Tuesday, May 2, 2023
Russia Sees No Alternative To Moscow-Brokered Deal In Armenia-Azerbaijan
Settlement
The Kremlin in Moscow, Russia (file photo)
Russia believes that an Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement can be reached only by
implementing the 2020 ceasefire agreement brokered by Moscow, a Kremlin
spokesman said on Tuesday.
Dmitry Peskov’s remarks came a day after the foreign ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan sat down in Washington for what United States officials expect to be
marathon talks to hammer out a deal to normalize relations between the two
countries at loggerheads over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia brokered a ceasefire agreement that stopped a deadly six-week war between
Armenia and Azerbaijan over the mostly ethnic Armenian-populated region in
November 2020.
The deal brought about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh to protect
some 120,000 ethnic Armenians living there and ensure their free movement along
a five-kilometer-wide strip of land that connects Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia
and is known as the Lachin Corridor.
Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint on the corridor on April 23, tightening the
effective blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh and drawing accusations from Yerevan and
Stepanakert that it violates the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Authorities in both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh urged Russian peacekeepers to
“live up to their commitments” under the ceasefire agreement and achieve the
removal of the Azerbaijani roadblock. Russia said it continued to negotiate with
Azerbaijani authorities regarding the matter, having described Baku’s
“unilateral actions” in the Lachin Corridor as unacceptable.
In his remarks Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said
that assistance in resolving the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan could
be welcomed, “but only on the basis of trilateral agreements concluded together
with the Russian Federation.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
“There is no alternative to these agreements,” he said, as quoted by Russian
media.
“The resolution of the existing problems between the two countries and possible
development of some joint actions and steps aimed at reducing tensions in the
region are primarily possible on the basis of the tripartite documents that were
signed together with Russia. So far, there has been no other legal framework
that would contributed to the settlement. Thus, so far these tripartite
documents have absolutely no alternative,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
Commenting on the meeting of Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, of Armenia, and
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, of Azerbaijan, hosted by U.S. Secretary of
State Antony Blinken in Washington, Peskov said: “Of course, any assistance that
can promote a settlement on this basis [tripartite documents] is welcomed. But
we also know that there are various attempts that blur the basis for a
settlement, which in the future may not give a result. Let’s hope that in this
case we are talking about the first case.”
Officials in Washington believe that peace is possible to achieve between
Armenia and Azerbaijan and stress the importance of direct dialogue between the
two countries.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C) hosting a meeting between Armenian
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (L) and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun
Bayramov in Washington. May 1, 2023.
An unnamed official in the U.S. Department of State said on Monday that
Mirzoyan-Bayramov talks could be held over the course of “a few days” and that
discussions were expected “throughout the week.”
Asked about Russia’s position on the U.S.-led dialogue, the diplomat in
Washington said. “We will be disappointed if they take it negatively.”
“The most important thing is that the parties communicate with each other
regardless of where,” the official said, adding that “a lasting, balanced and
dignified peace between the parties” is the goal.
Last week, official Yerevan confirmed that there is an agreement on holding
talks of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan hosted by their Russian
counterpart in the time to come. Armenia’s Foreign Ministry did not, however,
indicate a specific date for such talks.
Arman Yeghoyan, a pro-government member of the Armenian parliament, reaffirmed
on Tuesday that a Mirzoyan-Bayramov meeting was also due in Moscow. He told
local media that the Washington meeting was in no conflict with the upcoming
meeting in Moscow.
New Census Shows Armenia Population Drops Below 3 Million
• Robert Zargarian
People in a park in Yerevan, Armenia, July 2022.
Armenia’s permanent population is just below 3 million people, according to
preliminary data of a census conducted by the authorities last October and
published this week.
The Statistical Committee says that the figure of 2,928,914 also includes those
people who usually live in the country, but have been absent from it for up to a
year.
