Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

[haydavid]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Don't believe everything that they say. Don't forget that 90% of their news is bullxxxx.
Watch this.

[Hakob]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

What you said is true.
But at this moment we're dealing with something deeper.
Those "Armenian activists" who are anti-Russian are going pro-Azeri, because Azerbaijan feels that Russia is keeping NKR under Armenian control.
This is plan D right now. After Azeris found out they can't take NKR by military means or negotiations, they started this campaign.
There is an open war on Sarkisyan to show how bad of a President he is (Yes he has volnurabilities like any politician and these groups are focusing on)
There's low economic growth in Armenia due to the blockade imposed by Turkey since 1993. Not only we don't have access to sea, 2 of our 4 bordering countries have shut their borders on us. I see non of these "activists" point out to that.
They tried to start their "Maydan" through the Electric Yerevan protests, it failed.
They tried to start another "Maydan"last summer by brainwashing the public that Armenia is going to cede land under "Russian pressure", and that one failed too.

Actually in Electric Yerevan and in Pavlic's uprising too those Euromaidan debils were shamed, spat on and kicked out as soon as they showed up with their Euro union and gay flags.
By talking about lustration of people they actually mean brainwashing. Cleaning out national memory and awareness of Turkish predator and installing eurodream fantasies instead.
This Armenian traitor or anybody should talk about situation in Ukraine. Actualy not only talk but take responsibility, before wishing the same to Armenians.
They will probably never see their dreams coming to life of Yerevan having a gay quarters and pride parades in their lifetime, thanks to god and Armenian national pride.
P.S. Don't get me wrong. I am not a homophobe. I got a cousin that is gay. An excellent person whom all the relatives love.
But as a deep Armenian, activist and very informed person, he himself is very unti politicizing of gay rights. We have had many discussions where he clearly sees the western imperial manipulations of gay, women's rights to weaken nations and countries by false conflicts and pressures.
He has told me many times, everybody's bedroom is his or her business. The society can never encroach there but also this person cannot force that bedroom onto social front lines.

[armnuke]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Thanks for sharing Haydavid.

[burjuin]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

[burjuin]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Armenian Air Force

[burjuin]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Armenian special forces

[armnuke]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

We have another traitor!!

Aram Karapetyan: 'Karabakh must be a part of Azerbaijan' (Yet another Armenian activist joins peace platform)

BY VAHAN MARTIROSYAN, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (Correction: Special Traitor)

Yesterday, one of Euromaidan activists, well-known Armenian human rights activist Aram Karapetyan, who participated in the Revolution of Dignity, expressed his support for the Baku Declaration on the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace initiative.

Karapetyan visited Azeri Daily's Ukrainian Bureau, signed the Baku Declaration on the establishment of a platform, in which the representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan spoke in favour of the resolution of the Karabakh problem within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Karapetyan expressed confidence that the main obstacle to reconciliation between the two peoples and overcoming the consequences of the Karabakh war is the occupation policy of the political regime of Serzh Sargsyan.

Karapetyan called on the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to settle the Karabakh conflict as soon as possible and establish peace and stability in the region.

Aram Karapetyan is a representative of the new generation of the Armenian people. He, like thousands of other Armenians, who rethought the consequences of the Karabakh conflict, wants peace in his homeland. Karapetyan, like thousands of Armenians, had to leave Armenia, because he was convinced that Sargsyan's regime brought the country to a political bankruptcy and poverty.

Karapetyan participated actively in the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine, was in the forefront of the Euromaidan. Today he craves change and revolution for his own native country.

We bring to your attention the interview of Azeri Daily with Aram Karapetyan.

Q. Why have you decided to support the Baku platform, and what do you know about it?

A. Initially, I've learned of the Baku platform from the publications in the media; if I remember correctly, it was about a month ago, and then both the Ukrainians, and the Armenians here began to talk about it. Its ideas immediately attracted me, and not just because I am an Armenian and have always taken an active civil position, but also because my father was born and raised in Shusha, and since early childhood I remember his suffering because of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

So, I was very happy to learn that for the first time during this long-standing and, in my opinion, completely senseless conflict, real steps for reconciliation were being taken. That's why I responded to the call to join the Baku Declaration 'Platform for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan' to all people of good will, regardless of nationality, but first and foremost, of course, the citizens of the conflicting parties. I hope to make a modest contribution to the cause of reconciliation between the two peoples, which had once been tied by a strong friendship, and which, I am sure, will revive very, very soon.

