Tuesday,
Karabakh Leaders Slam EU
Nagorno-Karabakh - Karabakh Armenians rally in Stepanakert against the
Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor, May 9, 2023.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership accused the European Union late on Monday of
turning a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor when it
reacted to European Council President Charles Michel’s remarks made after the
latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Brussels.
Michel, who hosted the talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, made no mention of the five-month blockade
that has caused serious shortages of food and medicine as well as an energy
crisis in Karabakh.
Instead, he urged Baku to embark on a dialogue with “Armenians living in the
former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast” for the purpose of “guaranteeing the
rights and security of this population.”
“This fact shows that the president of the European Council not only does not
hinder but actually encourages Azerbaijan to use the sufferings of the people of
Artsakh as a political tool,” the Karabakh foreign ministry charged in a
statement.
It said Michel’s remarks also demonstrate that “the EU leadership continues to
ignore the legal rights and interests of the people of Artsakh and is guided
only by its own geopolitical and short-term interests in the region to the
detriment of the values of democracy and human rights proclaimed by the EU.”
The statement added that only international recognition of the Karabakh
Armenians’ right to self-determination can be “the basis for a sustainable
settlement of the conflict.”
The Armenian government stopped championing that right a year ago. Pashinian
subsequently declared that it recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
Michel implied after Sunday’s summit that Yerevan is now also ready to recognize
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh. The Armenian opposition expressed serious
concern over this declaration, renewing its allegations that Pashinian is
forcing the Karabakh Armenians to live under Azerbaijani rule.
By contrast, the strongly-worded Karabakh statement contained no criticism of
Pashinian.
Yerevan Still Reluctant To Clarify Stance On Karabakh’s Status
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safarian speaks to reporters,
Yerevan, .
Two days after the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly made progress
during talks in Brussels, the Armenian government again declined to clarify on
Tuesday whether it recognizes Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Charles Michel, the European Union chief who hosted the talks, said Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “confirmed
their unequivocal commitment to … respective territorial integrity of Armenia
(29,800 square kilometers) and Azerbaijan (86,600 square kilometers).”
The total Soviet-era area of Azerbaijan cited by Michel includes Karabakh.
“Negotiations are ongoing on the provision of international guarantees for
ensuring Nagorno-Karabakh’s rights and security,” Deputy Foreign Minister
Mnatsakan Safarian repeatedly told reporters as they pressed him on the
implications of Michel’s statement.
Safarian said Armenia always recognized Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. “So
there is nothing new here,” he said.
The diplomat did not clarify whether Yerevan will explicitly recognize Karabakh
as a part of Azerbaijan in a peace treaty currently discussed by the conflicting
sides.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Moscow
later this week for further talks on the treaty.
Meanwhile, Armenian opposition leaders continued to portray Michel’s remarks as
further proof of Pashinian’s readiness to help Baku regain control over Karabakh.
“86,600 square kilometers means Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan,” said Armen
Rustamian of the opposition Hayastan alliance.
Pashinian has not yet made any public statements on the Brussels summit held on
Sunday. In recent months, he has publicly encouraged Karabakh’s leaders to
negotiate with Azerbaijan while accusing Baku of planning to commit “genocide”
in the Armenian-populated region.
The authorities in Stepanakert have repeatedly denounced Pashinian’s comments on
the conflict with Azerbaijan. In a joint statement issued on April 19, the five
political groups represented in the Karabakh parliament again accused him of
undermining the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination which was for
decades supported by international mediators.
CSTO Exit ‘Not On Armenia’s Agenda Yet’
• Astghik Bedevian
ARMENIA - The leaders of Russia, Armenia and other CSTO member states pose for a
photograph during a summit in Yerevan, November 23, 2022.
