Wednesday,
Tensions Rise At Armenian-Azerbaijani Border Section (UPDATED)
• Susan Badalian
Armenia -- Armenian army officers at a new border post in Syunik province
bordering Azerbaijan, December 11, 2020.
Armenia accused Azerbaijan of resorting to border “provocations” after
Azerbaijani troops reportedly crossed into its southeastern Syunik province
early on Wednesday.
The incident occurred in a mountainous area about 10 kilometers north of the
provincial town of Goris. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and local government
officials said Azerbaijani troops crossed a nearby section of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border and advanced more than three kilometers towards the
village of Verishen.
Pashinian held an emergency session of his Security Council late in the evening
to discuss what he described as a security crisis.
“These [Azerbaijani] actions are intolerable for Armenia because this is an
attack on Armenia’s sovereign territory,” Pashinian told members of the council
in his opening remarks.
“They are trying to justify their actions with some maps which our first
observations showed are false and fabricated,” he said.
“Armenia cannot put up with the existing situation … Our primary objective is to
solve this problem through negotiations and by diplomatic means. But this is one
of the options,” added Pashinian.
The Verishen mayor, Ararat Ordian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that
Azerbaijani troops advanced to within six kilometers of the village. He said the
Armenian military responded by sending reinforcements to the area.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said more vaguely that early in the morning
Azerbaijani forces “tried to carry out some works at one of the border sections
of Syunik under the pretext of ‘border clarification.’”
“After measures taken by Armenian army units the Azerbaijani forces stopped
those works,” it said in a statement issued early in the afternoon. “Right now
negotiations are being held for resolving the situation.”
The ministry denied rumors about fighting triggered by the Azerbaijani troop
movements. Pashinian likewise stressed that no gunshots were fired at the border
section.
Some officials in Syunik said afterwards that Russian troops stationed in
Armenia are also taking part in those negotiations while building up forces in
the area to get the Azerbaijani side to pull back. The Russian military did not
confirm that.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow reported later in the day that Russian Defense
Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke with his Armenian counterpart Vagharshak
Harutiunian by phone. A short ministry statement said they discussed the
situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and “other topics of mutual
interest.”
Meanwhile, Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian had a phone call with Russia’s
Sergei Lavrov. According to his press office, Ayvazian briefed Lavrov on “the
latest incident on Armenia’s state border” and stressed “the inadmissibility of
such provocations by the Azerbaijani side.”
Lavrov met with Azerbaijan’s leaders in Baku earlier this week. He visited
Yerevan last week.
A member of Goris’s municipal council, Narek Ordian, said late in the afternoon
that the border standoff has not yet been resolved. “The negotiations are
continuing,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “They [Azerbaijani forces] are
still there.”
Syunik borders districts southwest of Nagorno-Karabakh which were retaken by
Azerbaijan during and after last year’s war. Russia deployed soldiers and border
guards there to help the Armenian military defend the region against possible
Azerbaijani attacks.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said last month that Moscow and Yerevan are
holding “quite productive discussions” on a possible deployment of more Russian
troops to Syunik.
Yerevan Officials Prosecuted For Assault
Armenia -- The entrance to the Investigative Committee headquarters in Yerevan.
The deputy head of Yerevan’s central administrative district has been arrested
and charged with beating up one of his subordinates.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee confirmed on Wednesday media reports that that
the official, Armen Azizian, and a dozen other local government employees
assaulted Manvel Margarian, the head of the Kentron district’s urban development
division, in his office on Tuesday.
A statement released by the law-enforcement agency said the violence broke out
as a result of “differences over work-related issues.” It said Azizian and other
men hit Margarian “in various parts of his body.” One of them, Arman Davoyan,
struck the latter in the head with a computer keyboard, added the statement.
The Investigative Committee charged Azizian and Davoyan with abuse of power and
hooliganism respectively. Both men were arrested on Tuesday. It was not clear if
the investigators will ask a court to remand them in pre-trial custody.
Margarian was reportedly taken to hospital after the incident. He told the
“Haykakan Zhamanak” daily that he was attacked by about 15 men led by Azizian
and Davoyan after refusing to resign.
Kentron’s chief executive, Avet Poghosian, is currently on vacation. He has
declined to comment on the extraordinary incident.
Yerevan’s Mayor Hayk Marutian, who appoints all district heads, has also not
reacted to it so far. Marutian is a senior member of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
Georgian PM Visits Armenia
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) and his Georgian
counterpart Irakli Gharibashvili meet in Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his visiting Georgian counterpart Irakli
Gharibashvili met in Yerevan on Wednesday for talks that focused on regional
security and Georgian-Armenian commercial ties.
It was the first Georgian-Armenian summit held after last year’s war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Gharibashvili, who visited Baku last week, said the war as well as the
coronavirus pandemic left the region facing “significant difficulties.”
“I think that there is no alternative to peace negotiations and dialogue,” he
said after the talks with Pashinian. “Georgia has always stood for cooperation
and peaceful co-existence in the South Caucasus and will stick to this course.”
Pashinian reaffirmed, for his part, Armenia’s support for a resolution of the
Karabakh conflict based on peace proposals made by the U.S., Russian and French
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
Speaking at a joint news briefing, Pashinian said he and Gharibashvili agreed to
“put greater emphasis on the development of trade and economic ties” between
their countries.
“In particular, we stressed the importance of more effectively using regional
transport routes and developing the region’s transport potential,” he said.
Gharibashvili also stressed the need to expand bilateral trade and “discuss new
projects.”
An Armenian government statement on the talks said the Armenian and Georgian
governments support the “development of transport links, including railway
infrastructures.”
“The parties expressed an interest in initiating new joint projects and agreed
to work intensively in this direction,” read the statement.
It added that both sides are specifically interested in the creation of a new
“transport corridor” that would connect not only Armenia and Georgia but also
Iran, Bulgaria and Greece.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.