In 1997 RA law on the title of the “National Hero of Armenia” hasn’t been changed yet. Accordingly, Nikolai Ryzhkov wasn’t a RA National Hero yet. That was to follow. Our tankers were to participate in “Tank biathlon” international competition, initiated by RF Ministry of Defense. They’d participate being leaders of the competitions, and would slow down in the last minutes. They’d slow down, so that Russian tankers were the winners. And RF Ministry of Defense would award a prize—T-90 tank, to our tankers for holding the second place. It’d promise, but wouldn’t give. Such a sound military-technical cooperation.
Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh Republic) Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) has published a report on atrocities committed by Azerbaijani Armed Forces against the civilian population of the NKR and the servicemen of the NKR Defense Army during the period of 2-5April 2016. As 168.am was informed from the press service of NKR Ombudsman, the announcement reads as follows,,
It’s noteworthy, that Lavrov himself has repeatedly denied existence of such a document. This was also denied by Igor Popov, OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair (Russia), stating no Russian plans are available at the negotiation table, moreover, he added, “There are proposals by the Co-chairs, which have been discussed throughout recent years in this or that form. A few variants are available, however, they’re based on three principles and six elements of the conflict settlement, which have repeatedly been stated by the Co-chairs. Let me remind about these principles: the right to self-determination, exclusion of the use of force, territorial integrity, and most important among the six basic elements are the return of the territories and the status settlement of NKR.
Russian media outlets are silent on why Russia intends to settle a conflict, unsettlement of which is a crucial component of Russia-led foreign policy. They are silent that its main purpose is Azerbaijan’s membership to EEU. Russian media outlets are silent that for that membership the Russian side was obliged to exert pressure over Armenia to redeem those territories to Azerbaijan.
“Not accidentally, the news was released by the Azerbaijani side. I want to attach your attention to another circumstance as well: they speak of the forthcoming meeting under the umbrella of RF president, and RA presidential spokesman speaks of not having an accord within OSCE MG. Accordingly, Armenia seems to hint, that it anticipates development of negotiations within OSCE, and, probably, this is a precise and right approach by Armenia.”
“Russia’s mediation efforts aren’t so convincing to me under current state of affairs, Russia’s role is very contrastive, as Russia has a military base in Armenia, and is considered Armenia’s main partner in the field of security, Armenia is a CSTO member, Russia is Armenia’s security guarantor, however, it sells arms to Azerbaijan. Although Russia’s officials are also able to ground it, it may be considered as a conflict participant, who openly supports Azerbaijani president’s steps, whatever they might be,” Uwe Halbach said.
In the latter’s conviction, NK conflict should have been settled long ago, if mediators had frank desire and really supported the sides in conflict settlement, and Russia, in his conviction, isn’t such a party, as it does its best for non-settlement of the conflict. In this situation, in his conviction, the sides have just to demonstrate flexibility and quickly settle the conflict, otherwise, it’ll go on the path not shaped by them, which may have a tragic ending for the whole region. Tsintsadze said, that Georgia is ready to be a mediator in Armenia-Azerbaijan bilateral negotiations, which, maybe will pass a new impetus to the negotiations.
“Agramunt supported Aliyev’s regime, meanwhile the Council of Europe must respect the rights of Europe’s citizens, and the PACE President must be serious and must not defend obvious authoritarianism and war crimes.”
“I saw deep patriotism, I saw endurance and combat readiness among the people, but if our actions don’t speak louder than words, sensitive, patriotic outbursts will turn into a bubble and vanish. The enemy is always awake, we should realize whether we’re sleepless too. The Azerbaijani is the same Turk, able to barbaric, genocide-like actions—to behead and cut the ear. This isn’t linked to war, this is barbarism, new expression of Turk’s genocide spirit. After all this we should seriously ponder: why? How did it happen? And what we should do in future? Every person has lots of words to say, nice ones, however, it should be put aside and we should think of our follow-ups,” Aram A, His Holiness Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, told “Armenpress” today. Below is introduced an excerpt from the interview.
“And it refers bodies of our killed soldiers, who were in the defensive positions, plus lots of evidence as well. Documents are available from the downed helicopter crew, which prove that they pursued big purpose, they intended to penetrate into the defense army, and proof for it is available. All this will be submitted to the international community. Of course, from legal and humanitarian standpoint as well, together will all mutilations of the bodies of killed soldiers, implemented by the Azerbaijani armed forces or maybe by mercenaries.”
