Weekly update
15 January
Turkey has approached the new year with the assessment that during 2022, it is going to be wooed as an ally by the NATO and the EU. In anticipation, Ankara proposed to Washington in late December the establishment of a “joint strategic mechanism.” According to asiatimes.com Erdogan’s key aide Ibrahim Kalin followed up the initiative with the US national security adviser on January 10. According to a statement by Ankara, within the scope of global and regional issues, views were exchanged on the Ukraine crisis, the protests in Kazakhstan, the normalization process with Armenia, and the developments in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ethiopia. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev repeatedly alleged that extremists and terrorists from the Middle East were involved in stoking the unrest in his country who were trained by foreign powers and were battle-hardened. Kazakh officials say the plot was masterminded from “a single source.” It doesn’t need much ingenuity to guess who that “single source” could be. It simply cannot be Turkey. But among the large number of militants who have been detained and are being interrogated by Kazakh authorities, there is a large number of foreigners, possibly in their hundreds, including Americans and Turks. The point is, Turkey has been promoting an Islamic identity among Kazakhs and facilitating and supporting Kazakh militants’ participation in the conflict in Syria. The nexus between nationalists and mafia elements in Turkey and Kazakhstan is an open secret. The Russian media have reported a surge in tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border while the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) peacekeeping mission was helping to stabilize the situation in Kazakhstan, with Armenia chairing the post-Soviet bloc.
https://asiatimes.com/2022/01/in-a-reset-turkey-drawing-closer-to-us-europe/
14 January
According to Armenpress reports lead spokesperson for the external affairs of the EU Peter Stano announced. “The EU welcomes the willingness of both Turkey and Armenia to work on the normalization of relations between the two countries and the appointment of Special Envoys for this purpose. The first meeting of the Special Envoys this Friday was an important step forward and the European Union encourages both Turkey and Armenia to make further efforts in this regard. Any further concrete steps towards the normalization of relations would be good news for regional stability and prospects for reconciliation and economic development. The normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey is of key importance for the EU in its engagement with both countries. Since 2014, the EU has provided more than EUR 4.5 million to projects aiming to prepare the ground for the normalization of relations in a number of areas such as economy, culture, education, and communication exchange. The EU stands ready to provide further support to possible additional steps towards normalization of relations”, reads the statement.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1073032.html
13 January
President Ilham Aliyev has warned that if Armenia does not accept Azerbaijan’s international borders, Baku will refuse to accept Armenia’s. In line with bne.eu in a very rare interview with five local Azerbaijani TV stations on January 12, Aliyev said: "If they do not want to recognize our territorial integrity, then we will not recognize their territorial integrity either. We have perhaps a hundred times more grounds to deny the territorial integrity of Armenia than they have to deny our territorial integrity.” “Nevertheless, we are ready [to recognize Armenia’s territorial integrity] for the sake of future peace and the establishment of relations between the countries,” he added. “But I cannot guarantee that it will be the same in six months. [If] they do not want to, well, then we will see what happens." Azerbaijan wants full access to its Nakhchivan enclave in Armenia via the Zangezur ‘corridor’ – something it argues was agreed in the 2020 ceasefire – as well as a formal peace treaty that recognizes Armenia’s enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani president said that Baku was already rebuilding its stocks of weapons and ammunition that were depleted in the 2020 war and that it had had many offers to buy new military technology. “Military technology is evolving and we always want to get the best technology,” he said. Azerbaijan’s use of Turkish drones is reported to have given it a decisive advantage in the last conflict. Aliyev also reiterated that he considers the OSCE Minsk Group as obsolete and that the co-chairs (France, Russia and the US) of this process to find a peaceful solution to the conflict should retire. "In principle, 30 years of work experience, they are on the verge of retirement,” he said. “Therefore, I wish them long life and good health." He criticized co-chair France for what he called its support of Armenia in the 2020 conflict, and said that the US had been absent. He also alleged that Russian peacekeepers on the border had been hampering Armenians from leaving Nagorno-Karabakh since the conflict.
