Wednesday,
Yerevan Sets Terms For Armenian-Azeri Border Demarcation
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - An Armenian soldier stands guard on the border with Azerbaijan, June
17, 2021.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan confirmed on Wednesday that Armenia has set a
number of conditions for starting the demarcation of its long border with
Azerbaijan sought by Russia.
Russia as well as the United States and France, the two other co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group, believe that such a process would help to prevent deadly
fighting that regularly erupts at various sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border.
The issue was high on the agenda of talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted by Russian President
Vladimir Putin in Sochi last November. Aliyev and Pashinian pledged to set up a
joint commission on border delimitation and demarcation by the end of December.
It was also agreed that Moscow will facilitate the commission’s work.
The commission has still not been formed, however. Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said last week that Baku and Yerevan have not yet bridged their
differences on the demarcation process.
Lavrov also said that Moscow has received new Armenian “proposals” regarding the
commission’s activities and will communicate them to the Azerbaijani side. He
did not disclose them.
Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan speaks in the parliament, January 19,
2022.
Mirzoyan confirmed those proposals but gave few details. He said only that they
involve “a set of measures” designed to ease tensions on the heavily militarized
border.
“We believe that as long as there are no concrete mechanisms and concrete steps
to enhance stability and security in the border zone and to help prevent further
clashes there … that commission will have trouble working,” Mirzoyan told the
Armenian parliament.
The minister indicated that those steps should include a mutual withdrawal of
Armenian and Azerbaijani troops from their border posts and the deployment of
international observers there.
Pashinian has repeatedly advocated the idea of troop withdrawal in recent
months. It has not been backed by Baku so far.
Armenian opposition politicians and the country’s human rights ombudsman, Arman
Tatoyan, have voiced serious misgivings about the idea, saying that it could put
the security of residents of Armenian border towns and villages at serious risk.
Mirzoyan sought to dispel their concerns during his government’s
question-and-answer session in the National Assembly.
Armenia’s Army Chief, Former Defense Minister Go On Trial
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan speaks at a news conference in Yerevan,
February 12, 2019.
Armenia’s top army general, Artak Davtian, former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan
and several other men went on trial on Wednesday, accused of supplying the armed
forces with faulty ammunition.
Armenia’s top army general, Artak Davtian, former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan
and several other men went on trial on Wednesday, accused of supplying the armed
forces with faulty ammunition.
The defendants include two other generals and an arms dealer, Davit Galstian.
The National Security Service (NSS) arrested them and Tonoyan in September on
charges of fraud and embezzlement that cost the state almost 2.3 billion drams
($4.7 million).
The accusations stem from thousands of air-to-surface rockets which a company
owned by Galstian delivered to Armenia in 2011. The Armenian Defense Ministry
refused to buy most of them at the time, saying that they are unusable.
The ministry re-commissioned them after Tonoyan was appointed as defense
minister in 2018. Investigators claim that Tonoyan and the two arrested generals
arranged the deal for personal gain.
All three men deny the accusations. Their lawyers maintain that the ammunition
reportedly manufactured in 1991 was not outdated.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Lieutenant-General Davtian, the chief the
Armenian army’s General Staff, was also charged with abuse of power as part of
the criminal case.
Davtian has not been sacked despite the indictment. It remains unclear whether
he will plead guilty to the accusations.
Davtian was absent from the opening session of the high-profile trial.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan and
Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian (right) attend a meeting in Yerevan.
The presiding judge, Manvel Shahverdian, accepted prosecutors’ demand that the
trial be held behind the closed door because it will feature “state secrets.”
Defense lawyers strongly objected to the decision. They argued, in particular,
that the NSS and the Office of the Prosecutor-General have already released all
details of the case.
“They have publicized everything that could be of interest to enemy states,”
said Yerem Sargsian, a lawyer representing Avetik Muradian, the arrested former
commander of the Armenian Air Force.
Tonoyan’s legal team claimed on Tuesday that by trying to bar journalists from
the trial the prosecutors want to cover up the lack of incriminating evidence at
their disposal.
The defense lawyers have also denounced the NSS for not test-firing the rockets
in question during the investigation. They say that such forensic tests would
have proved that the rockets are usable.
Armenia’s Leadership ‘Not Committed To Democracy’
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian takes part in the virtual "Summit for
Democracy" organized by U.S. President Joe Biden, December 9, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political team are not committed to
turning Armenia into an established democracy, according to a top aide to former
President Levon Ter-Petrosian.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Levon Zurabian, the deputy
chairman of Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party, singled out
ongoing crackdowns on opposition groups that did well in local elections held in
December.
“Although the opposition won [in some local communities,] they don’t let it form
its [local] governments, using police pressure and hoping that … they can coopt
a few people and form their own government,” said Zurabian. “We saw what
happened in Vartenis, Parakar and other places.”
“Everywhere it’s clear that these people [ruling Armenia] are not prepared for
democracy,” he claimed.
