Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Armenian FM Wants Stronger EU Action On Karabakh
Germany - German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her Armenian counterpart
Ararat Mirzoyan hold a joint press conferencen in Berlin, February 7, 2023.
The European Union and other foreign powers should do more to get Azerbaijan to
unblock the Lachin corridor, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told his German
counterpart Annalena Baerbock late on Tuesday.
The worsening humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh was high on the agenda
of their phone call reported by the Armenian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.
According to the ministry’s readout of the call, Mirzoyan “stressed the need for
international actors, including the EU, to take concrete steps” towards the
lifting of the nine-month Azerbaijani blockade.
“While highly appreciating targeted messages sent by partners to date, Minister
Mirzoyan pointed out that unfortunately they are not enough to achieve positive
change on the ground, end the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh and bring Azerbaijan
back to the constructive path,” added the statement.
Like the United States and Russia, the EU has repeatedly urged Azerbaijan to
lift the blockade. The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, warned on
Wednesday that Baku’s failure to heed these appeals could damage its relations
with the 27-nation bloc.
Still, Borrell made clear that the EU is not considering suspending a July 2022
memorandum of understanding on doubling Europe’s imports of Azerbaijani natural
gas by 2027. The document was signed in Baku in the presence of European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She described Azerbaijan as a “key
partner in our efforts to move away from Russian fossil fuels.”
The head of the EU’s top decision-making body, Charles Michel, called late last
week for “courageous compromise solutions” to the crisis in Karabakh that would
include a new supply route controlled by Azerbaijan. U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken appeared to back such a solution in a September 1 phone call with
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev which was revealed by the U.S. State
Department five days later.
“He reiterated our call to reopen the Lachin Corridor to humanitarian,
commercial, and passenger traffic, while recognizing the importance of
additional routes from Azerbaijan,” the department said in a statement.
Despite struggling with severe shortages of food, medicine and other basic
necessities, most residents of Karabakh remain strongly opposed to the
alternative supply line which Baku has set as a precondition for allowing
renewed relief supplies through Karabakh’s land link with Armenia. They believe
that it is aimed at legitimizing the blockade and helping Azerbaijan regain full
control over Karabakh.
Yerevan Worried About ‘Azeri Military Buildup’
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - European Union monitors patrol the border with Azerbaijan, September
5, 2023.
Azerbaijan is massing troops along its border with Armenia and the
Nagorno-Karabakh “line of contact” in possible preparation for fresh military
action, Armenian officials said on Wednesday.
Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, raised his
government’s concerns with the ambassadors of foreign states during a meeting in
Yerevan.
According to his office, Grigorian gave them “details of the Azerbaijani
military buildup along the Karabakh line of contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan
border“ and “stressed the importance of international partners’ efforts to
prevent possible Azerbaijani aggression.”
A senior Armenian Defense Ministry official, Levon Ayvazian, met with
Yerevan-based foreign military attaches to brief them on the situation on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. A ministry statement cited Ayvazian as telling them
that the Armenian army is taking “all necessary steps to prevent a further
escalation of the situation.” No other details were reported.
Karabakh’s army claimed late on Tuesday that “large numbers” of Azerbaijani
soldiers and military hardware are massing at various sections of the line of
contact. It released purported videos of the troop movements. The Azerbaijani
Defense Ministry said afterwards that its troops are simply engaging in routine
training.
Similar videos were circulated in recent days by Azerbaijani social media users.
Azerbaijan’s state security service on Wednesday warned them to stop doing that
or face prosecution.
Tigran Abrahamian, an Armenian opposition parliamentarian, also alleged
Azerbaijani troop movements in Karabakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“It’s still hard to tell whether this is blackmail, a threat or muscle-flexing
or a preparation for hostilities,” said Abrahamian.
He suggested that Baku is heightening the tensions in a bid to force Yerevan to
accept all Azerbaijani terms of a bilateral peace treaty discussed by the two
sides.
A European Union mission monitoring the ceasefire regime along Armenia’s border
with Azerbaijan said on Tuesday that it witnessed “increased tensions and
crossfire” there for the last few days. “We reported on the situation to
Brussels,” added the mission.
Three Armenian soldiers were killed and two others wounded when fighting broke
out at one of the border sections on September 1.
Karabakh Factions Agree On New President
• Astghik Bedevian
Nagorno-Karabakh - A session of parliament in Stepanakert, October 18, 2022.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s ruling party and three opposition groups have reached a
consensus on who should replace Arayik Harutiunian, who resigned as president
last week amid a deepening humanitarian crisis caused by Azerbaijan’s blockade
of the Lachin corridor.
