Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Pashinian Again Rules Out ‘Corridors’ For Azerbaijan
• Naira Nalbandian
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during the Armenian government's
question-and-answer session in parliament, Yerevan, December 8, 2021.
Armenia will not cede any extraterritorial land corridors to Azerbaijan, Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday following renewed threats by
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
He insisted that a trilateral working group formed by the Russian, Armenian and
Azerbaijani governments about a year ago has only discussed and largely agreed
on conventional cross-border transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
They include a railway and road that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan
via Armenian territory.
“We will ensure the opening of transport links and we are very interested in
that,” Pashinian told the Armenian parliament. “All parties to the trilateral
working group reached a corresponding agreement.”
“So it is our common understanding that the road and the railway must be under
Armenia’s control and operate under Armenian legislation … This is the official
view of the Republic of Armenia,” he said during his government’s
question-and-answer session in the National Assembly.
Aliyev, Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin reported major progress
towards opening the transport links after holding talks in the Russian city of
Sochi on November 26. Putin said the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group
will formalize in the coming days “decisions which we agreed today.”
However, the group co-headed by deputy prime ministers of the three states
announced no agreements after meeting in Moscow on December 1.
On Monday, Aliyev renewed his threats to forcibly open a land “corridor” to
Nakhichevan. “Tell us when the Zangezur corridor will be opened and there will
be no problems,” he said, recalling Azerbaijan’s actions during last year’s war
over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned the threats and said they run counter to
understandings reached at Sochi.
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister or Armenia Mher Grigorian.
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian said on Tuesday that Aliyev’s remarks came
as a surprise for Yerevan because the trilateral task force was due to meet
again for further discussions on the issue.
“I hope that the situation will return to the constructive path and we will
continue to work within the framework of the basic principles that were already
agreed upon,” Grigorian told the Russian TASS news agency.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan appeared to have raised Aliyev’s
threats with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone call on Wednesday.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry cited Mirzoyan as saying that “the Azerbaijani
leadership’s bellicose statements and threats to use force seriously endanger
regional peace and stability.”
Visiting Yerevan on November 5, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk
said the task force has agreed that Armenia and Azerbaijan will “retain
sovereignty over roads passing through their territory.” The Russian Foreign
Ministry also reported such an agreement.
Armenian opposition leaders regularly speculate that Pashinian had pledged to
make more concessions to Baku through verbal agreements reached with Aliyev. The
prime minister again dismissed such claims when he answered a question asked by
an opposition lawmaker on Wednesday.
Relatives Of Armenian POWs Stage Protests
• Robert Zargarian
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Relatives of Armenian POWs clash with riot police outside the
parliament building in Yerevan, December 8, 2021.
Angry relatives of Armenian soldiers remaining in Azerbaijani captivity have
taken to the streets to protest against what they see as offensive comments made
by parliament speaker Alen Simonian.
Simonian was caught on camera saying during a recent trip to Paris that many of
the prisoners of war (POWs) “put down their weapons and ran away” during
fighting with Azerbaijani forces. In a secretly filmed video publicized on
Tuesday, he claimed that their relatives have not protested lately because they
realize that the soldiers are deserters.
The speaker, who is a key political ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian,
essentially stood by his remarks when he spoke with journalists on Tuesday.
Opposition leaders and civic activists strongly condemned him and demanded his
resignation.
The remarks infuriated friends and relatives of the POWs. Several dozen of them
blocked streets adjacent to the prime minister’s office in Yerevan late in the
evening. Dozens of others rallied outside a government building in Gyumri.
Armenia - Relatives of Armenian POWs block a street in downtown Yerevan,
December 7, 2021.
The protests resumed on Wednesday morning outside the Armenian parliament
building. The protesters blocked an adjacent street, demanding that Simonian
meet with them and explain his statements. They also accused the Armenian
government of misleading them about its stated efforts to secure the release of
the POWs.
Riot police used force to unblock the street. Several demonstrators were
detained on the spot.
Simonian’s spokeswoman, Tsovinar Khachatrian, said the speaker is ready to
receive representatives of the protesting relatives. She complained that they
all want to attend the meeting.
Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers continued to demand Simonian’s resignation.
Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen Simonian chairs a session of the National
Assembly, October 27, 2021.
“Judging from similar statements made by Nikol Pashinian at various times, it
looks like this is a state policy,” said Artsvik Minasian of the opposition
Hayastan alliance.
“Their primarily objective must be to bring back our citizens,” he said. “Our
laws regulate what must happen after that. Why are [the authorities] declaring
the latter instead of carrying out the former?”
Khachatrian dismissed the opposition demands. “The authorities have not
discussed with Alen Simonian the issue of his resignation, and he is not going
to step down,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, of which Simonian is a senior member, did not
publicly criticize or disavow the speaker’s controversial comments.
Armenia, Azerbaijan Urged To Honor Russian-Brokered Deals
Sweden - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a meeting with Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council
in Stockholm, Sweden, December 2, 2021.
The United States, Russia and France have called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to
resume “direct dialogue” and fully comply with their agreements brokered by
Moscow.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday night, U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his French counterpart
Jean-Yves Le Drian also said the conflicting sides must not use force to resolve
border disputes.
“The [OSCE Minsk Group] Co-Chair countries call on Armenia and Azerbaijan to
refrain from inflammatory rhetoric and provocative actions and to implement in
full the commitments they undertook on 9 November 2020 and reconfirmed on 26
November 2021 in statements made by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan,
Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, and President of the Russian
Federation and other jointly agreed ceasefire arrangements,” read the statement.
Blinken, Lavrov and Le Drian said they expect Baku and Yerevan to “work
constructively” to demarcate the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and restore
economic and transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
The Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders reported major progress on both
issues after holding trilateral talks in the Russian city of Sochi on November
26. Russian President Vladimir Putin said a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working
group dealing with transport issues will formalize in the coming days “decisions
which we agreed today.”
However, the group co-headed by deputy prime ministers of the three states
announced no agreements after holding a meeting in Moscow on December 1.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev meet in Sochi, November 26, 2021
On Monday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev renewed his threats to forcibly
open a land “corridor” that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave
via Armenia. The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned the threats and said they
run counter to understandings reached at Sochi.
“The Co-Chair countries also note with concern recent incidents on the
non-demarcated Armenia-Azerbaijan border and reaffirm that the use or threat of
force to resolve border disputes is unacceptable,” added the top diplomats of
the three mediating powers.
They further urged the sides to allow U.S., Russian and French envoys
co-chairing the Minsk Group to visit the conflict zone “as soon as possible” and
“assess the situation on the ground first-hand.”
The co-chairs had for decades travelled to Karabakh and met with its leadership
during regular tours of the conflict zone. The visits practically stopped with
the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent outbreak of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
The mediators planned to resume their shuttle diplomacy after organizing talks
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in New York on September
24. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian suggested last month that their trip
is delayed by Azerbaijan.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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