Armenia - Levon Zurabian, deputy chairman of the Armenian National Congress, at
a news conference in Yerevan, May 27, 2021.
In Vartenis, a small town 160 kilometers east of Yerevan, two opposition groups
won 14 of the 27 seats in the local council, enough to install their joint
candidate as head of the community that also comprises two dozen nearby villages.
The 14 opposition members of the new Vartenis council elected the candidate,
Aharon Khachatrian, as community head on December 30. However, police did not
allow Khachatrian to take office on January 4, citing a lawsuit filed by the
ruling Civil Contract Party.
Another opposition figure in Vartenis was arrested on corruption charges last
month. Opposition politicians and human rights campaigners in Yerevan condemned
his arrest, saying that it is part of a government crackdown on political
figures who defeated Pashinian’s party in some of the three dozen communities
that elected their local councils on December 5.
Civil Contract suffered its biggest election setback in Vanadzor, Armenia’s
third largest city. It won only 25 percent of the vote there, compared with 39
percent polled by a local bloc led by former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian.
Aslanian was thus well-placed to regain his post. But he was arrested on
December 15 on corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated.
Zurabian also condemned Aslanian’s arrest. “That is not justice. They are
punishing him for defeating them,” he said.
Pashinian was among more than 100 world leaders invited to the virtual “Summit
for Democracy” organized by U.S. President Joe Biden in December. Addressing the
gathering, he pledged to “consolidate democracy” in Armenia.
Armenia - Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian at a press conference in Yerevan,
June 10, 2021.
In written comments released over the weekend, Ter-Petrosian charged that
“Pashinian’s regime” is trying to “hold on to power at all costs.”
The 77-year-old former president also hit out at Armenia’s leading opposition
alliances led by two other ex-presidents, Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian.
He said that they are doing everything to “seize power” in the country.
Unlike those alliances, Ter-Petrosian’s HAK failed to win any seats in the
Armenian parliament in snap elections held in June.
All three ex-presidents hold Pashinian responsible for Armenia’s defeat in the
2020 war with Azerbaijan.
Zurabian insisted on Tuesday that Pashinian and his team lost the “moral right”
to govern the country after the six-week war.
Paris, Baku Trade Barbs Over French Presidential Hopeful’s Trip To Karabakh
• Lilit Harutiunian
Nagorno-Karabakh - French presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse (center)
visits the Center for Francophonie in Stepanakert, December 22, 2021.
France’s government has denounced Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s angry
reaction to a leading French presidential candidate’s recent visit to
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Valerie Pecresse, a conservative politician emerging as French President
Emmanuel Macron’s main challenger in a forthcoming presidential election,
visited Karabakh and met with the territory’s ethnic Armenian leaders on
December 22. She was accompanied by former French Foreign Minister Michel
Barnier and Senator Bruno Retailleau of the opposition Les Republicains party
that nominated her for the presidency.
The Azerbaijani government condemned the trip as a violation of “Azerbaijan’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Aliyev went further last week, saying that Azerbaijani authorities would have
prevented Pecresse from returning to France if they had prior knowledge of her
arrival in Karabakh. He also criticized Russian peacekeepers stationed in
Karabakh for allowing Pecresse to enter the Armenian-populated territory.
Pecresse, who heads the Ile de France region of greater Paris, and many
lawmakers representing her party expressed outrage at Aliyev’s “threats” and
criticized the French government for not swiftly reacting to them.
GREECE - French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian attends a news conference
following his meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias in Athens,
November 19, 2021.
One of those lawmakers, Eric Ciotti, deplored the government’s “deafening
silence” during its question-and-answer session in the French National Assembly
on Tuesday.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian responded by saying that Aliyev’s
comments are “unacceptable in form and substance.” He said he has made this
clear to Azerbaijan’s ambassador in Paris.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was quick to reject the criticism and accuse Le
Drian of breaching “diplomatic ethics.” A ministry spokeswoman defended Aliyev’s
remarks, saying that “illegal visits to Azerbaijani territory” are a criminal
offense and must be dealt with accordingly.
Pecresse travelled to Karabakh from Armenia where she met with President Armen
Sarkissian, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Catholicos Garegin II, the
supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Armenia - Armenian President Armen Sarkissian meets with Valerie Pecresse, a
Fench presidential candidate and head of Ile de France region, December 21, 2021.
“In Armenia, a brotherly country for France, I come to plead for the return of
peace in Nagorno-Karabakh and the strengthening of French support in the
economic and cultural areas and protection of religious heritage,” Pecresse
tweeted before flying back to Paris on December 23.
Another French presidential candidate, controversial far-right figure Eric
Zemmour, visited Armenia earlier in December.
France is home to an influential Armenian community. It was instrumental in the
December 2020 passage by both houses of the French parliament of resolutions
calling on Macron’s government to recognize Karabakh as an independent republic.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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