La lettre qui a déclenchée la lettre ouverte

Une lettre de Varoujan Sirapian au Prof. Yaïr Auron

Le 3 octobre 2020, Varoujan Sirapian, président de l'Institut Tchobanian adressa un email au Prof. Yaïr Auron pour protester contre les ventes d'armes par Israël à l'Azerbaïdjan. 

 

Dear Yaïr, 

I'm in Yerevan and I'm living with this war launched by Azerbaijan againt Artsakh since 6 days. 

It's very hard to see and hear civilians dead or blessed by Azerbaijani arms made in and sold by Israël. 

I have nothing againts Jews as people and individuals and you know it. But I'm very angry and yelling very aloud: 

Shame on Netanyahu, 

Shame on whole Israel's government 

for backing Baku's dictator.

Varoujan Sirapian

Le 5 octobre 2020 paraissait sur le site Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide Jerusalem

An Open Letter regarding the Fighting in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh)

Armenian Studies at the Hebrew University

The following represents the personal views of a group of Israeli scholars of Caucasian and associated studies from different institutions of higher learning, and does not reflect the positions of the Hebrew University nor its Armenian Studies Program.

We the undersigned write to express our deep concern with the fighting that has flared up in the region of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh). From a reading of independent accounts and analysis we have concluded that this outbreak of violence in the last few days is due solely to aggression of the Republic of Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey and backed up by fighters from elsewhere in the region. This belligerence has been directed towards military and civilian targets in the Republic of Artsakh and its mainly Armenian population, and deserves to be condemned in no uncertain terms. The response of the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia is clearly one of defense of population, property and territory, and should enjoy the support of those who cherish the principle of self-determination of peoples.

We call for an end to this aggression, and a cessation of the fighting. The long-term answer to tension in the region is on-going negotiations that will aim to resolve the claims of various ethnic groups, leading to a mutually agreed upon political arrangement. Clearly, violence of any type will not resolve ethnic and other tensions.

It is with dismay that we address the matter of Israeli arms sales to Azerbaijan in recent years, this being one component in the massive armament process in that country. We call upon the Israeli government to cease immediately the sales of arms to Azerbaijan, pending a review of the issue by the government and Knesset. Matters of would-be Realpolitik, as reflected here in arm sales, are not the only basis for foreign policy. Certainly, one needs to question Israel’s role in an armament effort aimed mainly against a people that like the Jewish people suffered genocidal attacks in the twentieth century. We call upon other Israelis to raise their voice on this important issue.

Prof. Reuven Amitai
Prof. Yair Auron
Prof. Israel Charny
Ms. Moran Deitch
Prof. Benjamin Z. Kedar
Mr. Yoav Loeff
Prof. Benny Morris
Dr. Yakir Paz
Prof. Eli Richter
Prof. Donna Shalev
Mr. Marc Sherman
Prof. Michael Stone
Dr. Yana Tcheknanovets
Prof. Dror Zeevi

Azerbaijan’s Destruction of Armenian Monuments

Azerbaijan’s Destruction of Armenian

Monuments Exceeds ISIS Crimes

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

“A groundbreaking forensic report tracks Azerbaijan’s destruction of 89 medieval churches, 5,480 intricate cross-stones, and 22,700 tombstones,” is the subtitle of an incredible article by Simon Maghakyan and Sarah Pickman, published in the Hyperallergic Newsletter last week. The article is titled: “A Regime Conceals its Erasure of Indigenous Armenian Culture.”

In April 2011, when the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan wanted to visit Nakhichevan, an Armenian territory classified by the Soviets as an “autonomous republic” of Azerbaijan, to verify the destruction of thousands of historical medieval Armenian khachkars (cross-stones), he was blocked by Azeri officials who told him that reports of their destruction was fake news.

Under Azeri oppression, the longstanding Armenian community of Nakhichevan had dwindled to zero! Not content with ethnic-cleansing, the Azeris proceeded to eliminate all traces of Armenian monuments, claiming that no Armenians had ever lived in Nakhichevan.

