Wednesday, September 4, 2023
Aliyev Cancels Planned Talks With Pashinian (UPDATED)
Moldova - The leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, Germany and the European
Union meet in Chisinau, June 1, 2023.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has cancelled a fresh meeting with Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian which was due to take place on Thursday on the
sidelines of a European Union summit in the Spanish city of Granada.
Aliyev and Pashinian were expected to be joined there by European Council
President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor
Olaf Scholz. The five leaders already met in this format in Moldova on June 1.
The Azerbaijani APA news agency reported on Wednesday that Aliyev accused the
European leaders of pro-Armenian bias and demanded that Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan also join the talks. France, Germany and other parties rejected
the demand, it said, citing official Baku. Diplomatic sources confirmed to
RFE/RL that Aliyev and Erdogan will not fly to Granada.
The last-minute cancellation follows upbeat statements made by Armenian and
Azerbaijani officials on prospects for an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty in
the wake of Baku’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian said on September 24 that the two
sides are now “very close” to signing the deal.
Pashinian confirmed that and expressed regret at Aliyev’s decision when he spoke
in the Armenian parliament later in the day.
“We were very constructive and optimistic because we thought there is a chance
to sign a landmark document,” he said. “Basically, up until this morning we
assessed that probability as being very high.”
“Of course, we regret that the meeting will not take place, but we hope that the
framework document, which is on the table, will be signed at an opportune time.
I am ready to sign that agreement,” added Pashinian.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, and Aliyev’s top
foreign policy aide, Hikmet Hajiyev, as well as diplomatic advisers to Michel,
Macron and Scholz met in Brussels on September 26 to prepare for the Granada
summit. Haiyev said afterwards that the “quite constructive” meeting increased
chances of the peace accord.
Pashinian on Wednesday also denounced Armenia’s “puppet opposition” for trying
to scuttle the deal. Opposition leaders have speculated that he is ready to make
more concessions to Azerbaijan now that Baku is regaining full control over
Karabakh.
Yerevan Eyes ‘Defensive’ Weapons From France
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Parliament deputy Armen Khachatrian, November 14, 2022.
A senior Armenian lawmaker suggested on Wednesday that Armenia will seek to
acquire air-defense systems and other “defensive” weapons from France after
Paris gave the green light for first-ever defense contracts between the two
states.
Visiting Yerevan on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said her
government has approved “future contracts with Armenia which will allow the
delivery of military equipment to Armenia.” She cited threats to the country’s
territorial integrity emanating from Azerbaijan which “has continuously armed
itself to take action.” Colonna did not specify the types of French weapons that
could be supplied to Armenia.
“We may be talking about defensive weapons, training of military officers in
French academies,” said Armen Khachatrian, the deputy chairman of the Armenian
parliament committee on defense.
“Air defense is one of our main problems now, especially after the 2020 war [in
Nagorno-Karabakh] and the events of September 2022,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
Khachatrian cautioned that it would take a while before the Armenian military
receives such weapons.
“Arms acquisitions are a quite complicated process all over the world,” he
explained. “A number of processes must happen before they materialize, perhaps
within one year.”
Tigran Abrahamian, an Armenian opposition lawmaker, said that while we would
only welcome French arms supplies to Armenia he is highly skeptical about the
current government’s ability to boost the country’s defense potential.
“An army is not just weapons and military personnel,” said Abrahamian. “It also
requires good management, correct tactical and strategic objectives and their
achievement, something which I find impossible under the current authorities.”
Colonna signaled the arms supplies amid Armenia’s mounting tensions with Russia,
its longtime ally and until recently principal supplier of military hardware and
ammunition. Khachatrian said Moscow cannot frown upon the deepening
French-Armenian military cooperation because it has stopped providing weapons to
its South Caucasus ally.
In an apparent reference to Russia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian complained in
September 2022 that “our allies” have failed to deliver weapons to Armenia
despite contracts signed with them since 2020. At around the same time, Armenia
reportedly signed contracts for the purchase of $400 million worth of Indian
artillery systems, anti-tank rockets and ammunition.
Armenia Condemns Arrests Of Karabakh Leaders
Armenia -- Karabakh President Bako Sahakian (C) and his predecessor Arkadi
Ghukasian (R) shake hands with prosecutors during former Armenian President
Robert Kocharian's trial in Yerevan, May 16, 2019.
Armenia on Wednesday strongly condemned Azerbaijan for arresting about a dozen
current and former leaders and military commanders of Nagorno-Karabakh and urged
the international community to help it secure their release.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the “arbitrary arrests” run counter to Baku’s
pledges to respect the rights of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population and
embark on dialogue with its representatives.
“The Republic of Armenia will take all possible steps to protect the rights of
illegally arrested representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh, including in
international courts,” it said in a statement.
It noted that the Armenian government already asked the International Court of
Justice on September 28 to issue an injunction banning such “punitive actions”
against Karabakh leaders.
“We also call on international partners to … address the issue both on a
bilateral level with Azerbaijan and on various international platforms,” added
the statement.
Karabakh’s three former presidents -- Arayik Harutiunian, Bako Sahakian and
Arkadi Ghukasian -- as well as current parliament speaker Davit Ishkhanian were
taken to Baku to face grave criminal charges on Tuesday. Their detentions
followed the mass exodus of Karabakh’s residents that left the enclave almost
fully depopulated less than two weeks after Azerbaijan launched a military
offensive in the region.
