Monday,
France’s Macron Blames Azerbaijan For Armenia Border Fighting
France - French President Emmanuel Macron greets Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian at the Elysee Palace in Paris, .
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday blamed Azerbaijan for this month’s
deadly fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and urged it to stop using
force to resolve the conflict with Armenia.
Meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Paris, Macron said Azerbaijani
troops should withdraw from Armenian border areas seized by them during the
two-day hostilities that broke out on the night from September 12-13.
“Since [Armenian army] positions were captured, France demanded that Azerbaijani
forces return to their initial positions,” he told the press before the start of
the talks with Pashinian at the presidential Elysee Palace. “I said that to
President [Ilham] Aliyev right from September 14.
The fact that the border is not delimited does not justify advances into the
territory of the other country. I have also said since September 13 that France
believes recourse to force cannot be a solution for Armenia or Azerbaijan and
that the dialogue must be reestablished without delay.”
“President Aliyev, to whom I will speak again in the coming hours, says that he
too is willing to put an end to regional instability and strive for solutions.
But one cannot build peace while threatening to use force,” stressed Macron.
Aliyev last week blamed Armenia for the hostilities and threatened it with
further military action. “Nobody’s phone call, no statement or initiative will
stop us,” he said.
Macron said he will discuss with Pashinian ways of “consolidating” the shaky
ceasefire and preventing another escalation of the conflict. In that regard, he
called for the resumption of high-level Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations
mediated by the European Union.
The EU’s top official, Charles Michel, has hosted four trilateral meetings with
Aliyev in Pashinian in the past year, most recently in late August.
Pashinian thanked Macron for condemning the Azerbaijani “aggression.” He also
reiterated his stated readiness to sign a comprehensive Armenian-Azerbaijani
peace treaty if Baku agrees to recognize Armenia’s current borders.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York last Thursday, Pashinian said
that Baku is pushing for the kind of a treaty that would not prevent it from
claiming or trying to occupy more Armenian territory. He also claimed that “the
risk of a new Azerbaijani aggression remains very high.”
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov deplored Pashinian’s remarks in a
subsequent speech delivered during a session of the assembly. He said they
demonstrate that “the Armenian side intends to continue the confrontation
instead of seeking normalization.”
On Saturday, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov ordered his troops to be
ready to thwart more Armenian “provocations.” Hasanov issued a similar order
three days before the outbreak of the recent border clashes which killed at
least 280 soldiers from both sides.
Armenia Skips CSTO Drills In Kazakhstan
TAJIKISTAN - National flags of Tajikistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,
Belarus and Armenia (L-R) are hoisted during a CSTO military exercise held at
the Harb Maidon training ground close to the Afghan border, October 18, 2021
Citing lingering tensions along its border with Azerbaijan, Armenia has decided
not to participate in military exercises which the Russian-led Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) began in Kazakhstan on Monday.
The Kazakh Defense Ministry reported that the two-week exercises will bring
together “rapid reaction forces” of Russia, Kazakhstan and other ex-Soviet
members of the military alliance. According to the CSTO Joint Staff in Moscow,
they will simulate a coordinated response to an imaginary military conflict in
Central Asia.
In a statement cited by Infocom.am, the Defense Ministry in Yerevan said the
decision to send Armenian troops to the drills was made in view of “the
situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border that arose as a result of
Azerbaijan’s military aggression.” The ministry took into account “tasks set for
the Armenian Armed Forces” in the current circumstances, added the statement.
Armenia appealed to the CSTO for military aid just hours after large-scale
fighting erupted at several sections of the border on the night from September
12-13. Azerbaijani forces reportedly attacked Armenian army positions with the
help of heavy artillery and combat drones.
Russia and other CSTO member states effectively declined the request, deciding
instead to send to Armenia fact-finding missions tasked with studying the
situation on the ground and submitting policy recommendations. Armenian
officials criticized the bloc’s reluctance to openly side with Yerevan.
Meeting with the CSTO’s visiting Secretary-General Stanislav Zas last week,
Deputy Foreign Minister Vahe Gevorgian said the Armenian government continues to
expect from the CSTO “concrete actions towards restoring CSTO member Armenia’s
territorial integrity and preventing new escalations.”
