Tag: servicemen

In EVN Report’s news roundup for the week of June 30, 2023: Four servicemen are killed in an Azerbaijani attack in Artsakh; the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan conclude the latest round of talks in Washington; after a total blockade, the ICRC is able to resume the transfer of patients from Artsakh to Armenia for now.

Today on Army Day, Armenian soldiers continue to protect our fragile borders in difficult and sometimes dismal conditions and now, more than ever, fundamental reforms of the Armed Forces is of paramount importance.

While the majority of women didn’t pick up guns to fight in the war, many used their skills to fight in their own way. On this first anniversary of the 2020 Artsakh War, Kushane Chobanyan presents the stories of six extraordinary women who were on the front lines.

A Military Trophy Park-Museum dedicated to Azerbaijan’s military victory over Artsakh was inaugurated in Baku. It is a gruesome display that includes hundreds of helmets of Armenian soldiers killed in battle and grossly exaggerated life-size figures of dead and dying captives.

Approximately 11,000 soldiers were injured during the 2020 Artsakh War. As they are healing and trying to reintegrate back into society, they are often facing bureaucratic red tape and an inaccessible physical environment.

War casualties are one of the major components of Armenia’s demographic crisis. Beyond their immediate impact, they also leave traces for years afterwards.

Varujan Avedikian, CEO of the Insurance Foundation for Servicemen spoke to EVN Report about the need to ensure that soldiers and their families live a life of dignity after war. The Foundation’s mission is to insure the social well-being of soldiers injured while on active duty as well as supporting the families of soldiers who died while performing their duties.

Faced with loss and uncertainty, the Armenians of Artsakh are trying to come to grips with the defeat following the war and finding a way to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

After 44 days of reluctant and often one-sided reporting of the 2020 Artsakh War and amidst the grey horror of cluster bombed homes, the red flames of Karvajar’s houses instantly made international headlines.

Western countries imposed sanctions on Belarus’ Aleksandr Lukashenko for cracking down on democracy and attacking civilians. Ilham Aliyev has actually been more brutal but has not been penalized.

Resolve is different from blind faith that “this too shall pass.” We need the entire Armenian nation to start getting ready for the next encounter, writes Raffi Kassarjian.

It had been almost two decades since Gohar Karapetyan last made the trip from Artsakh to Yerevan when she decided, on the morning of October 1, to repeat the journey, this time to escape a raging war.

Statistics about numbers of civilians and young conscripts killed in conflict often water down the true magnitude of human loss. This is the story of one family’s struggle through the 2020 Artsakh War.

In Stepanakert, EVN Report spoke with Artsakh's Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan about the political decisions of the international community and the reasons for the artificial parity in their vocabulary, their failure to realize that authoritarian regimes do not understand the language of statements but that of action and their failure to prevent, followed by their failure to protect.

As the war rages on, almost 80,000 Armenians from Artsakh have fled their native towns and cities and found refuge throughout Armenia proper. While they are grateful for the care they are receiving, their dream is to go back home.

This primer provides the reader with an overview of the historical origins of the Karabakh conflict, the Soviet era, the war, the peace process all the way to the Four Day War in April 2016.

The humanitarian emergency in the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh requires the engagement of humanitarian and donor organizations, without regard to its international recognition, its present or future status.

The narrow geopolitical framework of the three-decade-old Karabakh conflict is now threatening to become a Eurasian nightmare: Turkey's involvement has sensationalized the war, Iran’s unease has reinforced the confusion, while Russia's perceived passiveness has created much regional anxiety.

Armenophobic comments from Azerbaijani’s President are nothing new. He has long drummed up support among his population by promoting hatred against Armenians and using dehumanizing language, often referring to them as dogs and vermin.

In light of the existential threat, high probability of ethnic cleansing and the already imminent humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, the international community has an obligation to grant remedial recognition to Artsakh.

Fleeing the war, the women of Artsakh -- mothers, daughters, sisters and wives -- held a rally in front of the UN building in Yerevan asking for one simple thing, the right to live in peace.

Journalist Lusine Musayelyan remembers the first war. She remembers Baroness Caroline Cox giving her colorful candy in crinkly paper. She remembers the bombing and the bunkers.

Photojournalist Eric Grigorian captures the devastation of war, its destruction of lives, heritage sites and schools. A portrait of a nation at war, of a capital where the elderly and the grieving live underground.

The war has infiltrated almost every Armenian home. While soldiers are fighting on the front, a new generation of children and their families who escaped this new war in Artsakh are looking for ways to cope with the new trauma.

Does the armed conflict of international character waged by Azerbaijan and Turkey against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh warrant an international recognition of Artsakh’s remedial secession?

Azerbaijan, in collaboration with Turkey is responsible for grave breaches of international humanitarian law and war crimes. The international tribunal should not turn a blind eye to the situation.

Statements and hints by Azerbaijan about an impending war went unheeded. Why would Armenia want to halt the negotiation process to start a war? Here are some of the facts and context which demonstrate it was Azerbaijan that started the war.

Given the geography, tactics and methods of the Azerbaijani offensive, the autocratic regime of Ilham Aliyev is aiming to forcibly occupy the territory of Artsakh through committing large-scale atrocities.