https://bne.eu/azerbaijan-president-uses-rare-interview-to-threaten-armenia-231641/
12 January
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Wednesday the day after fresh deadly fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. According to azatutyun.am the Kremlin said the two men discussed “the current situation around Nagorno-Karabakh” and the implementation of Russian-brokered agreements reached by Armenia and Azerbaijan. They also spoke about the ongoing peacekeeping operation conducted in Kazakhstan by the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, it said. The Armenian government’s press office released a virtually identical statement on the phone call. The statements made no explicit mention of Tuesday’s heavy fighting that left one Azerbaijani and three Armenian soldiers dead. It broke out at a border section separating Armenia’s Gegharkunik province from the Kelbajar district west of Karabakh. Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of provoking the clash that reportedly involved artillery and attack drones. Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov and his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar discussed the incidents in a phone call. “As always, the Turkish armed forces stand with Azerbaijan,” Akar was reported to say during the conversation. The Azerbaijani military said on Wednesday that its positions in Kelbajar came under renewed Armenian fire overnight. The Armenian Defense Ministry reported no overnight skirmishes in the area. The mayor of an Armenian border village, Verin Shorzha, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that he heard no gunfire after Tuesday’s fighting.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31650813.html
11 January
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced on Tuesday that the withdrawal of the peacekeeping forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization from his country will start in two days, a week after their deployment. In line with asbarez.com, “Overall the critical phase of the counter-terror operation is over. The situation is calm in all regions. On this occasion I am announcing that the CSTO peacekeeping forces’ main mission is successfully completed. The phased withdrawal of the CSTO joint peacekeeping forces will begin in two days. The process will last no more than 10 days,” Tokayev said during a speech in parliament. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as the chair of the CSTO Security Council, deployed 100 Armenian troops to Kazakhstan, following the organization’s swift decision to honor Tokayev’s appeal for assistance.The CSTO refused to assist Armenia when appeals were sent during the 2020 war and in May, when Azerbaijani forces breached Armenia’s borders and advanced into the Gegharkunik and Syunik provinces. On Tuesday, two Armenian soldiers were killed when Azerbaijani forces opened fire on positions in Gegharkunik.
https://asbarez.com/csto-mission-completed-declares-kazakhstans-president/
10 January
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed hope that troops sent by Russia, Armenia and other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will help Kazakhstan end domestic unrest as he chaired a virtual summit of the Russian-led alliance on Monday. According to azatutyun.am “We hope that the efforts within the framework of the CSTO aimed at assisting friendly Kazakhstan will help restore the country's normal life in the shortest possible time,” Pashinian told the emergency video conference attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The purposefulness of our actions towards the earliest possible stabilization of the situation and the return of the country to normal life is obvious,” he said. “This is a critical moment for ensuring basic living conditions for citizens and the security of strategically important facilities.” Cities throughout Kazakhstan have been struck by protests that initially erupted in the western region of Mangystau on January 2 over the doubling in the price of subsidized liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev asked the CSTO for urgent intervention on January 5 as mobs stormed government buildings and looted businesses in his country’s largest city, Almaty.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31647590.html
9 January
Armenian Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, posted the following on his Facebook page today, claiming that Azerbaijani troops demanded that Armenian POWs renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam. In line with hetq.am the fact that Azerbaijan has developed a policy of hostility after the war is evidenced by new forms of torture against Armenian captives. In one case, Azerbaijani servicemen demanded that an Armenian soldier renounce Christianity and convert to Islam. When the Armenian soldier refused to comply, his leg was burned, and was severely beaten and ridiculed. We have never recorded anything like this before. In another case, a cross tattoo was noticed, and they burned that part of the body was burned with a lighter and he was severely beaten. Crosses were either taken or destroyed from those having them. When our captives demanded the return of the crosses, they were severely beaten and ridiculed. They mocked their religion. These cases are a direct consequence of the policy of state sanctioned anti-Armenianism and hostility by the Azerbaijani authorities towards the Armenians.
https://hetq.am/en/article/139834
8 January
Eighty percent of the historically Armenian land of Nagorno Karabakh is now occupied by Azerbaijan, member of the House of Lords, Baroness Caroline Cox said at the House of Lords Debate on Refugees: Mass Displacement. According to armradio.am “In 2020, more than 91,000 people fled to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh; 88% of them were women and children. More than 40,000 people were deprived of their homes in areas such as the Shushi and Hadrut regions, which are still under the occupation of the Azerbaijani armed forces,” Baroness Cox said. “I have had the painful privilege of visiting the region more than 85 times, during the wars in the 1990s and in 2020. Last September, I visited Syunik region in Armenia to witness the suffering caused by Azeri military incursions into Armenian territory, causing displacement of local villagers within Armenia itself,” she added. Baroness Cox noted that countless refugees describe the anguish of the loss of loved ones, and Azerbaijan still violates the conditions of the 2020 ceasefire by detaining Armenian prisoners of war and civilians, and perpetrating atrocities, sometimes taking a prisoner’s phone to film horrendous activities, then sending the pictures back to their families. “Refugees also describe the loss of livelihoods, agricultural lands, water resources, and other vital infrastructure. Yet the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh have received almost no support from the British Government. The UN Secretary-General’s official spokesperson in May last year unequivocally indicated that it is Azerbaijan that, despite the calls of the international community, and the UN in particular, has not provided permission for unhindered humanitarian access in Nagorno-Karabakh, and that situation remains the same,” she stressed.
https://en.armradio.am/2022/01/07/80-of-artsakh-occupied-40-000-people-deprived-of-home-baroness-cox-urges-uk-action-to-address-humanitarian-issues/
Sources: asiatimes.com, armenpress.am, bne.eu, azatutyun.am, asbarez.com, hetq.am, armradio.am