Missing Soldiers’ Parents Protest In Yerevan
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - Parents of soldiers missing in action protest outside the Defense
Ministry, Yerevan,
Parents of Armenian soldiers missing after recent border clashes with
Azerbaijani forces rallied outside the Defense Ministry in Yerevan on Monday to
demand information about their whereabouts.
The Armenian military has said that at least 207 of its soldiers were killed or
went missing during two days of heavy fighting on Armenia’s border with
Azerbaijan which broke out late on September 12. It has still not identified
them, raising more questions about the official figure certified by the
country’s government.
Nor have the authorities given the precise number of soldiers taken prisoner
during the hostilities. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian spoke last week of “at
least two dozen” such prisoners of war.
The several dozen parents of Armenian army conscripts demonstrating outside the
Defense Ministry compound complained about a lack of information about the fate
of their sons officially or unofficially listed as missing in action. They were
received by a senior military official but came away from the meeting
dissatisfied, saying that they were told to keep waiting for news.
One of the protesters, Hayk Antanian, said his son was at an Armenian border
post in Syunik province captured by Azerbaijani troops during the September
13-14 fighting. “We haven’t heard from him since then,” said Antanian.
“We went to his military base. None of its commanders would give us any
answers,” he told reporters.
Another angry parent, Serzhik Ghazarian, appealed to Defense Minister Suren
Papikian. “Mr. Papikian, for 13 days I’ve had no news, no information about my
boy and the other boys. What measures are you taking?”
Some of the protesting parents have visited morgues but not found their sons
among the bodies of soldiers kept there.
Ruling Party Again Suffers Local Election Setbacks
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Riot police guard the entrance to the headquarters of the ruling Civil
Contract party in Yerevan, June 20, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party prevailed in only half of
18 communities across Armenia that elected their local government bodies over
the weekend.
As was the case last year, the country’s leading opposition groups largely
ignored the elections.
In particular, the ruling party was defeated by the incumbent mayors of two
towns and a rural community facing corruption charges rejected by them as
politically motivated charges. One of them, Harutiun Manucharian, has been under
arrest for almost a year.
Manucharian has run Berd, a town in northern Tavush province, since 2012. He is
seeking reelection despite being in detention.
A bloc led by Manucharian won a comfortable majority in the new local council
empowered to elect the head of the recently expanded community comprising not
only Berd but also surrounding villages.
Civil Contract suffered a similar setback in Kajaran, an industrial town in
southeastern Syunik province, at the hands of another opposition bloc led by
incumbent Mayor Manvel Paramazian. The latter was arrested last fall but freed
on bail this spring while standing trial on charges strongly denied by him.
Paramazian was one of several Syunik mayors who actively challenged Pashinian
following Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. Most of them,
including Goris Mayor Arush Arushanian, were indicted and arrested last year.
Arushanian’s bloc scored a landslide victory in a local election held last
October. He was set free five months later.
Armenia - Kajaran Mayor Manvel Paramazian.
Also defeating the ruling party on Sunday was the incumbent mayor of Ani, a
major rural community in northwestern Shirak province. Artak Gevorgian was
charged in 2019 with misappropriating 650,000 drams ($1,570) in public funds.
Civil Contract was also narrowly defeated in the northern town of Alaverdi by
the Yerevan-based party Aprelu Yerkir. But both parties fell short of an overall
majority in the local council.
Pashinian’s party fared even worse in Tashir, another town in northern Lori
province. Its incumbent mayor swept to a landslide victory.
Civil Contract chose not to join the mayoral race in Chambarak, a small town in
eastern Gegharkunik province. A bloc led by its incumbent mayor ran unopposed
and easily retained control of the Chambarak administration. Voter turnout there
stood at around 50 percent, according to official results.
Civil Contract won most votes in nine other communities, including the towns of
Sisian, Talin and Jrvezh. In Sisian, it needs to reach a power-sharing deal with
at least one other election contender in order to be able to install the town’s
new mayor.
In Jrvezh, which is located just northeast of Yerevan, the ruling party ran
unopposed. Only 27 percent of local eligible voters participated in the weekend
ballot.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.