Announcing his resignation on August 31, Harutiunian said Karabakh needs new
leadership in order to better cope with grave challenges facing it almost three
years after the disastrous war with Azerbaijan. He appointed the secretary of
his security council, Samvel Shahramanian, as Karabakh premier before formally
stepping down the following day. The Karabakh parliament is due to elect his
successor on Saturday.
Officials in Stepanakert said on Wednesday that four of the five parties
represented in the legislature, including Harutiunian’s Free Fatherland, agreed
late on Tuesday to nominate Shahramanian for the vacant post. They control
enough seats to elect him.
“We held many meetings [with Karabakh residents] in the last few days, and there
was not a single person who did not want the current state minister to be
president,” Metakse Hakobian, a leader of the opposition Justice party, told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Shahramanian is reputed to be a figure close to Harutiunian’s predecessor Bako
Sahakian. He headed Karabakh’s main security service during Sahakian’s rule that
ended several months before the outbreak of the 2020 war.
The only party opposed to Shahramanian’s election is led by Samvel Babayan, a
controversial retired general who led Karabakh’s armed forces in the 1990s. In a
weekend interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Babayan said that the United
Fatherland party will boycott the election. It is also planning to stage a
demonstration in Stepanakert on election day.
Unlike the other Karabakh factions, Babayan’s party does not oppose the opening
of a new, Azerbaijani-controlled supply route for Karabakh which Baku says is a
precondition for allowing renewed humanitarian supplies through the Lachin
corridor. Its leader also appears to favor other concessions to Azerbaijan.
Babayan revealed on Sunday that he has presented the Azerbaijani government with
alternative proposals on how to end the humanitarian crisis. The once powerful
general, who is accused by his detractors of secretly collaborating with
Armenia’s government, refused to disclose them.
Baku has repeatedly said that its dialogue with the Karabakh Armenians should
only focus on the Armenian-populated region’s “reintegration into Azerbaijan.”
“There is simply no other way, all other options are illegal,” Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said on Wednesday.
U.S., Armenian Troops To Hold Joint Drills
U.S. and Armenian soldiers take part in a multinational exercise in Europe.
The Armenian and U.S. militaries will start a joint exercise in Armenia on
September 11, the Defense Ministry in Yerevan announced on Wednesday, prompting
concern from Russia.
The Pentagon confirmed the information, with a U.S. military spokesperson
telling Reuters that 85 U.S. soldiers and 175 Armenians will take part in the
ten-day exercise codenamed Eagle Partner 2023. He said the Americans --
including members of the Kansas National Guard which has a 20-year-old training
partnership with Armenia -- will be armed with rifles and will not be using
heavy weaponry.
According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, the participating troops will
practice taking “stabilization actions” during a joint peacekeeping operation in
an imaginary conflict zone.
“The purpose of the exercise is to increase the level of interoperability of
units participating in international peacekeeping missions … to exchange best
practices in command-and-control and tactical communication as well as to
increase the readiness of the Armenian [peacekeeping] unit for the planned
Operational Capabilities Concept evaluation by NATO,” the ministry added in a
statement.
The United States and Armenia are not known to have held a bilateral military
exercise in the past. Their upcoming drills were announced amid the South
Caucasus nation’s unprecedented tensions with Russia, its traditional ally.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stoked the tensions in a weekend newspaper
interview in which he declared that his government is trying to “diversify our
security policy” because Armenia’s reliance on Russia for defense and security
has proved a “strategic mistake.” Pashinian also suggested that Russia will
eventually “leave” Armenia and the South Caucasus in general. Moscow denounced
his statements.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later on Wednesday that news of the
U.S.-Armenian war games is “causes apprehension, especially in the current
situation.”
“Therefore, we will deeply analyze this news and monitor the situation,” Peskov
told journalists.
In April this year, Moscow demanded official explanations from Yerevan after the
U.S. Department of Defense initially listed Armenia among 26 nations that will
participate in U.S.-led drills in Europe. The Pentagon removed Armenia from the
list the following day. The Russian Foreign Ministry claimed at the time that
the U.S.-led alliance is seeking stronger influence on Russia’s ex-Soviet allies
as part of its ongoing “geopolitical confrontation” with Moscow.
Armenia’s relations with Russia and the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) have significantly deteriorated since the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh due to what Yerevan sees as a lack of support from its allies
in the conflict with Azerbaijan. Earlier this year, the Armenian government
cancelled a CSTO military exercise which it was due to host this fall.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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