Karabakh’s former premier Ruben Vardanyan, former Foreign Minister Davit
Babayan, former army commander Levon Mnatsakanian and his ex-deputy Davit
Manukian were arrested by Azerbaijani security forces last week while trying to
enter Armenia through the Lachin corridor.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry rejected the Armenian criticism and defended
the arrests, saying they “serve to restore justice.” It said the jailed Karabakh
leaders promoted separatism, organized “terrorist acts” and participated in
“aggression against Azerbaijan.”
The arrests also raised more question about Russia’s peacekeeping mission in
Karabakh which many in Armenia now regard as a gross failure. Karabakh’s
political and military leadership has long been known for its pro-Russian views.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, indicated on
Wednesday that the Armenian government did not ask Moscow to help free the
jailed Karabakh leaders. “Nobody has appealed to us officially or unofficially,”
Zakharova told reporters.
“One should first of all remember that Karabakh’s former leaders are citizens of
Armenia and one of them had renounced Russian citizenship,” she said, referring
to Vardanyan, a billionaire businessman who relocated to Karabakh a year ago.
Iran Offers To Send Observers To Armenian-Azeri Border
IRAN -- Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri
speaks during an international conference in Tehran, February 23, 2021.
Iran has offered to deploy military observers to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
amid the lingering risk of renewed fighting there.
The Iranian army chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, made the offer
at a meeting with the visiting secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen
Grigorian, held late on Tuesday. Grigorian flew to Tehran on Sunday to discuss
the aftermath of Azerbaijan’s military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh with top
Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi.
Iranian media cited Bagheri as urging Armenia and Azerbaijan to deescalate
tensions and resolve their disputes peacefully.
“Expressing Iran's readiness to dispatch observers to the Armenia-Azerbaijan
border, the Iranian military official emphasized that there should not be any
aggressive goal or intention behind the improvement of the defense capabilities
of any country,” reported the Mehr news agency. It gave no details of the
proposed deployment.
Grigorian’s office did not mention Bagheri’s offer in its readout of the
meeting. It said the Armenian official praised “Iran’s position on the
inviolability of borders in the region.”
The European Union deployed about a hundred monitors along Armenia’s border with
Azerbaijan early this year after the Armenian government refused a similar
mission proposed by the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO). Moscow has criticized Yerevan and said the EU monitors cannot prevent
deadly fighting that periodically breaks out along the border.
Armenia - The foreign ministers of Armenia and Iran inaugurate the Iranian
consulate in Syunik's capital Kapan, October 21, 2022.
The Azerbaijani takeover of Karabakh raised more fears in Yerevan that Baku will
also attack Armenia to open an exterritorial land corridor to Azerbaijan’s
Nakhichevan exclave passing through Syunik, the sole Armenian province bordering
Iran. President Ilham Aliyev and other Azerbaijani leaders regularly demand such
a corridor.
Iran has repeatedly warned against attempts to strip it of the common border and
transport links with Armenia. Meeting with Grigorian on Monday, Ali-Akbar
Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, reaffirmed
Tehran’s strong opposition to “any changes in the geopolitics of the region.”
For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told Grigorian
that regional problems should be addressed “without external intervention” and
in a “3+3 format” involving the three South Caucasus states as well as Iran,
Turkey and Russia.
Bagheri similarly objected to the “presence of extra-regional forces” in the
region. In that context, he repeated Tehran’s criticism of a U.S.-Armenian
military exercise hosted by Armenia last month.
France Signals Arms Supplies To Armenia
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna arrives for a news
conference in Yerevan, October 3, 2023.
France is ready to deliver weapons to Armenia to help the South Caucasus state
counter threats to its territorial integrity, French Foreign Minister Catherine
Colonna said during a visit to Yerevan late on Tuesday.
"France has given its agreement to the conclusion of future contracts with
Armenia which will allow the delivery of military equipment to Armenia so that
it can ensure its defense," Colonna told a joint news conference with her
Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.
She declined to shed light on those contracts, saying only “there are things
that were already agreed between Armenia and France and that are in progress.”
The French government has condemned Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military
offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh that paved the way for the restoration of
Azerbaijani control over the region and displaced its virtually entire ethnic
Armenian population. President Emmanuel Macron suggested last week that Baku
might now attack Armenia as well.
French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said afterwards that the sovereignty
and territorial integrity of Armenia are an “absolute objective for us.” Lecornu
did not rule out arms supplies or other military aid to Armenia, saying that
Paris is already examining Yerevan’s defense “needs.”
Speaking after talks with Mirzoyan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Colonna
noted that Azerbaijan has “continuously armed itself to take action,” using its
oil revenues and Turkey’s military assistance.
She said Paris has also proposed that the European Union expand its monitoring
mission along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan and help Yerevan from a special
fund designed to boost EU partners’ defense capacity.
Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian revealed in July that the Armenian
government requested “technical assistance” from the European Peace Facility
(EPF) but was rebuffed by Brussels.
Colonna signaled French arms supplies amid Armenia’s mounting tensions with
Russia, its longtime ally, which are calling into question its membership in the
Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Mirzoyan insisted
that Paris is not pressing Yerevan to leave the CSTO in return for such aid.
Russia has long been Armenia’s principal supplier of military hardware and
ammunition.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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