My personal blog, my thoughts.
For several years, dozens of articles have appeared in U.S., Israeli, and European newspapers lavishly praising Azerbaijan and severely criticizing Armenia. Most of these articles are written by non-Azerbaijanis who are handsomely compensated by the Azerbaijani government.
Read more “How Azerbaijan’s Paid Agents Manipulate the American Media”
Kamaris is a village in Kotayk marz (province) with a population of about 2,000, according to figures from 2001. There are reportedly bronze-age tombs in the vicinity. Atop the hill, past the old and new cemeteries are scant remains of an old Persian settlement.
Analysis of banks tied to the three children of President Ilham Aliyev shows that the trio still hold controlling shares in four banks from which they collected $82 million in profits in 2016. Overall, the Azerbaijan banking sector lost $960 million in 2016.
The first four days of April 2016 saw a short conflict between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, supported by Armenian forces. The result was inconclusive, but it revealed the extent of polarisation in Azerbaijan and how unequal forces in the opposing camps are in this country.
Few people in Azerbaijan dared to suggest that both sides might bear some responsibility for the clashes. Those who did faced a solid wall of national-patriotic fervour, which included even people who had previously called themselves liberals and human rights advocates. To find yourself beyond the borders of this patriotic front was riskier than just losing your voice in the crowd.
Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan issued a joint statement that the Armenian army allegedly fires the line of contact, to which the Armenian Defense Ministry replied that it will respond to any provocations.
In connection with the victims of the April war and the protection of the rights of the wounded, more than 700 lawsuits against Azerbaijan are submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Read more “The ECHR received more than 700 lawsuits against Azerbaijan.”
The second volume of the collection “Baku tragedy in eyewitness testimonies” was published in Yerevan. It was prepared within the framework of the project “Ordinary Genocide” implemented by the President’s Office of Information and Public Relations.
Read more ““I accuse Azerbaijan” – Baku tragedy in witnesses’ testimonies”
WASHINGTON—Senior members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Ted Poe (R-Tex.), Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Co-Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), and Representatives Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and John Sarbanes (D-Md.) condemned Turkish President Erdogan’s violent crackdown—both in Turkey and the U.S.—during “A Stand for Free Speech” held at Washington, D.C.’s Sheridan Circle, site of the May 16th attack by the Turkish presidential security detail which hospitalized nine people, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Read more “U.S. Legislators Demand Erdogan Apologize and Extradite Perpetrators of Embassy Attack”
BAKU, Azerbaijan (A.W.)— On July 20, an Azerbaijani court sentenced Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was arrested last December, to three years in prison on a charge related to his 2011 and 2012 visits to Artsakh.
The trial of travel blogger Alexander Lapshin continued yesterday in Baku’s Court of Grave Crimes.
At the trial the prosecutor claimed that the guilt of the defendant had been fully proved. According to the prosecutor, Lapshin himself had acknowledged that he had illegally crossed the state border of Azerbaijan, however he did not admit to acting in cohort with a criminal group – that is, the five individuals with whom he crossed into Nagorno-Karabakh.
Read more “Blogger Lapshin May Face Up to 6.5 Years in Prison”