As the hordes mass at Armenia’s gates, the U.S. and Europe, the supposed guardians of peace and justice, remain reluctant to intervene to halt the violence due to self-interest and capitulation to Turkish blackmail.

The inclusion of the term genocide is not being loosely thrown around. As the war rages on, the potential for genocide against ethnic Armenians in Artsakh is very real and highly probable, writes Suren Manukyan.

As Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh came under continual shelling by Azerbaijani armed forces, photojournalist Eric Grigorian captured the devastating aftermath.

The Azerbaijani-Turkish joint venture of transplanting mercenaries into Azerbaijan has the potential to turn the region into a new hub of sectarian violence and create a security breakdown for the wider region. Here is the EU response.

The city of Martakert in Artsakh came under heavy shelling twice since the start of the war. This photo story captures the aftermath.

The capital of the Republic of Artsakh was shelled twice today by Azerbaijani armed forces injuring civilians and damaging buildings and infrastructure. Photojournalist Eric Grigorian captured these images in Stepanakert.

While Iran's response to the current escalation is neutral and balanced, there are concerns about Azerbaijan's desire for a military solution, Turkey's involvement and the arrival of terrorists in the region.

A number of international media outlets have published stories about Syrian militants who have been offered up to $1500/month by Turkey to fight alongside the Azerbaijani military.

These powerful images capture fragments of life in Artsakh, a place that is boundlessly resilient yet has too often become a home to war.

Following the attack by Azerbaijani Armed Forces on September 27, the women and children of Stepanakert shelter in bunkers while most of the men are off to the frontline.

While Artsakh has experienced the highest per capita accident rate in the world, it has seen a ten-fold reduction in landmine accidents since The HALO Trust began demining operations in 2000.

A soldier who was critically injured during clashes at the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border has died, bringing the death toll to five; Pashinyan says the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination, the security of Armenia and Artsakh are not subject to concessions.

Over the last several days, the situation on the state border seems to have entered a period of relative calm. Moving beyond repair of damaged infrastructure and residential homes, more comprehensive development projects to be implemented in Tavush.

Residents of the border villages and towns in the Tavush region are trying to return to their normal routine as the situation at the state border seems to have stabilized. However, for now, it is an uneasy calm.

Using large-caliber artillery, Azerbaijani Special Forces launched an attack early this morning on Armenian border posts breaking the fragile ceasefire. After being forced to retreat, they began shelling Armenian border villages.

After three days of intensive fighting, the situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border has been relatively calm; medals posthumously awarded to four fallen Armenian servicemen; Su-30SM fighter jets to be on permanent duty to ensure Armenia’s air space is inviolable; injured soldiers and families of killed soldiers to receive compensation and more.

In a third day of deadly fighting along the Armenia-Azerbaijan international border, four Armenian soldiers are killed; a number of border villages continue to sustain Azerbaijani fire; cyberattack targets Armenian government and media websites; Armenian Air Defense Units shoot down an Azerbaijani drone and more.

After an attempt by Azerbaijani soldiers to cross over the Armenian border on July 12, tensions escalated between the two sides, leaving at least four Azerbaijani soldiers dead and an already fragile region rattled.

A recent joint statement by three Members of the European Parliament on the construction of a new, third highway between Armenia and Artsakh was not well-received in Armenian circles.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent statement regarding a step-by-step approach to resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict reflects Russia’s centuries-old imperial instincts of using divide-and-conquer tactics on its periphery.

The liberation of the strategic town of Shushi was a turning point in the Karabakh war, causing a dramatic shift in the military progress of Armenian forces and ultimately obstructing future Turkish-Armenian relations.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on March 31. While voter turnout was high (72.7%), no presidential candidate received the required majority of votes, necessitating a runoff election to take place in two weeks.

Voters will be given masks, hand sanitizer and their own pen as the vote looks set to go ahead on March 31 as originally planned.

The grieving family and friends of a soldier killed in Artsakh protested the suicide ruling by trying to bring his casket to Yerevan from the Armavir region. Investigators later arrested three fellow soldiers on suspicion of inciting suicide.

In the face of war and turmoil, music has remained one of Artsakh’s most cherished aspects of their culture. Tradition and new influences are what keep the music alive.

Gayane Ghazaryan pieces together the stories, struggles and dreams of the people of Artsakh through a series of vignettes.

While taking the reader through the complexities of international law, Dr. Nerses Kopalyan writes that when Armenia and Azerbaijan speak about peace, they mean completely different things. What they are actually saying is that they seek peace on their own terms.

When the war broke out in Artsakh in the early 1990s, Aida Serobyan was a 36-year-old doctor and mother of three. She decided to volunteer for two months as a field doctor, but ended up staying for two years until the end of the war in 1994. Although she helped to heal the injured, she herself was wounded four times on the battlefield. This is her story.

There has been a pattern of Azerbaijani war crimes committed since the end of the Karabakh War in 1994. The Four Day War last April was no exception. EVN Report presents a detailed account of Azerbaijani war crimes in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).

Writer and photojournalist Simone Zoppellaro writes that the moral and political responsibility of a conflict doesn’t rest solely on the actors, or those who arm them. It rests also on the nations that would have the power to intervene and stop the hostilities but prefer to keep themselves detached or indifferent.