Armenia is not considering leaving the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO) despite its unprecedented tensions with other CSTO member states, a
senior Armenian official said on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, the Armenian government cancelled a CSTO military exercise
planned in Armenia and refused to appoint a deputy secretary-general of the
Russian-led military alliance over what it sees as a lack of CSTO support in the
conflict with Azerbaijan. It also rejected a CSTO offer to deploy a monitoring
mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The tensions have called into question Armenia’s continued membership in the
organization. In a newspaper interview published over the weekend, the secretary
of the country’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, said Yerevan discussed the
possibility of leaving the alliance. He gave no details.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safarian suggested that the discussions took
place shortly after Azerbaijan launched offensive military operations along the
Armenian border last September.
An exit from the CSTO is “not on Armenia’s agenda now,” Safarian said, adding
that Pashinian’s government may revisit the issue in the future.
“Yes, the situation is complicated, but being a CSTO member state and also
having [membership] obligations, we continue to hope that our efforts will
produce some results,” Safarian told reporters.
Armenia - CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov at a meeting with
Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian, Yerevan, March 16, 2023.
Grigorian complained last month that “the security mechanisms that were supposed
to protect us are not working now.” “Armenia is trying to find new security
guarantees,” he told Armenian Public Television.
Safarian would not say whether the authorities in Yerevan see any realistic
alternative to Armenia’s membership in the CSTO and bilateral military ties with
Russia.
Armen Rustamian, a leading member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance,
believes that in the absence of such an alternative Armenia’s estrangement from
the alliance of six ex-Soviet states carries serious national security risks.
“Without having a new security system they are trying to wreck the existing
one,” Rustamian charged.
“Leave the CSTO and explain why you did that, or stay in the CSTO and use all,
even minimal chances of getting the CSTO to address our security problems,” he
said, appealing to Pashinian’s administration. “We are becoming an unreliable
partner, and that is adding to threats and dangers facing increasingly facing
our country.”
Pashinian claimed in March that it is the CSTO that could “leave Armenia.” The
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, laughed off that remark,
saying that she has trouble understanding its meaning. A senior Russian diplomat
afterwards called for an end to the “harmful” spat.
Italian Police Seize $880 Million Of Cocaine ‘Bound For Armenia’
Italy - A screenshot from an official video of Italian police finding 2.7 tons
of cocaine allegedly bound for Armenia, .
Police in Italy said on Tuesday that they have seized 2.7 tons of “extremely
pure” cocaine destined for Armenia.
In a statement, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza police force said the consignment of
drugs worth more than 800 million euros ($880 million) was found in refrigerated
banana containers shipped to the Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro from Ecuador.
Armenia was the final destination of the shipment, via Georgia’s Black Sea port
of Batumi, said the statement.
Calabria is home to the Ndrangheta crime syndicate, which is now widely regarded
as Italy's most powerful mafia organization playing a central role in the drugs
trade.
Earlier this month, the Italian police also found in Gioia Tauro 600 kilograms
of cocaine which they said was bound for other parts of Italy as well as
Croatia, Greece and Georgia.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities did not immediately react to their latest
major drug bust. It was not clear whether the authorities will try to
investigate the alleged cocaine shipment to Armenia foiled in Italy.
Armenia - Opposition deputy Agnessa Khamoyan speaks during a news conference in
Yerevan, November 19, 2021.
Agnessa Khamoyan, an Armenian opposition parliamentarian, expressed serious
concern over the development. She suggested that senior Armenian officials or
“persons very close to the government” were involved in the botched drug
trafficking operation.
The number of drug trafficking cases recorded by the Armenian police nearly
doubled last year, highlighting a growing problem in a country not accustomed to
widespread drug abuse. The sharp rise in such cases is widely blamed on
increasingly accessible synthetic drugs mainly sold through the internet.
Khamoyan mentioned this “awful statistics” in a Facebook post on the Italian
police statement. “This is a serious threat to national security, and I am sorry
to say that the state is not taking any serious steps to tackle it,” she wrote.
Some pro-government lawmakers likewise criticized the Armenian police over the
alarming trend when they met with Interior Minister Vahe Ghazarian in February.
Ghazarian assured them that the police are stepping up their fight against
drug-related crimes.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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