“In December 2005, an Iranian border patrol alerted the Prelate of Northern Iran’s Armenian Church that the vast Djulfa cemetery, visible across the border in Azerbaijan, was under military attack. Bishop Nshan Topouzian and his driver rushed to videotape over 100 Azerbaijani soldiers, armed with sledgehammers, dump trucks and cranes destroying the cemetery’s remaining 2,000 khachkars; over 1,000 had already been purged in 1998 and 2002,” reported Maghakyan and Pickman.

The flattened land, where the khachkars stood for centuries, is now a military rifle range. The “demolition was the ‘grand finale’ of Azerbaijan’s eradication of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past,” wrote the two authors.

Maghakyan and Pickman reported that “the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) employed remote sensing technologies in its pioneer investigation into cultural destruction. Their 2010 geospatial study concluded that ‘satellite evidence is consistent with reports by observers on the ground who have reported the destruction of Armenian artifacts in the Djulfa cemetery.’”

“Absolutely false and slanderous information … [fabricated by] the Armenian lobby,” proclaimed Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who makes frequent threats against Armenia and distorts its history.

The authors also quote from public decree No.5-03/S on December 6, 2005, by Nakhichevan’s “local autocrat” Vasif Talibov, a relative of Pres. Aliyev, “ordering a detailed inventory of Nakhichevan’s monuments. Three years later, the investigation was summed up in the bilingual English and Azerbaijani ‘Encyclopedia of Nakhchivan Monuments,’ co-edited by Talibov himself. Missing from the 522-page ‘Encyclopedia’ are the 89 medieval churches, 5,840 intricate khachkars, and 22,000 tombstones that [Armenian researcher Argam] Ayvazyan had meticulously documented. There is not so much as a footnote on the now-defunct Christian Armenian communities in the area -- Apostolic and Catholic alike. Nevertheless, the official Azerbaijani publication’s foreword explicitly reveals ‘Armenians’ as the reason for No. 5-03/S: ‘Thereafter the decision issued on 6 December 2005 … a passport was issued for each monument … Armenians demonstrating hostility against us not only have an injustice [sic] land claim from Nakhchivan, but also our historical monuments by giving biassed [sic] information to the international community. The held investigations once again prove that the land of Nakhchivan belonged to the Azerbaijan turks [sic]….’”

Any Azerbaijani who dares to speak out in defense of Armenians is also attacked as an enemy of Azerbaijan. A courageous Azerbaijani writer, Akram Aylisli, paid a hefty price for telling the truth about the destruction of Armenian monuments in his hometown of Agulis (known today as Aylis). The well-known novelist was furious that the Azeri government was destroying Armenian churches. In his novel, “Stone Dreams,” the protagonist, an intellectual from Agulis, refers to memories of the town’s eight of the 12 medieval churches that had survived until the 1990’s, and protects a victim of anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku. Pres. Aliyev revoked Aylisli’s pension and title of “People’s Writer.” His writings were removed from school curricula, his books were publicly burned, and his family members were fired from their jobs. He has been under de facto house arrest since the release of his novel. Aylisli protested the destruction of the Armenian churches in Agulis and resigned from his position as Member of Azerbaijan’s Parliament. He fearlessly sent a telegram to Pres. Heydar Aliyev in 1997, calling the destruction of the Armenian churches in Aylis an “act of vandalism being perpetrated through the involvement of armed forces and employment of anti-tank mines.”

The two authors spoke with Russian journalist Shura Burtin who after interviewing Aylisli in 2013 traveled to Nakhichevan and reported that he didn’t see “a trace of the area’s glorious past.” Burtin concluded: “Not even ISIS could commit such an epic crime against humanity.”

The authors reported that Aylisli’s 2018 non-fiction essay in Farewell, claimed “that a mosque built five years ago on the site of one of the destroyed churches has been boycotted by locals because ‘everyone in Aylis knows that prayers offered in a mosque built in the place of a church don’t reach the ears of Allah.’”

Argam Ayvazyan, a native of Nakhichevan who spent decades photographing the local Armenian monuments before their destruction, was quoted by Maghakyan and Pickman as decrying the world’s silence: “Oil-rich Azerbaijan’s annihilation of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past make it worse than ISIS, yet UNESCO and most Westerners have looked away.” ISIS-demolished sites like Palmyra can be renovated, Ayvazyan argued, but “all that remain of Nakhichevan’s Armenian churches and cross-stones that survived earthquakes, caliphs, Tamerlane, and Stalin are my photographs.”

