Month: June 2022

Armenia and the Armenian people “have no allies”, according to political analyst Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan.

“We are alone in this world. But that is not all. The biggest problem is that even our elites don’t fully realize it. Or they do, but they are running away from the truth,” he wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.

“And it is no longer an escape. It is betrayal,” the analyst said.

Tigran Abrahamyan, a lawmaker from the opposition Pativ Unem (With Honor) faction, on Tuesday reacted to Nikol Pashinyan’s latest statements on the risk of renewed war.

At an online news conference on Monday, the Armenian premier accused Azerbaijan of hampering peace efforts in an attempt to legitimize a new war against Armenia.

“First, Pashinyan is actually saying that the peace agenda promoted by him has failed; he cannot fulfill the key promise made to the people,” the MP wrote on Facebook.

“Second, Pashinyan says that in the absence of a chief of the General Staff, with an incompetent defense minister and an irresponsible commander-in-chief we will face a new war.

“Of course, I’m inclined to think that the authorities are preparing the people for new big concessions by intimidating them with [warnings about] a new war, but I do not rule out that at some point Armenia will get both losses and a new war,” Abrahamyan said.

Political analyst Suren Sargsyan urges the Armenian authorities to invite the OSCE Minsk Group mediators to Yerevan.

“France and the U.S. on the one hand and Russia on the other hand trade blames for the “demise” of the Minsk Group. Armenia, unlike Azerbaijan, insists that the Minsk Group is needed,’ he wrote on Facebook.

“Now the question is: Why doesn’t Armenia invite the Minsk Group co-chairs to Yerevan? Incidentally, this will be the only channel of communication between the West and Russia. Let them visit the region and let Aliyev not receive them. Many things will become clear to everyone,” the analyst said.

His comments came after the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs said the U.S. Minsk Group co-chair spoke with her counterparts today to discuss the future of Nagorno-Karabakh. Also, the Bureau said the Russian co-chair did not accept Washington’s invitation to joint it.

Earlier on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that the Minsk Group “has wound down its activities” on the initiative of the United States and France.

The Armenian parliament leadership affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party will soon discuss stripping opposition lawmakers boycotting parliament sessions of their seats, Speaker Alen Simonyan told reporters on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, he said the parliament majority is “divided” on the matter.

“We are going to discuss both within the faction and the board whether or not to strip opposition MPs of their seats, since the law provides such an opportunity. There are two points of view on this matter. Some believe that the opposition has already stripped itself of its mandates in one way or another. I myself do not imagine how our colleagues can return to this hall after setting the bar so high and failing,” he said.

“But there is a second point of view, which boils down to the need to “finish off” what they have done. But it all depends on the outcome of the debates,” Simonyan said.

He said at least 10 opposition lawmakers may be formally accused of absenteeism.

Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who took office in January, has not yet handed over his credentials to Russian President Vladimir Putin, public and political activist Edgar Ghazaryan said on Tuesday.

“Vagharshak Harutyunyan, who was appointed Armenia’s Ambassador to Russia on January 5 as a reward for assisting [Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinyan in ceding the homeland to the enemy, has not yet handed over his credentials to the Russian leader. Thus, under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations his diplomatic mission in Russia has not yet officially begun,” he wrote on Facebook.

The politician recalled that Nikol Pashinyan paid two visits to Russia during this period. Also, President Vahagn Khachaturyan visited Russia on a working visit earlier in June to meet with Putin.

“The Armenian ambassador is not entitled to participate in meetings with the Russian president before getting his credentials. This, however, has not prevented him from being at the center of numerous scandals and being the subject of ridicule, which is very typical of the current government and of our country as a whole,” Ghazaryan said.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) reacted sharply to President Biden’s decision to once again waive Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, greenlighting new U.S. military aid to the Aliyev regime despite its ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

In a statement released on Friday, Chairman Menendez noted, “I am deeply disappointed to see the Department of State once again make an exception to bypass Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act to provide what has become annual assistance to the regime in Baku. Adding insult to injury, the administration chose to move forward with this most recent waiver despite the recent publication of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which confirmed the Department of State and Department of Defense have failed to meet statutory reporting requirements to Congress on the impact of U.S. assistance on the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Chairman Menendez continued, “As Azerbaijan continues to further occupy territory from its violent assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, during which more than 6,500 people died and more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians were displaced in 2020, it simply makes no sense to say that U.S. assistance and training has not impacted its military balance with Armenia. I will continue to conduct rigorous oversight of any and all assistance to Azerbaijan and expect the Department of State to operate with complete transparency and provide all necessary details for Congress to assess any assistance provided to Baku.”

In commentary released to the ANCA, Chairman Schiff pledged to work with Congressional allies and the Armenian American community to “remove a president’s power to waive Section 907 and to urge the Biden administration to reinvigorate the peace process.”  Chairman Schiff explained, “Azerbaijan is responsible for provoking a horrific war and humanitarian disaster in Armenia and Artsakh, killing thousands of Armenians over 44 days in September 2020 and forcing thousands more to flee their ancestral homelands. To this day, Azerbaijan continues to illegally detain Armenian soldiers who have been subject to torture, and to threaten thousands of innocent civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh who live in fear of another attack and invasion. 

Chairman Schiff continued, “Under no circumstances should the United States be providing military support to such a regime – it not only runs counter to our nation’s core democratic values, but could empower the Aliyev regime to continue or escalate its provocative actions against Armenians. President Biden should not have waived Section 907.”

On June 23, the Biden Administration reportedly notified Congress of their decision to waive Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act. The measure, adopted in 1992, establishes statutory restrictions on U.S. assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan “until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.” Congress included a Section 907 waiver in the FY2002 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. U.S. presidents – Republican and Democrat – have waived Section 907 annually ever since.