Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform: Armenian activists face pressures
By Rashid Shirinov
Armenian public activists standing for peace and willing to join the Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace are subjected to serious pressures by the government and law-enforcement agencies of Armenia, reads a statement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace released on January 13.
The Platform was established on December 6, 2016, to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Platform is an initiative of the citizens of Azerbaijan and Armenia, who wish to contribute to the peace process.
The initiative of the platform creation has generated the interest of the international community, as well as attracted the high level of public attention in both conflicting states. A large number of well-known experts highly appreciated this initiative and stressed the very special role of the peacekeeping initiative in the process of the peaceful settlement of the conflict. The representatives of NGOs and civil society activists of both countries expressed their wish to join the Platform and take an active part in the process of the establishment of a long-standing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This proves that the establishment of the Platform was a timely move for achieving these objectives, the statement further reads.
However, the Armenian public activists willing to join the Platform are subjected to serious pressures by Armenian authorities.
A young writer, Lusine Nersisian, was temporarily arrested in Nagorno-Karabakh right after her interview in Azerbaijani mass media where she had expressed her support for the peaceful initiative.
Relatives of civil society activist, Armen Virabyan, who requested political asylum in Azerbaijan, were subjected to persecution in Yerevan. Social activist from Yerevan, Tamella Arzumanyan and writer from the U.S. Anna Paitian, as well as their relatives, were also subjected to persecution and pressure.
Taking into consideration the above mentioned, the Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace called on international community to make appropriate efforts in order:
to prevent repression and pressure against those who are willing to join “the Armenia-Azerbaijan Platform for Peace” from Armenia;
to end persecution against young writer Lusine Nersisian from Nagorno-Karabakh;
to stop pressures against the family members and relatives of public activist Armen Virabyan residing in Germany;
to end oppression against public activist Tamella Arzumanyan and her family members;
to stop acts of intimidation against writer Anna Paitian from the USA;
to encourage joining of ordinary citizens, civil society activists and representatives of NGOs to the Platform from both countries.
From the Armenian side, the statement of the platform was signed by Vahe Aventian (human rights defender), Vaan Martirosian (chairman of Public Organization “National Liberation Movement”), Syusan Djaginian ( journalist, vice-president of human rights non-governmental organization “Meridian”) and Vaan Karapetyan (member of the Writers’ Union of Armenia), Anahit Sinanian, Armen Karapetyan and Tamella Arzumanyan (Civil Society activists).
Rovshan Rzayev (a member of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh), Kamil Safarov (professor of Baku State University), Shalala Hasanova (chairwoman of Public Union “Support for the Development of Communication with Public”), Novella Jafaroglu (the chairperson of the Dilara Aliyeva Society for Women`s Rights), Parvana Mammadova (Civil Society activist), Rasim Aghayev (member of Azerbaijan Journalists Union) and Umud Mirzoyev (chairman of International Eurasia Press Fund) signed the document from the Azerbaijani side,.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.
Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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