ORWELLIAN BIG BROTHER CHAIRING AT THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

FEAR OF revealing the TRUTH

the reason for persecuting HUMAN RIGHTS defenders IN BAKU

by Orwellian “Big Brother”

AUTHOR: MG Hayk Kotanjian, Doctor of Political Sciences; Chairman of Political Science Association of Armenia; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary

MG Hayk Kotanjian

Expressing Armenian colleagues’ any attitude towards the neighboring country’s human rights defenders persecuted with accusations of high treason by Baku authorities is extremely difficult. We are talking about the opponents with whom we had to argue over the fundamental issues of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement at almost all international academic-expert forums organized under the auspices of the international community. On the other hand, these are the colleagues, who, for the most part, having certain professional qualification and adhering to international standards of independent academic studies, could not but understand that peaceful and fair resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is based on the political and legal fact of practical exercise of the right to self-determination by the Nagorno-Karabakh people with infallible use of legislative tools of direct democracy in compliance with the “USSR Law on Secession of a Soviet Republic from the USSR” which was in force in late 1991.[i]

At the same time, the neighboring country’s human rights defenders as a result of independent studies, and due to the very essence of the academic pursuit of the truth, could not but come to the unbiased conclusion that in context of Azerbaijan’s withdrawal from the USSR jurisdiction before the Karabakh referendum and the USSR’s breakup[ii], a consent obtained on the results of the legitimate plebiscite with the relevant authorities of Azerbaijan and the USSR lost its legislative imperativeness.[iii]

These experts, being committed to the requirements of academic objectivity, know that the legality of the right to self-determination, exercised by the Karabakh Armenians, is founded also on the fact of Azerbaijani minority’s equal involvement in the preparation and conduct of the referendum, which is established in verifiable documents. The human rights defenders in Baku as a result of unbiased research could not but reveal the truth consisting in the fact that the reason for Karabakh Azerbaijanis’ non-participation in the law-governed referendum was the decision of Baku authorities to boycott the Karabakh referendum.[iv]

Thus, the authorities’ awareness of objective provability of academic truth of the fact of legality of the Karabakh referendum and the subsequent process of the NKR’s institution-building as a de facto legitimate democratic state is the main reason for the persecution of human rights defenders carrying out studies within international academic-expert community.[v]

Thereby, the fundamental choice between the academic commitment to the truth or to its deliberate distortion has been put as a main reason for which the neighboring country’s human rights defenders are incriminated for the high treason. It should be noted that in these terms, to come out in favor of the colleagues persecuted by Baku authorities, is no easy task. Considering the realities of political persecution, and seeking the truth in support of the persecuted colleagues from Azerbaijan, we have to look to the "do no harm" principle.

Meanwhile, international support for Azerbaijani activists of "public diplomacy", subjected to repression by Baku authorities, drew the leading policymakers of the world and human rights organizations into its orbit. The arrest of Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, charged with spying for foreign countries, attracts special attention. Baku authorities declared the lady to be secret service agent of the Republic of Armenia; the Main Intelligence Directorate, General Staff, Armed Forces, Russian Federation; and the State Department and CIA, US.

Many politicians and human rights organizations seem puzzled at the fact that Baku authorities having launched repressions against its own civil society activists involved in the academic-expert discussion of the issues of peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict, chair the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, designed to further cooperation among the European countries in the areas of developing legal standards of vital activity of the European community, human rights and democracy promotion.

The colleagues from international analytical community, representing think tanks and universities of the US, Europe, Eurasia and Russia, while commenting on the June 2014 speech by the head of the neighboring state and his answers to the questions in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as to the facts of persecution of the human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, find parallels between the behavior of the Azerbaijani authorities and the dictatorship of "Big Brother" in the fictional state of "Oceania", described by George Orwell in his masterpiece pamphlet "1984".