It is by about 90,000 people less than Armenia’s permanent population was
according to a similar census conducted in 2011. The population that was
physically in Armenia at the time of the census in 2022 was by about 233,000
less than 12 years ago.
Last year’s census of the population was third to be conducted in Armenia since
the country gained independence in 1991. Originally it was due to be held in
2020, but had to postpone twice – first until 2021 and then until 2022 – because
of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Specialists in Armenia have not yet done any in-depth analysis of the results of
the latest census of the population, pending the final data to be presented by
the authorities. But some demographers already see a troubling pattern.
This is the first time in independent Armenia that the number of the country’s
permanent population, though slightly, but dropped below 3 million.
Candidate of historical sciences, ethno-geographer Artashes Boyajian, who was
involved in both previous census of the population in 2001 and 2011 as a
supervising enumerator, says that whereas until 2018 the population of Armenia
was decreasing due to outmigration, it is the declining birthrate that became a
problem afterwards.
“After 2018, in a number of provinces of the Republic of Armenia, in particular,
in Lori, for the first time a negative natural growth balance, that is when the
number of births is lower than the number of deaths, was registered. The same
was registered in the Shirak province in 2020 as well as in a number of other
provinces of the republic,” Boyajian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The current government of Armenia and its predecessors have set targets for the
population of Armenia. In 2020, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian unveiled the
nation’s strategy until 2050, talking about the goal of increasing the country’s
permanent population to at least 5 million people.
According to Boyajian, despite this lofty goal, the State has failed to
implement any serious demographic policy aimed at its realization.
“In the period under review some steps have been taken to promote population
growth, but it has no qualitative and quantitative effect,” the specialist said.
Declining birthrates are currently a pattern typical for most former Soviet
states given the demographic decline brought on by the collapse of the USSR in
1991 and ensuing social and economic hardships of the populations in newly
independent countries for years to come.
The United Nations projects that Armenia’s population by 2050 will fall to 2.6
million.
U.S. Upbeat On Peace Prospects Amid Armenia-Azerbaijan Talks
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C) hosting a meeting between Armenian
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (L) and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun
Bayramov in Washington. May 1, 2023.
United States officials have struck an optimistic note about prospects of
reaching peace in the South Caucasus as top diplomatic representatives of
Armenia and Azerbaijan sat down on Monday for what are expected to be marathon
talks in Washington this week.
After welcoming Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov at the George P. Schultz National Foreign
Affairs Training Center in the U.S. capital on May 1, U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken reiterated on Twitter that dialogue between Armenia and
Azerbaijan is “key to reaching a lasting peace in the South Caucasus region.”
Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson at the Department of State,
expounded on Washington’s vision for prospects of peace between Armenia and
Azerbaijan.
“We believe that peace is possible between these two countries, and we are glad
to be welcoming them,” Patel said during a press briefing on May 1 when asked
about the Mirzoyan-Bayramov talks.
“We think that direct dialogue through diplomacy is key here… This is something
that the Secretary has been deeply engaged on; he’s had the opportunity to
convene trilateral meetings as well as speak to the foreign ministers and
leaders of these two countries. And we will continue to be engaged on this
issue,” he added.
Patel would not be drawn into speculation about how long the Washington-hosted
peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan would last.
Earlier, a senior Department of State official privy to the negotiations told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that bilateral talks between the foreign ministers of
Armenia and Azerbaijan would be held over the course of “a few days.”
The official, who did not wish to be named, said: “We expect discussions
throughout the week. Our goal is to make sure that the ministers are able to sit
down and talk to each other.”
Department of State officials also confirmed that the situation around the
Lachin Corridor, the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia that
Azerbaijan effectively closed on April 23 by setting up a checkpoint, was one of
the topics raised at the Washington meetings.
“We have not parsed our words about the need for the free flow of traffic and
people and commerce through the Lachin corridor. That continues to be the case
and it’s something that we will continue to raise directly with our Armenian
counterparts,” Patel said.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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