I am referring to peace and harmony between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the Caucasus, because outside of the Caucasus there was never enmity between us. For example, in Ukraine, where I live, I have a lot of friends, both Armenians and Azerbaijanis. I remember how the Azerbaijani activists shoulder to shoulder with us fought on the Maidan. Moreover, many Azerbaijanis participated in the march in memory of our friend Sergei Nigoyan who died during the Kyiv events.

Q. You recalled the Maidan, and yet in the last few years many predicted Maidan in Armenia, but it never happened. Why, do you think, in our common homeland was the illegitimate regime of Sargsyan able to gain a firm foothold?

A. Indeed, there was a lot of such predictions, a year and a half ago the Armenian people actually did rebel against the predatory increase of utility tariffs. Well, the whole Ukraine spoke about what happened in Yerevan this year. I mean the armed seizure of a police regiment headquarters. And yet the revolution did not happen, and it is, so to speak, 'merit' of the authorities.

Unfortunately, when there was the Electromaidan, and this year too, the insurgent people succumbed to the manipulations of the opposition figureheads, which have been brought up by the authorities themselves. Generally, in Armenia, as I understand it, there has been developed a kind of lightning implantation of such provocateur figures in any process non-controlled by the government that could threaten its overthrow. And this scheme actually operates without misfires.

Q. And how to deal with it?

A. It is very difficult, practically impossible. In Ukraine it was possible, but the situation here was quite different. We felt the support of the US and Europe. One of the outcomes of the Maidan was the lustration. In Armenia we also need lustration, but hardly anyone in the country will be able to achieve it. It is clear that the authorities will not allow it.

This should be done from the outside, from the Diaspora. By the way, I know that in recent years the Armenian Diaspora has become very active in the struggle with the regime of Sargsyan, and this is a good news. Unfortunately, in this regard, we have no such tendencies among the Ukrainian Armenians, but hopefully with time in Ukraine there will be formed a community, which will be able to influence the processes for the benefit of our country.

Q. Tell me when were you the last time in Armenia, and what impression have you got about the situation there?

A. I visited Yerevan two years ago, visited it with my family before that too. We also visited Leninakan (now Gyumri - Ed.); my mom was born there. Well, what impression... It's a shame, very sad and painful that country, which I knew in Soviet times as flourishing, prosperous, has been brought to extreme poverty. What I saw in Yerevan, it was like a beautiful, multi-coloured balloon. The attractiveness of the balloon applies only to the centre of Yerevan, where there are some reflections of a normal, decent life. However as you move away from the centre, not to mention outside of the capital, as the balloon suddenly bursts, and you realise that what has been built in the centre, clubs, hotels, etc, is just a shop window, designed to throw dust in the eyes of visitors.

A friend of my mother lives in Yerevan district called Charbakh, if I am not mistaken. The misery and devastation that I saw there, it is impossible to convey in words. There was a feeling that it was some sort of almost a concentration camp. And in Leninakan, it was generally a nightmare, so many homeless and people living in trailers I've never seen anywhere, never heard of something like that. Moreover, there I saw officials and some criminals, who travelled in expensive cars, built their luxurious mansions that are unseen even in Ukraine, a country with 50 million people. Naturally, all the Armenian oligarchs have that at the expense of ordinary people. That is why the country is in general poverty.

Q. Let's go back to the Karabakh problem. When and, most importantly, how will this conflict be resolved, in your opinion?

A. You know, my father had a lot of friends left in Shusha, I am myself here a friends with a guy, who a few years ago came from Stepanakert (Khankendi - Ed.). Therefore, I know that the situation there is much worse than in Armenia itself. Armenians are fleeing from there and run not so much because of the war is very close, but because they can't earn their living.

This guy from Stepanakert, for example, told me that there was absolutely impossible to find a job. It's impossible to get any, even a porter or handyman. And of course, the cause of all this is the conflict itself. For its settlement, in the first place, it is necessary to seek the origins: how it started, or rather, who started it. After all, it flared up almost overnight and it was during the Soviet Union's collapse. So, I think that the conflict can be eliminated only by the will of the two peoples. We must renounce the intermediaries and try to sit at the negotiating table by ourselves.

