9. President Serzh Sargsyan visits
Armenian Nuclear Power Plant
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan visited the Armenian Nuclear Power
Plant. The President of the Republic toured the Plant, familiarized himself with
the current works and the results of the last year economic production as well as
with the progress of the first phase in the works aimed at the extension of the
operation cycle of the second power generating unit, according to the presiden-
tial press service.
The leadership of the power station presented to Serzh Sargsyan progress in
the first phase of the works conducted to extend the operation cycle of the sec-
ond power generating unit for another ten years. The credits and grants for the
implementation of these activities have been provided by the Government of the
Russian Federation. The President was informed that the process of examining
the systems, apparatus and structures has already begun and will be concluded
in September, 2016. Afterwards, a decision will be made on the extension of the
operation cycle of the second power generating unit.
According to the management of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, based on
the conducted research, it is envisaged in the second phase to carry out the
works on the replacement of equipment and apparatus. Meanwhile, necessary
measures will be taken to upgrade the safety level of the ANPP.
BY EDMOND Y. AZADIAN
Once again, the Karabagh conflict
prominently appears on the political
radar of the Caucasus, raising for
some the possibility of a breakthrough
settlement and for others, the specter
of a renewed war.
The situation is so fluid that the
issue can veer in any direction unex-
pectedly.
âThis is a war and I would ask you
to use the term âwarâ and not to use the
phrase âceasefire violations,â because,
in effect, we donât have a ceasefire any
more,â announced Armeniaâs Defense
Ministry Spokesman Artrsun
Hovhannisyan to reporters in
December.
That was right after the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan met once
again in Bern, Switzerland, to spin
their wheels. Someone close to
Azerbaijanâs ruling circle characterized
the meeting as a routine formality.
And indeed, the intensifying border
hostility looks like anything but a
ceasefire violation, especially when
Azerbaijan has moved the battle-
ground from its border with Karabagh
to the sovereign territory of Armenia
proper, leading many citizens to won-
der what good is Armeniaâs strategic
alliance with Russia, if the treaty does
not cover the entire territory of
Armenia.
In reality, Karabagh is once again
caught in a tug-of-war between forces
which have been trying to consolidate
their positions in a renewed cold war.
The US ambassador to the Minsk
Group of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
James Warlick, has used wording to
describe the situation which is very
similar to that of Armeniaâs Defense
Ministry. He said, âThis is not a âfrozen
conflict,â but is a forgotten conflict,
with a real risk of spinning out of con-
trol.â
The explosive situation has precipi-
tated as a result of dynamic changes in
the region: Russiaâs confrontation with
the West has forced Moscow to
resolve conflicts its own way â the
2008 war with Georgia, the Crimean
referendum, the Syrian war and the
standoff with Turkey. And since
Moscow holds the key to resolving the
Karabagh conflict, the West, and in
particular, the US, was concerned that
it would be outwitted in the game.
Therefore it intensified its diplomatic
activities. The European Union
announced that there is only one way
to solve the Karabagh conflict
â peaceful settlement. On the other
hand, the United States Congress held
closed hearings on the Nagorno
Karabagh conflict, as leading members
of Congress are pushing for conflict-
resolution measures favored by
Armenia but opposed by Azerbaijan.
House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chair Ed Royce (R-CA) and the lead-
ing Democrat on the committee, Eliot
Engel, have recommended that snipers
from both sides of the contact line
move back and that monitoring equip-
ment be installed to detect ceasefire
violations. That has been Armeniaâs
request for the past several years, to
no avail. Azeris have been asking for
the removal of all âoccupyingâ forces
from Karabagh.
The US State Department has
moved in parallel with Congress by
dispatching a senior diplomat to Baku
and Yerevan. Charles Kupchan, senior
director for European Affairs at the US
National Security Council, met with
President Serge Sargisian and Foreign
Minister Eduard Nalbandian last week.
