baldwin broke “cardinal rules” of gun safety in the 2021 killing of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while his lawyer said he was failed by firearms experts. 

The 66-year-old Baldwin, on trial in Hollywood’s first on-set shooting fatality in three decades, took notes at the defense table and listened calmly to opening statements in his involuntary manslaughter trial. The trial is largely unprecedented in U.S. history, holding an actor criminally responsible for a gun death during filming. 

A New Mexico jury of 12 and four alternates — 11 women and five men — heard prosecutor Erlinda Johnson outline arguments that Baldwin disregarded safety during filming of the low-budget movie before pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal, cocking it and pulling the trigger as they set up a camera shot on a set southwest of Santa Fe. 

“The evidence will show that someone who played make believe with a real gun and violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety is the defendant, Alexander Baldwin,” Johnson said. 

Baldwin’s wife Hilaria Baldwin sat in the second row of the public gallery, his brother Stephen Baldwin in front of her. 

His lawyer Alex Spiro pointed to “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez — head of gun safety — and first assistant director Dave Halls — responsible for overall set safety. Both have been convicted in the shooting, and Spiro said they did not check the rounds in the gun to ensure it was safe for Baldwin to use.  

“There were people responsible for firearms safety but actor Alec Baldwin committed no crime,” said Spiro. 

Hutchins was killed, and director Joel Souza wounded when Baldwin’s reproduction 1873 Single Action Army revolver fired a live round, inadvertently loaded by Gutierrez. 

Since a police interview on Oct. 21, 2021, the day of the shooting, Baldwin has argued the gun just “went off.”  

In an ABC News interview two months later, Baldwin told George Stephanopoulos he did not pull the trigger. A 2022 FBI test found the gun was in normal working condition and would not fire from full cock without the trigger being pulled. 

Spiro said during his opening arguments that no one saw Baldwin “intentionally pull the trigger,” but that it was the responsibility of firearms safety experts to ensure a firearm was safe for an actor “to wave it, to point it, to pull the trigger, like actors do.”  

State prosecutors charged Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in January 2022. They dropped charges three months later after Baldwin’s lawyers presented photographic evidence the gun was modified, arguing it would fire more easily, bolstering the actor’s accidental discharge argument. 

Prosecutors called a grand jury to reinstate the charge in January after an independent firearms expert confirmed the 2022 FBI study. 

FBI testing broke the gun, and Baldwin’s lawyers will tell jurors that destruction of the weapon prevented them from proving the gun was modified. 

Armorer Gutierrez, whose job on the set of “Rust” included managing firearms safely, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March for loading the live round.

Prosecutors will have to persuade jurors Baldwin is also guilty of willful and reckless criminal negligence.