Thursday,
Jailed Former Top Prosecutor To Be Released On Bail
• Naira Bulghadarian
Former Prosecutor-General of Armenia Aghvan Hovsepian (standing) during his
trial in a Yerevan court, May 16, 2022.
A court in Yerevan on Thursday granted bail to former Prosecutor-General Aghvan
Hovsepian who was arrested last September on a string of corruption charges
denied by him.
Judge Mnatsakan Martirosian ordered that Hovsepian pay 100 million drams (about
$245,000) before being released from custody pending trial.
Hovsepian’s lawyers had argued that their client suffered from a number of
diseases, including severe diabetes, that they insisted were incompatible with
detention.
Hovsepian, 69, served as Armenia’s chief prosecutor from 1998-1999 and
2004-2013. He went on to become the first head of a newly created
law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, in 2014. He ran the
committee until the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” that brought current Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian to power.
Hovsepian was one of Armenia’s most powerful state officials during his tenure.
The former top prosecutor now stands accused of bribery, money laundering and
illegal entrepreneurial activity.
The Anti-Corruption Committee claims that he also misappropriated several
properties while in office.
Hovsepian denied the charges at the start of his trial in early May. He said
these charges are based on false testimony given by two individuals.
Reports On Next Round Of Turkey-Armenia Talks In September Not Confirmed In
Yerevan Yet
• Tatevik Sargsian
The Armenian and Turkish envoys for normalization talks, Ruben Rubinian and
Serdar Kilic (combination photograph).
Official Yerevan does not yet confirm reports in the Turkish media quoting a
senior diplomat in Ankara that the next round of talks between special
representatives of Turkey and Armenia on normalization will take place in
September.
Vahan Hunanian, a spokesman for Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service on Thursday that “at the moment there is no agreement regarding
the next meeting.”
He added that officials in Yerevan “in due time inform the public about
scheduled meetings of the special representatives of Armenia and Turkey engaged
in the normalization process.”
So far, Armenia’s Ruben Rubinian and Turkey’s Serdar Kilic have met four times
since the beginning of this year in a fresh bid to achieve rapprochement between
the two neighbors feuding over historical events, including the Ottoman-era
genocide of Armenians denied by Turkey.
The first meeting between the two envoys took place in January in Moscow,
Russia, with the three subsequent meetings taking place in Vienna, Austria.
The unnamed high-ranking Turkish diplomat told the Turkish media that Ankara
insists that the next rounds of talks take place not in third countries, but in
Armenia and Turkey, but for this, the diplomat said, a number of clear steps
must be taken.
After all meetings that have taken place between Rubinian and Kilic the parties
emphasized their readiness to go for a full settlement of relations without
preconditions.
Following their latest round of talks on July 1 the two envoys announced
agreements on enabling the crossing of the land border between Armenia and
Turkey by third-country citizens as well as on commencing direct air cargo trade
between the two countries.
The official who talked to the Turkish media also noted that the current process
is different from the 2009 negotiations, but he said that “one can talk about
taking clear steps like signing a document when there is a certain maturity in
the process.” According to him, normalization should be carried forward with
steps aimed at increasing confidence.
Moscow Rejects Criticism Of Russian Peacekeepers In Karabakh
• Astghik Bedevian
Russian peacekeepers guard the area in the town of Lachin (file photo).
Russia does not consider “separate criticism” of its peacekeepers in
Nagorno-Karabakh to be fair, a senior diplomat in Moscow said on Thursday.
During a news briefing Ivan Nechayev, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign
Ministry, stressed that Russian peacekeepers in the region are engaged in
efforts to stabilize the situation on the ground.
During last week’s weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian strongly criticized the Russian peacekeeping operation in
Nagorno-Karabakh following the most serious fighting along the line of contact
that left at least two Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldiers dead.
Pashinian urged Russia to do more to prevent further ceasefire violations,
charging that Baku has been stepping up such violations despite the presence of
Russian peacekeeping troops in the region.
“In these circumstances, it is becoming imperative to adjust details of the
[Russian] peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinian said. “We
expect that any attempt to cross the line of contact will be stopped by the
peacekeeping troops of the Russian Federation.”
In an apparent reaction to this criticism, Nechayev said that “along with
intensive political contacts Russian peacekeepers also continue to be engaged in
active work, taking necessary efforts for stabilization on the ground.”