Although the substance of the talks
were not made public, it is known that
the Armenian side thanked the US pro-
fusely for its assistance and support.
Also, Kupchan thanked Armenia for
providing peacekeeping forces in
Afghanistan and Kosovo, under NATO
command.
In yet another warning signal to
Azerbaijan, the US Congress began to
draft a resolution to condemn
President Ilham Aliyev and his regime
for its persecution of NGOs, journal-
ists and human rights activists.
Although the draft resolution was not
brought to a vote, the Azeri govern-
ment got the point.
While the tension between the
regional powers has contributed to the
political dynamics, Azerbaijanâs
domestic woes also play a role in exac-
erbating the situation.
In a major piece, Thomas de Waal,
senior associate with Carnegie
Europe, analyzed the reasons behind
the increasingly belligerent rhetoric of
the Aliyev regime. Seventy five percent
of Azerbaijanâs budget is based on the
countryâs oil revenue. The drop in the
oil prices to a level below $30 a barrel
shocked the countryâs economy and
triggered a downward spiral in the val-
uation of the countryâs currency, the
manat. The shock hit the middle class
and hampered the governmentâs
appetite for expensive and sophisticat-
ed armaments.
The sputtering economy has also
caused a social shakeup. With
Azerbaijan now suddenly strapped for
cash, its rulers are not able to quiet
domestic concerns with the economic
stability that wealthy state coffers
bring.
The first political casualty in Azer-
baijan was Eldar Mahmudov, the coun-
tryâs long serving national security
Contâd on page 10
LUNDI 8 FEVRIER 2016 - MONDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2016 âą ABAKA âą 9
E N G L I S H S E C T I O N
MONDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2016
Breakthrough or Breakdown
in Nagorno Karabagh?
Karabakh Army thwarts attempted
Azerbaijani commando raid
The adversary continued violating
the ceasefire and it also took provoca-
tive actions along the Line of Contact
between the Karabakh-Azerbaijani
opposing forces, on Monday and early
Tuesday morning.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
(NKR) Ministry of Defense
informed that during this time
Azerbaijan fired around 600 shots at
the Armenian military positions, and
by way of rifle weaponry, mortars, and
a grenade launcher.
In addition, the adversary launched
a sabotage reconnaissance attempt
along the Line of Contact, on Tuesday
at around 4:30am.
Vanguard units of the NKR Defense
Army, however, detected this advance
by the Azerbaijani sabotage team, and
pushed the latter back to its starting
point.
The NKR Defense Army suffered no
casualties during the skirmish.
Vanguard units of the Defense Army
continue fully controlling the frontline
and confidently carrying out their mili-
tary task.
10. âWe welcome the fact that one of
those two abnormal reports was not
adopted by PACE. It is a victory of
democracy, democratic values over
despotism and corruption,â David
Babayan - the spokesman for the presi-
dent of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic (NKR) â said in an interview
with Panorama.am when commenting
on the votes held on two controver-
sial anti-Armenian reports during the
ongoing winter session of the PACE.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe earlier today voted
on the two reports. âInhabitants of
frontier regions of Azerbaijan are
deliberately deprived of waterâ â a
scandalous report prepared by Milica
Markovic, MP from Bosnia and
Herzegovina - was adopted by 98 votes
to 71, with 40 abstentions. Another
controversial report that drew a wide
response - âEscalation of violence in
Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occu-
pied territories of Azerbaijanâ pre-
pared by British MP Robert Walter
who holds Turkish citizenship was
rejected in a 66-77 vote.
âOn the other hand, the second
ab-normal report was adopted. That
de-fies logic and shows the existence
of serious problems in PACE and
Europe, and PACE has no immunity to
oppose corruption flows and corrup-
tion within the organization,â Babayan
said.
In his words, it does not mean a
defeat of the Armenian side: the reso-
lutions are non-binding. âLet
Azerbaijan spend billions and waste its
state budget â we will gain from that.