As we know, Orwell describes a regime of total control not only over the political actions of the civil society members, but also their so-called "thought crime", which was a vile sin in "Oceania" and was punishable by death. Under such a dictatorship, not even a deed, but merely the very thought of it falls within the concept of "thought crime". Rules of behavior under these conditions run as follows - "thinking about an offense a person signs his own death sentence, which sooner or later, but always inevitably overtakes him within the walls of the “Ministry of Love”. The repressive body, uncovering “thought crime” is the "Thought Police". And the public censure of the “thought-crime” and “thought-criminals”, and justification of their cruel punishment under the dictatorship of its Head – "Big Brother" is provided by the "Ministry of Truth".

The colleagues from the international academic-expert community, indignant at repression against the human rights defenders in Baku engaged in "public diplomacy", see in their propagandistic denigration the hand of Baku’s "Ministry of Truth" which on the grounds identified by Orwell "destroys, alters or adapts the facts, if the figures, opinions or forecasts they contain do not comply with the requirements of "Big Brother". In the "Ministry of Truth" even the history is scraped out as an old parchment and written anew - as many times as needed. Then the scrape-out is forgotten, and the lie becomes the truth." Drawing parallels it can be stated that by conducting prejudiced checks of the participants of conferences and workshops held under the auspices of respected international organizations and covering the issues of peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, faults are found, inflated to the caliber of a criminal case, and then elevated to the category of felonies including high treason by Baku’s "Thought Police", "Ministry of Truth" and "Ministry of Love".

As described by the British author of the brilliant dystopian novels "1984" and "Animal Farm", "Big Brother’s" dictatorship principles in such regimes conform to the following formulae: "The purpose of repression is the repression. The purpose of torture is the torture. The purpose of power is the power."

The Orwellian formulation of "Big Brother’s" strategic priorities - "Who controls the past, he controls the future, who controls the present, he controls the past," etc. can serve as an exact explanation of the policy objectives of Baku’s dictatorship falsifying political and legal facts of the present and the past.

Now a few words about my personal impressions of Leyla Yunus, following the May 11, 1992 discussion of the fact of taking the town of Shushi by the Armenian forces (the night of 7th to 8th of May, 1992 may be the night of 8^th to 9^th) at Azerbaijan’s Permanent Mission in Moscow which I attended as a political columnist on Transcaucasia of the newspaper “Russia”, Supreme Council (Parliament) RF.

The victorious outcome of the military operation "Wedding in the Mountains" planned by the competent professionals of the Armenian army literally resulted in hysterical speeches of the present Azerbaijanis, who introduced themselves as sponsors of the war waged against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic by the Popular Front of Azerbaijan who has been coming in power in Azerbaijan.

Journalists from the Russian and foreign media were invited to the press conference at Azerbaijan’s Permanent Mission with notification of the planned meeting with Azerbaijan’s Minister of Defense Rahim Gaziyev. Judging by the violent criticism of the Azerbaijani audience it was the Minister of Defense Gaziyev whom they were looking to for explanations. However, he did not come. And Leyla Yunusova (now Yunus) assumed the burden of responsibility for the defeat. She spoke not from the standpoint of human rights protection, but as a representative of the Minister - "the culprit of defeat". Being appointed to the position of head of the Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense Information Service just four days before the victory of Armenians in Shushi, during two and a half hours she could withstand the attacks of the shocked Azerbaijani financial backers of the war against Karabakh.

Listening to Leyla Yunus and Azerbaijani participants of the press conference, dumbfounded by the political, legal and military impeccability of the Armenian sides activities, I, due to Shushi victory, consolidated my respect for the century-long martial traditions of Karabakh Armenians, having inscribed in the history of victorious wars the names of 5 Marshals and the Admiral of the Fleet of the USSR. Suffice it to mention that the Chiefs of Staff of the Soviet Navy and the Soviet Air Force at certain stages of the Second World War were Armenian commanders of Karabakh origin - Ivan Isakov, Admiral of the Fleet, USSR, and Armenak Khanfperiants-Khudyakov, Marshal of Aviation, USSR. [vi]