You are doing this now at the level of NGOs or civil society, and I'm talking about the heads of state. I understand, of course, that Sargsyan's masters will unlikely let him make such a move, but , as they say, there are other fish in the sea. As I see by the situation, he will be there not for long. I hope that those who come in his place, will not be, like Sargsyan, a puppet in the hands of the Kremlin, and only under this condition can there be a normal and fast result in resolving the Karabakh conflict.

As you know, most of the lands that came under the control of Armenia for many years have been completely unused. Armenia can't, and most likely doesn't want to raise them to build something there or to use somehow. A reasonable question arises: why do you hold them so persistently, even at the cost of the deaths of soldiers?

Q. And finally, a question traditional for these days: what would you wish our compatriots on the New Year's eve?

A. You know, every time I come to Yerevan or meet here the Armenians, who just came from there, I notice a sad pattern: there are no smiles on their faces, everyone is sad. Regardless of what they are doing at the moment, working or just relaxing somewhere in a cafe, there is a sadness in their eyes. So, I heartily wish that on the faces of the Armenians there finally will appear the so cherished smiles, which would say that they are all okay.

Q. We thank you for answering our questions, and most importantly for making the courageous step and joining our peace-making platform.

http://azeridaily.com/reality/24984

[armnuke]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

The Russian ambassador in Turkey has been shot and is in critical condition.

[burjuin]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

Armenian Army

[londontsi]

Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan

A European swamp – corruption and human rights

http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=de&id=67&newsletter_ID=109

Dear friends of ESI,

Can basic international norms be undermined by corruption? Can international politics be fundamentally reshaped by the personal greed of politicians? These are among the most important questions in global politics today. When it comes to the Council of Europe, guardian of the European Convention of Human Rights the answer to both questions is yes.

See new ESI Report:

The European Swamp (Caviar Diplomacy part 2)
Prosecutors, corruption and the Council of Europe

In recent years, the leaders of Azerbaijan have shown how easy it is to undermine core human rights standards and bend a formerly proud institution to its will. They have done so in close cooperation with Russia, and with the active support of elected politicians from across Europe, including from some of its oldest democracies. In the process, they filled a rolodex with names of politicians across the continent who have something to hide and can be blackmailed in the future.

Nobody should have illusions that these methods are restricted to the Council of Europe. Nobody should assume that it is only Azerbaijan that is exploiting the greed of politicians. And it is not only the massive corruption that should worry us. Azerbaijan's actions have been met with almost complete silence from national parliaments, governments and political parties.

In 2012 ESI published "Caviar Diplomacy – How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe" to sound an alarm. The reaction of Azerbaijani officials was neither alarm nor outrage, but amused indifference.

For as long as the only cost of corruption in the Council of Europe was the institution's failure to speak out about the imprisonment of Azerbaijani journalists, dissidents and youth activists, most leaders of European governments felt that it was not a matter of deep concern. Yet the failure in Strasbourg to hold the line on core European values has now come to haunt European politics. It consequences can be seen in the growing confidence of autocrats, the increasing ruthlessness of their methods and the widespread retreat of liberal politics. The ease with which democratic institutions and safeguards can be undermined has emerged as a fundamental threat to European democracy.

In this follow-up to Caviar Diplomacy, we take a closer look, four years later, at the progress that has been made on miring the Council of Europe in a swamp of corruption. We describe in detail how the corruption of MPs proceeded, from early visits with precious gifts meant to test the beneficiaries' reactions, to long-term contracts involving huge sums of money.



"Your gifts are very precious"

Elkhan Suleymanov Luca
Elkhan Suleymanov (member, PACE) and Luca Volonte (former member, PACE)

In April 2012 Italian parliamentarian Luca Volonte travelled on a private trip to Baku to negotiate with the regime what services he could offer. He arrived in Baku to meet with Elkhan Suleymanov, a fellow member of PACE, and presented his ideas how to boost Azerbaijan's image. This was not his first trip to Baku. Upon his return from a trip in July 2011 Volonte sent an effusive note to Suleymanov:

"Dear Elkhan, Thank you for everything!!! Thanks to you I have discovered a very interesting country, our friendship is certainly growing!! Thanks, your gifts are very tasty and very precious!!!"