But, on the other hand, we consider
democracy an important value. When I
see that one of the major democratic
institutions has turned into a bazaar,
to put it mildly, where everything is
sold and bought, it is a real tragedy,â
Babayan noted.
When asked about the further
actions of Stepanakert regarding the
PACE resolution, D. Babayan replied:
âWe will continue building our state
and strengthening it. This is our
answer to any manifestation of Azer-
baijani aggressionâŠ. The Sarsang re-
servoir is one of our important facili-
ties. By the way, we have repeatedly
proposed supplying water to Azerbai-
jan, but they always refusedâ.
10 âą ABAKA âą LUNDI 8 FEVRIER 2016 - MONDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2016
David Babayan: One of the major
democratic instances â PACE has
turned into a bazaar
Yet another cultural scandal brewing in
Iran-Azerbaijan relations
An Iranian handmade carpet was presented as Azerbaijani one in a book
recently published in Azerbaijan, Ali Vandshoari, Head of Carpet Faculty at
Tabriz Islamic Art University, was quoted as saying by Iranâs IRNA news agency.
At a meeting of the Eastern Atrpatakan carpet making assistance office, the
Iranian art expert said when commenting on attempts to appropriate works of
Iranian art and present them as their own, that in Iran too, some books came out
presenting, for example, a Tabriz carpet as one made in Isfahan or Kashan.
Serious disagreements arose between Iran and Azerbaijan in recent years con-
cerning some cultural and historical issues. According to Iran, in addition to por-
traying Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi and Nadir Shah as âAzerbaijanisâ, an attempt
is being made to claim that some musical instruments, polo, and Shab-e-Yalda
festival as those that originated in Azerbaijan. An illustrated book, in which
Iranian miniatures were presented as Azerbaijani ones, was displayed by
Azerbaijan at Milan Expo 2015 held in November of last year.
Prior to that, Azerbaijanâs History Museum tried to present a flag that Abbas
Mirza gave Nakhijevanâs Khan in appreciation of his actions at the Battle of
Aslanduz (1812) as a sample of Azerbaijani historical heritage.
Breakthrough...
Contâd from page 9
minister. He was sacked, along with
most of his circle, being accused of
conspiracy. Mr. De Waal asks in his
article, âAt what point do economic
protests become political? It is a blur-
ry line.â
Iranâs nuclear deal had both an eco-
nomic and political impact on
Azerbaijan â Tehranâs entry in the
energy market hit Azerbaijanâs trea-
sury hard. Even yesterdayâs ally,
Georgia, began negotiating with
Tehran to buy gas. Also, the West had
been supporting Baku against Tehran,
especially in its strategic designs. At
one point, Baku was even aspiring to
conquer northern Azerbaijan from Iran
and expand its territory. All these
dreams seem to have gone belly up
with Iranâs change of course.
These developments are adding up
and driving the Aliyev regime to des-
peration, thereby forcing it to look for
scapegoats. That scapegoat could not
be anything other than Armenia, so
Mr. De Waal concludes: âThe increas-
ing worry is that an Azerbaijani regime
that is in desperate straits might
choose to âplay the Karabagh cardâ â
the one grievance that can rally all
Azerbaijanis around the flag â and
start a military operation, large or
small, to recover lost territory. In that
case, the Armenians would be bound
to strike back and a new and potential-
ly catastrophic conflict in the
Caucasus would break out.â
Turkey in its turn has had a role in
this chess game. The Erdogan govern-
ment had been arrogantly chasing a
neo-Ottomanist role in the entire
Middle East. It played its hand reck-
lessly and it has been licking its
wounds ever since. In a desperate
move, Ankara is extending a friendly
hand to Israel to revamp the relations
it damaged so gleefully. Turkey is try-
ing to put together an alliance of sorts
linking itself with strange bedfellows
Saudi Arabia and Israel to counter
Iranâs influence in the region. Ankara
is desperately looking to mend its bro-
ken relations with Cairo, playing the
Sunni card. The same card has no cur-
rency in Azerbaijan, where the majori-
ty belongs to the Shia branch of Islam,
and the population tends to be secular.