The leaders of the Karabakh national liberation movement jointly with the Nagorno-Karabakh Government-in-exile acting in Moscow,[vii] established at the initiative of the USSR People's Deputy Zori Balayan and the Head of Special Programs under the Government of Armenia Ashot Manucharyan, as a result of the punitive anti-Armenian operation "Ring" in Northern Artsakh, traced the challenges of the Ogarevo and Novo-Ogarevo processes, as well as the activities of the State Committee on the State of Emergency, and immediately after its downfall they launched institution-building process in line with the requirements of international law and the then effective Soviet legislation.[viii]

Now, after 22 years, in the aftermath of the recent failed attempts to demonstrate the power of Azerbaijan on the frontline I am again convinced of the far-sightedness of the Karabakh Armenians, who, in contrast to the neighboring country’s focus on fierce pogroms and armed violence, preferred law-governed solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the legislation and political realities.

Political science in its independent and impartial application to the study of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict leads to the irrefutable truth of the de facto legitimate and democratic character of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Returning to the mass repressions launched against the human rights defenders by the instance of Leyla Yunus, I want to emphasize that here the main goal of the totalitarian regime of Azerbaijan is the elimination of the community of qualified independent analysts of internal and external political processes, including the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Thereby, Baku authorities destroy the academic-expert ground for developing an impartial political and legal basis for the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, ending in mutual recognition of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.[ix]

Baku’s "Big Brother" with his "Ministry of Truth", "Ministry of Love" and "Thought Police" should know that its policy of systemic distortion of facts of both the current events and the history, as well as justification of repression against the human rights defenders is strongly condemned by the international academic-expert community. Besides, it highlights the unacceptability of the fact that the Chairman of the Council of Europe’s decision-making body - the Committee of Ministers aimed at facilitating cooperation among the countries of Europe in the field of human rights and democracy promotion, in the case of Azerbaijan holds the banner of total dictatorship of "Big Brother" in his hands.

There may be only one conclusion: the reason for persecution of human rights defenders in Baku by Orwellian "Big Brother" is the fear of revealing the truth.

E&O -30.08.2014

---

[i] См. Закон СССР "О порядке решения вопросов, связанных с выходом союзной республики из СССР" No 1410-1 от 3 апреля 1990 г." Ведомости Съезда народных депутатов СССР, Верховного Совета СССР", 1990, No 15; Закон АзР "об упразднении НКАО АзР", 26 ноября 1991 года. Ведомости ВС АзР, 1991, No 24;. Акт о результатах референдума о независимости Нагорно-Карабахской Республики, 10 декабря 1991г. г. Степанакерт, Нагорно-Карабахская Республика, Министерство Иностранных Дел): - (http://www.nkr.am/rus/facts/referendum.html).

[ii] Алма-Атинская Декларация, Алма-Ата, 21 декабря 1991 г. Юридическая Россия. Федеральный правововй портал (v.3.2.).

http://www.law.edu.ru/norm/norm.asp?normID=1168266&subID=100063823,100063824#text

[iii] См. КОНСТИТУЦИОННЫЙ АКТ АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ О ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ НЕЗАВИСИМОСТИ АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ:

http://www.azerbaijan.az/portal/History/HistDocs/Documents/ru/09.pdf

[iv] См.: ICES: Взаимное признание Азербайджана и Нагорного Карабаха - залог конструктивных переговоров. Гайк Котанджян, 2 декабря 2013: 

http://www.elections-ices.org/russian/publications/textid:17265/

[v] “EUROPE ET ORIENT”. “Institution-building in Karabakh: The NKR is a de facto legitimate democratic state” by Major General Hayk Kotanjian

http://europeetorient.blogspot.fr/2014/07/the-nagorno-karabakh-republic-is-de.html

[vi] Речь идет о следующих полководцах карабахского происхождения: Маршале Советского Союза Ованесе Баграмяне, Адмирале Флота СССР Иване Исакове, Маршале авиации Арменаке Ханферянце-Худяков, Маршале бронетанковых войск Амазаспе Бабаджаняне и Маршале инженерных войск Сергее Аганове.