“Both Baku and Yerevan have before emphasized the important role of the Russian
peacekeeping contingent. We do not consider separate criticism of the
peacekeepers to be fair,” the diplomat added.
Nechayev also announced that Moscow plans to organize high-level trilateral
contacts by the end of August on different subjects concerning the settlement of
Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the situation
around the Lachin corridor should be resolved in accordance with the trilateral
statement of November 9, 2020.
“Point 6 of the statement stipulates that the plan for the construction of a new
route through the Lachin corridor, which will ensure a link between Karabakh and
Armenia, should be determined with the agreement of the parties in the next
three years, with the subsequent redeployment of Russian peacekeeping troops to
maintain the security of the route,” he said.
The Armenian prime minister also insisted last week that the ceasefire agreement
requires Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia to work out before 2024 only a plan for
the construction of a new Armenia-Karabakh road. He emphasized that no such plan
had been drawn up yet.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, however, that the three sides did agree
on the “route” of the new corridor early this year and accused Yerevan of
dragging out construction work on its Armenian sections.
After the latest escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh the local ethnic Armenian
authorities ordered the few remaining Armenian residents of villages situated
along the current route of the Lachin corridor to leave their homes for good
until August 25.
Incidentally, Azerbaijan announced on August 11 the completion of the
construction of its section of the road bypassing Lachin. The Armenian side
launched construction on its section of the road on August 1 and expects the
work to be completed by spring. Until then, authorities say, people will have to
fall back on unpaved roads for travel.
Tehran Reassures Yerevan Over Iran-Armenia Border
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
meet in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, September 17, 2021.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated his country’s opposition to any
attempt to alter borders in the region as he held a phone call with Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian reported by Yerevan on Thursday.
The reassurance comes a week after a major escalation in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict zone in which at least two ethnic Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldiers
were killed on August 3. Both parties blamed each other for the most serious
fighting since March.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has also accused Armenia of showing ‘unconstructive
approaches’ in terms of implementing the Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement
that put an end to a deadly 44-day conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of
2020.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, in particular, charged earlier
this week that Armenia was dragging out the implementation of the point
concerning the opening of road and railway links to connect Azerbaijan to its
Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s southern Syunik province.
The ceasefire that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh commits Armenia to
opening rail and road links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that it calls for an
exterritorial land corridor that would pass through Syunik, the sole Armenian
province bordering Iran.
At least one of the routes of what Baku calls the ‘Zangezur corridor’, namely
the railway, should stretch along the river Arax, which marks the border between
Armenia and Iran.
Armenia publicly supports the idea of unblocking regional transport links, but
rejects what it calls “the corridor logic” behind such efforts. Armenia insists
that it must maintain sovereignty over the transport routes in its territory.
A statement issued by Pashinian’s press office today said that during their
telephone conversation the leaders of Armenia and Iran discussed “issues related
to regional developments and security challenges.”
“The prime minister of Armenia presented to the president of Iran details about
the recent border incidents between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the context of
establishing stability and peace in the region, Pashinian emphasized the
importance of the full implementation of the trilateral agreements of November
9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021,” it said.
“Referring to the recent tense incidents in the South Caucasus, the president of
Iran mentioned the statement made by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution
Ayatollah Khamenei during the recent meetings with the presidents of Russia and
Turkey that Iran is sensitive about its borders in the Caucasus region and will
oppose any attempt to alter them,” the statement added.
Pashinian’s press office said that the parties also “exchanged ideas on
bilateral ties and emphasized the importance of bringing them closer.”
“Pashinian expressed satisfaction with the development of Armenian-Iranian
relations and noted that Armenia is ready to maximally promote the transit of
goods between the two countries and to develop cooperation in the field of
infrastructure in terms of roads, energy and other directions.
“The president of Iran described the relations between the two countries as
historical and deep and emphasized the need to raise the level of sustainable
Armenian-Iranian economic cooperation,” the statement said.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned against attempts to block
Armenia’s border with his country when he held separate meetings with Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran
last month.
Under the 2020 ceasefire agreement, Russia, which protects Armenia’s borders
with Iran and Turkey, is to oversee the security of the transport links between
Azerbaijan and its western exclave passing through Armenian territory.
Images of Russian checkpoints set up along several roads in Syunik that appeared
on the Internet earlier this week fueled speculations among Armenians about an
imminent deal on the transport links. But Russia’s Federal Security Service said
the stepped-up security measures were due to increased drug trafficking and
other illegal cross-border activities in the area.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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