A different card is used by Ankara in
Azerbaijan â âOne nation, two gov-
ernmentsâ â full of empty platitudes.
To boost morale in Azerbaijan,
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Ăavusoglu recently visited Baku,
where he announced, âthe normaliza-
tion of Turkish-Armenian relations is
not possible without the liberation of
the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.â
Of course, Ăavusoglu could not
dare go beyond his traditional mantra,
given Turkeyâs standoff with Russia
and the recent concentration of
Russian armaments in Armenia.
Some voices in Moscow have been
suggesting a breakthrough in
Karabagh. Thus, Dmitry Savelyev, a
member of the Russian State Duma
and head of the Russian-Azerbaijani
inter-parliamentary friendship group,
recently expressed hope that a break-
through would take place, noting that
contrary to the deadlock over some
issues, the work is progressing proper-
ly. He also echoed Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrovâs earlier state-
ment that âseven occupied Azerbaijani
regionsâ attached to Nagorno
Karabagh should be returned to
Azerbaijan.
While the OSCE Minsk Group medi-
ation is working to achieve the Madrid
Principles, which call for the release
of those seven regions, ensure the
rights of all internally displaced per-
son and refugees to return to their for-
mer places of residence, allowing
Nagorno Karabagh to hold a referen-
dum to determine its future status.
It is said that the Chinese word for
crisis has a double meaning, connoting
also opportunity. Therefore, if the
Chinese formula works in the
Caucasus, maybe a breakthrough will
be achieved soon.
According to all norms of interna-
tional law, the use of the Sarsang
Reservoir, which is located in the terri-
tory of Karabakh, was and will be the
sovereign right of the Karabakh peo-
ple, which cannot be violated by any
resolution. Deputy FM of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR)
Armine Aleksanyan told the aforemen-
tioned to Armenian News.
She positively assessed the fact that
the PACE deputies didnât adopt the
report by the British MP Robert Walter
entitled âEscalation of Violence in
Nagorno-Karabakh and Other
Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan.â
âThis is indicative of the fact that
PACE has supporters of common
sense, who understand the responsi-
bility and seriousness of the moment,â
Aleksanyan said.
The Deputy FM also stressed:
âPACE actually acknowledged that the
issues on the settlement of the conflict
are outside its jurisdiction. The issue
should be considered only in the
framework of the OSCE Minsk
Group.â At the same time, Aleksanyan
expressed concern over the fact that
the PACE deputies didnât manifest the
same political maturity during the vot-
ing on the resolution regarding
Sarsang Reservoir.
Karabakh MFA: Use of Sarsang Reservoir is sovereign right of Karabakh people
Getty displays pages of Medieval
Armenian Bible
Visitors to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles can see for themselves what a
legal battle that raged for five years was all about. Two brilliantly illuminated
pages â part of a table of contents from the Zeytâun Gospels, a Medieval Arme-
nian bible â are on show as part of the exhibition Traversing the Globe Through
Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts (until 26 June), The Art Newspaper
reports. The Getty bought eight of these contents pages, known as a canon table,
for $950,000 from an Armenian-American family in 1994. But their proper owner-
ship has been in question since 2010, when a US branch of the Armenian Apos-
tolic Church brought a lawsuit against the Getty, maintaining that the pages had
been looted during the Armenian genocide of the First World War.
The lawsuit was finally settled last year, when the Getty acknowledged the
church as the rightful owner and agreed to pay undisclosed lawyersâ fees. The
church agreed to donate the pages to the museum. The pages are by the 13th cen-
tury Armenian master Toros Roslin, who worked in tempera and gold paint on
parchment. A page on show at the Getty for the first time in more than a decade
reveals how he blends natural forms such as twisting pomegranate trees and
roosters with architecture, using a brilliant palette of green, gold, red and blue.