My personal blog, my thoughts.
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”
BRUSSELS, Belgium—Members of European Parliament (MEP) Marek Jurek (Poland) and Costas Mavrides (Cyprus) have urged Azerbaijan to stop using its own civilian population as human shields and to introduce an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) sponsored independent investigative mechanism at the Artsakh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact (LoC).
Read more “Members of European Parliament Urge Azerbaijan to Stop Using Human Shields”
To study the details of the kidnapping of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli, Vice-President of the ALDE faction (European Liberal and Democrat Union) Henrik Mortensen has arrived in Tbilisi.
He met with representatives of Georgian parties – “Free Democrats”, and later with the “Republicans”.
Read more “EU Parliament Representative Investigating Mukhtarli Case in Tbilisi”
The Armenian media are discussing the story of Vahan Martirosyan who had sought for asylum in Baku last December and became the co-founder of the so-called peace platform. He was followed by several others who also moved to Baku. Recently Vahan Martirosyan who has been living in Ukraine for a while now has written a letter regretting what he had done, and the social network users suggest that he allegedly performed the task assigned by the Armenian special services.
In brief, they “flushed” the platform, as they say in the criminal and state circles.
Read more “High Precision Weapon at the Border: Baku’s Opinion Not Considered”
The political leadership in Azerbaijan is trying to differentiate the impression of possibility of a new war with Armenia.
The Americans continue to claim that Ilham Aliyev is not inclined for a war while his entourage prefers using large-scale military actions. Washington does not believe in this much and judging by the information about Azerbaijan, they have concluded that the present-day Azerbaijan is not determined enough.
Read more “What’s the Possibility of New War and What’s the Format?”
Authorities in Azerbaijan and Georgia are facing mounting criticism for their possible role in the apparent kidnapping of Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijani journalist who disappeared from Tbilisi on May 29 and was next seen two days later being led into a Baku courtroom.
Mukhtarli has been charged with illegal border crossing, disorderly conduct, and currency violations. Police claim he did not have his passport when he was arrested and that he was carrying an undeclared €10,000 (about US$ 11,200). The court sentenced him to 90 days’ pre-trial detention.
Leyla Mustafayeva, Mukhtarli’s wife, told police that her husband had called to tell her he was on his way home after meeting with friends when he disappeared. She said he had no passport and no more than a few Georgian lari (about US$ 2) on him at the time.
Read more “Missing Journalist Sparks Protests, Conflicting Stories”
Deputy of the Milli Majlis (National Parliament) from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party and member of the human rights committee Elnam Nasirov in an interview with Radio Azadliq said that the detention of journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was the result of a joint Georgian-Azerbaijani successful special operation.
In response, the Georgian side categorically refuted these allegations in a public statement.
Read more “Contradictory Statements Surrounding Kidnapped Journalist Mukhtarli”