Volonte was an experienced politician with many contacts. He entered the Italian parliament in 1996 as a representative of a small Christian Democratic party supportive of Silvio Berlusconi's government. Between 2011 and 2013, he was one of Italy's full-time representatives in PACE, where he also led the EPP group, the largest group in the assembly.

On 14 December 2012, a transfer of €100,000 was made to the bank account of Luca Volonte's foundation (Novae Terrae), where it arrived three days later. On Christmas Eve 2012, another transfer of €220,000 was made to the bank account of his company, LGV. The money came from two companies registered in Birmingham and on the Marshall Islands, a chain of volcanic islands and coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean. They reached Italy via two banks in Estonia and Latvia. This path was chosen to conceal the fact that these were payments from one PACE member (Elkhan Sulyemanov) to another (Luca Volonte).

In late 2012 and early 2013 Volonte helped Azerbaijan build a coalition in PACE to defeat a resolution on political prisoners, drafted by German rapporteur Christoph Strasser. He suggested a concrete lobbying strategy. In one email to an Azerbaijani PACE member on 15 December 2012 Volonte wrote:

"We need to name a lot of friends during the debate and nominate one person for each of our political groups: it would be useful if you could suggest to [Luigi] Vitali and/or to the ex-Minister of Greece to nominate themselves for the EPP, [Tadeusz] Iwinsky and others for SOC, [Michael] Hanxxxx and Bob [Robert Walter] for EDG, Jordi Xucla Costa or some others for the Liberals. If their group has decided for a "free vote", they need to stress their opinion in favour of Pedro and consequently, against Strasser."

His efforts succeeded. Strasser's resolution was rejected by 125 votes to 79. Azerbaijan had managed to mobilise PACE parliamentarians in an unprecedented manner; the vote in January 2013 was the best attended vote on a human rights resolution in the history of PACE.

Volonte's efforts paid off. Over the next two years, he received more than €2 million from Azerbaijan.

On 27 June 2014, the Public Prosecutor's office in Milan wrote a notizia di reato – a notification when an alleged crime is reported – concerning Luca Volonte and two bank transfers. On Friday 13 February 2015, the court in Milan informed Volonte in a letter that the prosecutor's investigation would be extended. Police searched his offices. The investigation is ongoing.

On 21 November 2016, the Italian public broadcaster RAI aired a documentary with the title "Caviar Democracy". It confronted Luca Volonte with the charges made against him.

RAI: The Terrae Novae Foundation was paid on the basis of an agreement with Elkhan Suleymanov's NGO ACSDA. So, the foundation signed a contract with…

Volonte: A consultancy. The foundation drew up an agreement … a convention.

RAI: Which lasts ten years.

Volonte: In the agreement, it says that it lasts ten years.

RAI: For how much?

Volonte: A million a year.

RAI: Ten million, then.

Volonte: Yes … that money was paid for advice which I personally provided to Suleymanov as president of this NGO.

Watch the full documentary here:
RAI 3 Report "Caviar Democracy", 21 November 2016.

For an earlier documentary about caviar diplomacy, with a focus on France:
France 2, "Mon président est en voyage d'affaires" .......... http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang...sletter_ID=109

It is essential that these developments are put on the agenda of the next plenary session of PACE in late January 2017. One argument some in PACE use already to prevent a serious debate is bogus: that it is inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Luca Volonte has publicly admitted that he accepted € 2.3 million from Suleymanov. These transfers started on the eve of an important vote on human rights in Azerbaijan. If this is not contrary to the Code of Conduct for PACE members, then the Code is clearly worthless.

Any serious reforms in PACE are certain to meet with stiff resistance from those who benefit from the status quo. For this reason, concerned members of PACE and officials in the secretariat and among governments and parliaments of member states need to act decisively. They need to make clear what is at stake. Caviar diplomacy is a mortal threat to the credibility of one of the world's most important human rights institutions.

The Council of Europe was created in 1949 as a club of democracies, led by politicians aware of Europe's autocratic past, conscious of threats to the rule of law, determined to affirm human rights against external and internal opponents. It is time to recapture this spirit. It is high time to take back the Council of Europe.