[vii] ”Покойный Юрий Барсегов выполнял конфиденциальную миссию Министра юстиции правительства в изгнании Нагорного Карабаха: коллега”, 11.08.2008:

02.07.2014pda.regnum.ru/news/1039699.html

[viii] ”Институциональное строительство в Карабахе: НКР - де-факто легитимное демократическое государство”, 02.07.2014:

http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1820961.html

[ix] ICES: Взаимное признание Азербайджана и Нагорного Карабаха - залог конструктивных переговоров. Гайк Котанджян, 2 декабря 2013: 

http://www.elections-ices.org/russian/publications/textid:17265/

INTERSTATE RELATIONS AHEAD OF TALKS IN SOCHI

ON OBSERVANCE 

OF PRINCIPLES AND NORMS OF ETIQUETTE 

IN INTERSTATE RELATIONS AHEAD OF TALKS IN SOCHI

by Hayk KOTANJIAN

Yerevan, 08.08.2014

Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia, Elected Member of the Academy of Military Sciences (RF), Visiting Professor at the National Defense University (US), Doctor of Political Sciences (RF), Major General Hayk Kotanjian asked the editorial staff of IA REGNUM to publish the following statement.

*    *    *

Major General Hayk Kotanjian

This statement reflects a desire to help defuse tensions as a result of violations of the truce between the parties to the Karabakh conflict in terms of the recent hostilities on the borders of the Republic of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic ahead of the talks between the heads of state of the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Sochi at the invitation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair represented by the President of the Russian Federation.

As we know in the UN Charter and the preamble to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations common goals and principles of interstate relations are set forth concerning the sovereign equality of states, the maintenance of international peace and security and the promotion of friendly relations among nations.

Taking into account that the etiquette of interstate relations is not defined in some integrated code of international standards, it can be interpreted as a reflection of the goals and principles of the UN Charter and the Vienna Convention in the corporate rules of professional conduct in interstate relations, including the procedure rules and style of the visits, public speaking, business meetings and negotiations between actors in international relations. And in these terms, referring to the etiquette of interstate relations, we mean the commitment of the political culture of a state and actors to certain rules and traditions of maintaining relations with other states. At the same time, as the main actors of interstate relations and bearers of norms of this etiquette are the heads of states, and not just their diplomatic agents on behalf of their representatives. It is important to note that the UN Charter and the Vienna Convention are adopted both by the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The use of this approach - in the absence of another - makes it possible to interpret the observance of the norms of etiquette of interstate relations by the Head of Azerbaijan with his partners in the forthcoming talks in Sochi, being organized under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair represented by the Head of the Russian Federation - one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

In this regard, the reference of my Statement not only to the UN Charter but also to the Vienna Convention - despite the absence of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan - disguises the deep dissatisfaction with this political and diplomatic fact under the conditions of the tripartite ceasefire agreement among the Republic of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, signed in May 1994, and many years of negotiations between the parties to the Karabakh conflict, under the aegis of Co-Chairmanship of the three permanent members of the UN Security Council: the Russian Federation, the United States and the French Republic.

Meanwhile, two days before the talks between the heads of state of the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan, on August 6, 2014, the official website of the President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev posted the text of his speech entitled “THE PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN, SUPREME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES ILHAM ALIYEV VISITED A MILITARY UNIT IN AGHDAM”. In this speech, the Head of the neighboring state used expressions against the Republic of Armenia, grossly violating the generally accepted norms of interstate relations. 

A fragment of the official text by the head of Azerbaijan is as follows: - “... If the Armenian fascist state will not give up its dirty deeds, the very existence of the Armenian state can be called into question. …". See the link of the official text on the site “PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN. ILHAM ALIYEV”: http://ru.president.az/articles/12487  

As the Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia, I consider it my duty to mention the unacceptability of such expressions for heads of neighboring states having official interstate relations, especially on the eve of peace talks. 

By his in-no-way justified definitions the President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev grossly violated the goals, principles and norms of interstate relations, established in the UN Charter and the preamble of the “Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”. The definition of “fascist state”, read out through the mouth of the President of Azerbaijan to the Republic of Armenia, can only hinder the efforts to establish peace and stability in the South Caucasus, as well as the success of the forthcoming meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Sochi at the invitation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair – the President of the Russian Federation. 

