Friday, November 3, 2017 Armenia, Azerbaijan Set For More Peace Talks After Summit . Tatevik Lazarian Switzerland - Presidents Serzh Sarkisian (R) of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan begin negotiations in Geneva, 16Oct2017. A senior official in Yerevan said on Friday that Armenia's and Azerbaijan's foreign ministers are planning to hold fresh talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to try to build on understandings reportedly reached by their presidents last month. Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev pledged to intensify the peace process and bolster the ceasefire regime in the conflict zone when they met in Geneva on October 16. The U.S., Russian and French mediators announced in the Swiss city that they will soon hold follow-up "working sessions" with Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov. Mammadyarov said earlier this week that he may meet with Nalbandian in Moscow on November 16. The Azerbaijani minister is scheduled to meet with the mediators there on that day. Nalbandian will accompany Sarkisian on a trip to the Russian capital expected next week. SWITZERLAND -- Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian pose next to OSCE delegates at the opening of talks in Geneva, October 16. Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian confirmed that a meeting of the two foreign ministers is "planned." "It will be announced as soon as there is an agreement [on its conduct,]" he told reporters. Asked about the possible date and venue of the talks, Kocharian said: "I can't tell that as long as there is no concrete agreement." Meeting with young members and supporters of his ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) last week, Sarkisian said that a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh dispute could only be "painful" to both conflicting sides. Commenting on that remark, Kocharian stressed that the Armenian president referred to a Karabakh settlement based on mutual concessions. "If Azerbaijan comes to its senses and if there is really a compromise solution, then it's only natural that it will be painful to the parties," he said. "There are no signs of that today, however." "I will refuse to talk about any compromise because if one side not only avoids talking about concessions but is also raising the bar, then it's a grave mistake to talk about Armenian concessions," added the diplomat. Speaking right after the Geneva summit, Sarkisian again ruled out any peace deal that would lead to the restoration of Azerbaijani control over Karabakh. That statement angered Azerbaijani officials. They accused the Armenian president of breaching understandings reached with Aliyev. Sarkisian shrugged off those accusations. "I have not uttered even half a word about our conversation [with Aliyev] to anyone," he said on October 26. Armenian Ministry Working On `Repatriation' Plan . Ruzanna Stepanian U.S. - Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobian (L) meet with members of the Armenian community in Massachussetts, 31Mar2016. Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobian said on Friday that her ministry will propose next year a set of government measures to encourage many ethnic Armenians living abroad to relocate to Armenia. "We plan preparatory works on repatriation in 2018," Hakobian told journalists. "We are going to draw up a policy concept, look into other countries' experience and draft a law on repatriation." "We have to be able to present Armenia's opportunities: what we can offer them, what kind of specialists we need to invite," she said. "If they are the kind of specialists that are needed by Armenia # we have to think about paying them appropriate wages and creating other conditions that would attract them. I don't think that patriotism alone can drive repatriation." President Serzh Sarkisian made a case for such mass immigration in a speech delivered at an Armenia-Diaspora conference held in Yerevan in September. He said it would help the country address its grave demographic problems and increase its population to 4 million by 2040. There are an estimated 8 million to 9 million ethnic Armenians around the world. Only up to 3 million of them live in Armenia. Most of the others reside in Russia, the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Throughout Sarkisian's decade-long rule, scores of Armenia's citizens have continued to leave their country for primarily economic reasons. Opposition politicians and other critics of the Armenian government blame the emigration on what they see as the Sarkisian administration's failed economic policies and unwillingness to enforce the rule of law. Not surprisingly, they have dismissed his demographic target for 2040 as a gimmick. Hakobian suggested that the extremely ambitious target is based on "appropriate calculations." She also said that thousands of Armenian nationals as well as Diaspora Armenians immigrate to Armenia each year. She further argued that more than 20,000 Syrian nationals of Armenian origin have taken refuge in their ancestral homeland in the last few years. "A few months ago I invited repats to our ministry and 120 of them came over," the minister said. "I expected to hear criticism and complaints from them, but to my surprise they all have adapted [to Armenia] well." "They were emphasizing that the main advantage of the homeland is that it's safe here, that their children do not risk drug addiction, debauchery and other things in our schools," she added. As well as announcing the planned launch of the immigration promotion effort, Hakobian noted that she does not know yet whether she will be reappointed to a new Armenian government that will be formed after Sarkisian's final presidential term ends in April 2018. Another Parliament Attack Convict Dies In Armenian Jail . Hovannes Movsisian Armenia - A screenshot of TV footage of gunmen opening fire in the Armenian parliament on 27 October, 1999. A fourth person jailed in connection with a deadly 1999 attack on the Armenian parliament, which plunged the country into a serious political crisis, has died in prison. The Armenian Justice Ministry said on Friday that, Eduard Grigorian, who was serving a life sentence in Yerevan's Nubarashen prison, complained of chest pains before being rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead there early in the morning. Gor Ghlechian, the spokesman for a ministry division managing Armenia's prisons, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that relevant authorities will conduct forensic tests to ascertain the cause of Grigorian's death. A doctor by training, Grigorian was one of the five gunmen who burst into the National Assembly and sprayed it with bullets on October 27, 1999. Then Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian, parliament speaker Karen Demirchian and six other officials were killed in the shooting spree that thrust Armenia's government into turmoil. The gunmen were led by Nairi Hunanian, an obscure former journalist who accused the government of corruption and misrule and called for regime change. They surrendered to police after overnight negotiations with then President Robert Kocharian. Several other men were also arrested in the following days. One of them, Norayr Yeghiazarian, was charged