Ahead of the meeting of the Heads of state of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Sochi on August 8, 2014, I have the honor to express the hope that such expressions – inconsistent with international norms of interstate relations ‒ would not be repeated by the head of the neighboring state.

Dr. Hayk Kotanjian

Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary

Aliyev Named Corruption's 'Person Of The Year'

Azerbaijani President Aliyev
Named Corruption's 'Person Of The Year'

January 2, 2013 - 5:21pm, by Robert Coalson 
A EurasiaNet Partner Post from: RFE/RL
 

In 2012, corruption watchdog Transparency International reported that two-thirds of the world's countries may be considered "highly corrupt." It would seem tough to choose someone for the dubious honor of corruption's "person of the year."

One investigative-journalism NGO has done just that.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), based in Sarajevo and Bucharest, has awarded the crown to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The group, which specializes in reporting on corruption in the region stretching from Eastern Europe to Central Asia, also gave out some "honorable" mentions. They went to alleged Kosovo-born cigarette and drugs smuggler Naser Kelmendi, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, Russian President Vladimir Putin, politically connected Serbian entrepreneur Miroslav Miskovic, longtime Uzbek President Islam Karimov, and wanted Serbian drugs smuggler Darko Saric.

The informal list was determined by representatives of the 15 international media organizations that make up the OCCRP. It is aimed at highlighting the intrepid and often courageous reporting that is needed to expose corruption in these notoriously opaque countries.

The OCCRP gave the nod to Aliyev, citing extensive reports and "well-documented evidence" that "the Aliyev family has been systematically grabbing shares of the most profitable businesses" in Azerbaijan for many years.

Secret Ownership Stakes

The reports include secret ownership stakes in banks, construction firms, gold mines, and telecommunications firms. Many of the reports about Aliyev were investigated by OCCRP affiliate Khadija Ismayilova, a journalist with RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service.

"President Aliyev and his family, in fact, along with other persons in his inner circle are involved in so many secret businesses that we uncovered, actually together with Radio Free Europe this year," says Paul Radu, OCCRP's executive director. "We identified hidden companies that were owned by the first family of Azerbaijan in Panama, for instance, or in the Czech Republic. And we identified assets that they owned back in Azerbaijan via these companies."

Radu is optimistic about the new tools that are making this kind of reporting more and more effective. One example he cites is that OCCRP has successfully partnered with a Scottish computer hacker.

"He works right now with us at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and he is the one who scraped [eds: got into] the Panamanian registry of companies and that allowed us to perform name-based searches," Radu says. "And this is how we found the companies that are owned by the daughters of Aliyev and by his wife in Panama."

However, Radu adds that the impact of such reporting in the case of the Aliyev family has not been what one might hope.

The ownership structures of the family's foreign assets have been changed; the Azerbaijani parliament in June passed a law making it more difficult to discover who actually owns commercial companies and shielding Aliyev and his family from prosecution.

A Terrifying Campaign Of Threats

Moreover, journalist Ismayilova was subjected to a terrifying campaign of threats and harassment that she alleges was orchestrated by Aliyev's political allies.

Nevertheless, OCCRP editor Drew Sullivan says that "2012 was a banner year for those of us who cover organized crime and corruption. It is a growth industry around the world."

According to Radu, the OCCRP is now combining numerous international databases and linking them to the organization's ongoing files of "persons of interest" -- future candidates to unseat Aliyev as "person of the year."

The OCCRP list is also intended to highlight the global impact of crime and corruption. Radu maintains that most of the people on the OCCRP list have dubious and opaque ties far beyond the borders of their country.

"There are persons such as Darko Sadic, for instance, who is a well-known drug trafficker," he says. "And these sorts of persons are not well-known outside of the Balkans, but in fact they are part of very, very large networks that stretch sometimes across continents. In this case, this person was involved in cocaine trafficking from Argentina all the way to the Balkans."

Radu adds that organized crime from the Balkans and the former Soviet Union is deeply involved in the savage drug wars in Mexico and in massive resource theft from impoverished countries in Africa. This makes it all the more important to expose these people and the corrupt schemes they exploit, he says.