with supplying weapons to the armed group, which also comprised Hunanian's younger brother Karen and uncle Vram Galstian. Yeghiazarian was found dead in pre-trial detention in 2000. Law-enforcement authorities said at the time that Yeghiazarian, an electrician by profession, accidentally electrocuted himself to death while using a heating stove in his cell. Galstian was found hanged in his Nubarashen prison cell in 2004 just months after an Armenian court sentenced him, the Hunanian brothers and the two other gunmen to life imprisonment. The prison administration claimed that he committed suicide. Another man, Hamlet Stepanian, was sentenced in December 2003 to 14 years in prison on charges of helping the gunmen enter the parliament. Stepanian suddenly died in prison in 2010 of what officials called a heart attack. Armenia -- Former Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian (L) and parliament speaker Karen Demirchian assassinated in the 1999 attack on parliament. Those prison deaths fueled more allegations of a high-level cover-up of the parliament shootings. Some relatives and supporters of the assassinated officials still suspect Kocharian and the current President Serzh Sarkisian (no relation to Vazgen), who was Armenia's national security minister in October 1999, of masterminding the killings to eliminate increasingly powerful rivals. Hunanian insisted throughout his marathon trial that he himself had decided to seize the parliament and try to topple the government without anybody's orders. But many in Armenia believe that the ringleader and his accomplices had powerful sponsors outside the parliament building. Ruzan Minasian, a journalist for the "Aravot" daily who covered the parliament attack trial, described Grigorian as the "ideological leader" of Hunanian's group. She suggested that the former pediatrician, who died on Friday, could have shed more light on the shootings. "According to the prosecution, Edik Grigorian's role was the same as Nairi Hunanian's," Minasian said. "But he looked more composed. You could probably call him their gray cardinal." A Facebook account opened in Eduard Grigorian's name in 2014 promised major "revelations" regarding the October 1999 attack. It was disabled just as mysteriously shortly after attracting Armenian media attention. "Maybe he wanted to say something," Minasian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "Or maybe he wanted to test our mood. Why not?" Armenian, Indian Leaders Discuss Closer Ties India - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in New Delhi, 3Nov2017. President Serzh Sarkisian called for greater Indian investments in Armenia's economy when he met with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi on Friday. He was also reported to tell Modi that Armenia is "strongly interested in deepening relations with India in all areas" and giving new impetus to "centuries Indian-Armenian friendship." A statement by Sarkisian's press office also quoted him as saying that the Armenian government is ready to create "favorable conditions" for Indian investors. He suggested that they take advantage of a free economic zone which is due to be created on Armenia's border with Iran by the end of this year. Indian firms setting up shop there would have duty-free access to the "huge market" of Russia and other Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states, added Sarkisian. According to the statement, Modi and Sarkisian discussed possibilities of "active cooperation" between the two nations in various sectors such as agriculture, food processing, information technology, tourism and diamond processing. On Wednesday, Modi's cabinet approved a draft Indian-Armenian agreement on "cooperation and mutual assistance in customs matters." "The Agreement will help in the availability of relevant information for the prevention and investigation of Customs offences," it said in a statement. "It is also expected to facilitate trade and ensure efficient clearance of goods traded between the countries." The volume of Armenian-Indian trade is very modest at present. The Indian ambassador in Yerevan, Yogeshwar Sangwan, described political ties between the two countries as "excellent" when he spoke to RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) in June. "Even in the area of defense, we are open to cooperation with Armenia," he said. An Armenian Defense Ministry delegation visited India in May for talks with senior Indian defense officials. The ministry said afterwards that the two sides reached unspecified agreements on "military-technical" cooperation and joint training programs between the two militaries. Modi was cited by the Armenian presidential press office as calling Armenia India's "reliable and important partner in the Eurasian region." India's arch-foe Pakistan staunchly supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, refusing to not only establish diplomatic relations with Armenia but also formally recognize the latter as an independent state. Press Review "Zhamanak" is unconvinced by Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's assurances that his government's draft budget for next year will help to improve the macroeconomic situation in Armenia. The paper says that Karapetian's predecessors also made such statements. "Everyone submitted `development budgets' to the parliament," it says. "It's just that so far we have only seen economic setbacks or, at best, stagnation as a result of that `development.'" "Prime Minister Karen Karapetian agrees with the assertion that Serzh Sarkisian is irreplaceable as a guarantor of national security," writes "Haykakan Zhamanak." "Also, Karen Karapetian aspires to [retaining] the post of prime minister after April 2018. He made such statements at his news conference held yesterday. If Karapetian really thinks that Serzh Sarkisian is irreplaceable as security guarantor, then he must also say that Sarkisian must be Armenia's next prime minister. Or else, it would mean that with his readiness to hold on to the post of prime minister Karapetian puts Armenia's security at risk." "Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" reacts to a statement adopted by the leadership of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) at its latest meeting held in Armenia. "The approximate gist of the statement was as follows: they are not that happy with the socioeconomic situation in the country, they will act in an independent and pro-active manner, and they will not necessarily enter into [another governing] coalition in April 2018," says the paper. "In other words, horse trading has begun. True, the emphasis is put on economic problems, but that is obviously a smokescreen." Dashnaktsutyun, the paper speculates, is simply setting a very high price for its acceptance of a possible compromise solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that could be agreed by Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. "Zhoghovurd" notes Sarkisian's remark, made in an interview with a Russian radio station, that he had "greater expectations" from Armenia's membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The paper says neither Sarkisian nor any other Armenian leader has publicly made such statements before. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org