Friday, October 6, 2023
EU Official Visits Armenia, Discusses Aid To Karabakh Refugees
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic talks to refugees
from Nagorno-Karabakh, October 6, 2023.
A senior European Union official visited Armenia on Friday to discuss details of
the EU’s humanitarian assistance to the more than 100,000 residents of
Nagorno-Karabakh who have fled to the country since last month’s Azerbaijani
military offensive.
“I came to Armenia to show the full solidarity of the European Union to Armenia,
the Armenian people and, in particular, the people displaced from Karabakh,” EU
Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said after meeting with
Armenian officials and some refugees. He said they “can count on the EU’s full
support in this difficult situation.”
“We very quickly mobilized more than 5 million euros in humanitarian aid,
doubled it a few days later, and as of today have provided more than 10 million
euros ($11 million) in humanitarian aid … In addition, we have mobilized the
European Union's stock of humanitarian aid supplies, which will be sent to
Armenia in the next few hours,” Lenarcic told a joint news conference with
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatrian.
On top of that, he said, the refugees will receive separate aid from 13 EU
member states, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
ARMENIA - Five Armenian families, who fled Nagorno-Karabakh following the Azeri
offensive, are seen settled in a house given to them by a neighbor in Goris
until they find a new home, October 4, 2023
The head of the EU’s executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, discussed this
assistance with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday during a meeting held
on the sidelines of an EU summit in the Spanish city of Granada. The Commission
confirmed after the talks that it will also allocate 15 million euros to help
the Armenian government buy food and fuel and address other “socio-economic
needs.”
“The EU stands with Armenia,” tweeted von der Leyen. “We condemn Azerbaijan’s
military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
It is not clear whether some of the EU aid will be used for providing the
refugees with adequate housing, their most urgent need. The Armenian government
claims to have accommodated half of them in hotels, disused public buildings and
empty village houses. It says the others have told government officials that
they will stay with their relatives or have other places of residence in Armenia.
Armenia - Elmira Nersisian, a refugee from Nagorno Karabakh, visits an aid
center in Parakar, October 6, 2023
However, there have been multiple reports of refugees remaining homeless days
after their evacuation from Karabakh. RFE/RL’s Armenian Service spoke to several
such persons outside a government aid center in Parakar, a village just outside
Yerevan. They as well as other refugees went there to inquire about a one-off
cash payment of 100,000 drams ($245) promised by the government to every
displaced Karabakh Armenian.
“We are living in a church courtyard, we have no relatives here,” said Elmira
Nersisian, a 74-year-old woman from Stepanakert who fled to Armenia with her
disabled daughter. “We didn’t know what to do, who to apply to.”
“If they give us this [financial] aid, we will get by until I find a job,” she
said, adding that government officials have pledged to provide them with
temporary housing.
The government has also pledged to provide every refugee renting an apartment or
house up to 50,000 drams per month for at least six months. The money can only
be spent on housing rent and utility fees.
Russia Reaffirms Plans For Consulate In Key Armenian Region
Armenian - Russian border guards stationed in Syunik province are inspected by
Russian Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin, May 24, 2022.
Amid the increasingly uncertain future of Russian-Armenian relations, Russia has
reaffirmed plans to open a consulate in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province
bordering Iran and Azerbaijan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry first announced those plans in late May, saying
that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed and welcomed them during talks
with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A delegation of ministry officials
visited Syunik’s capital for that purpose in June.
The Russian Embassy in Yerevan reported on Friday that another “advance team” of
Russian diplomats visited Syunik and met with the mayor of another provincial
town, Meghri, on Thursday. It said they discussed “prospects for the quick
opening” of the consulate.
The Russian mission in Kapan “will contribute to the strengthening of
Russian-Armenian relations and the stabilization of the situation in the
region,” the embassy added in a statement. It will provide consular services to
about a thousand Russian nationals currently based in Syunik.
The bulk of them are soldiers and border guards who were deployed by Moscow
during and after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The deployment was aimed at
helping the Armenian military defend the strategic region against possible
Azerbaijani attacks.
Syunik is Armenia’s sole region bordering Iran. Azerbaijani leaders have been
demanding that Yerevan open a special corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its
Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik. The Armenian side says it can only agree to
conventional transport links between the two states.
Iran, which opened a consulate in Kapan a year ago, is also strongly opposed to
an extraterritorial corridor for Nakhichevan. It has repeatedly warned Baku
against attempting to strip the Islamic Republic of the common border and
transport links with Armenia.
While voicing support for Armenian sovereignty over any road or railway link
passing through Syunik, Russia has stopped short publicly issuing similar
warnings to Azerbaijan. Its relationship with Armenia has steadily deteriorated
since 2020 due to what Pashinian’s government sees as a lack of Russian support
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The rift between the two longtime allies deepened further last month after
Moscow decried “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by Yerevan. Those include
Pashinian’s declaration that Armenia’s heavy reliance on Russia for defense and
security has proved a “strategic mistake.” The statement raised more questions
about the South Caucasus country’s continued membership in Russian-led blocs.
Russia Signals Peacekeepers’ Withdrawal From Karabakh
• Nane Sahakian
A view through a car window shows a board displaying a Russian state flag and an
image of President Vladimir Putin in Stepanakert after exodus of ethnic
Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, October 2, 2023.
Russia gave on Friday more indications that it will withdraw its peacekeeping
forces from Nagorno-Karabakh following the Azerbaijani takeover of the territory
and the mass exodus of its ethnic Armenian population.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday night that the peacekeepers have
dismantled most of their observation posts along the Karabakh “line of contact”
that existed until Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive.
Citing an unnamed diplomatic source, the official TASS news agency reported the
following morning that a Russian military delegation will visit Yerevan later on
Friday to discuss with Armenian officials time frames for the Russian withdrawal
from Karabakh.
The spokesman for Armenia’s Defense Ministry, Aram Torosian, said, however, that
he has “no information” about the visit. No Russian-Armenian talks on the issue
have been scheduled so far, he said.
Russia deployed the 2,000-strong peacekeeping contingent to Karabakh in line
with a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020
Armenian-Azerbaijani war. The Russian troops were due to stay there at least
until November 2025.
A truck carrying ethnic Armenians fleeing Karabakh drives past a Russian armored
vehicle in the Lachin corridor, September 26, 2023.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, indicated earlier
this week that Moscow has no plans to pull them out of the region soon but will
discuss the matter with Baku. Konstantin Zatulin, a pro-Armenian Russian
lawmaker, pointed out, meanwhile, that the Russian peacekeepers “have nobody to
protect anymore” because Karabakh’s practically entire population has fled to
Armenia. Zatulin said the exodus, accompanied by the restoration of Azerbaijani
control over Karabakh, is a “blow to Russia’s positions in the region.”
The Karabakh Armenians regarded the Russian military presence as their main
security guarantee and expected the peacekeepers to defend their homeland in
case of a large-scale Azerbaijani attack. However, Russian officials ruled out
such intervention hours after the Azerbaijani army launched the offensive on
September 19.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday that the peacekeepers could
not have thwarted the assault because Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
downgraded their mandate with his decision to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty
over Karabakh. Putin acknowledged that there are virtually no Armenians left in
Karabakh.
EU Parliament Calls For Sanctions Against Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh - A satellite image shows empty streets of the city of
Stepanakert, September 29, 2023.
The European Parliament has strongly condemned Azerbaijan’s military offensive
in Nagorno-Karabakh, accused Baku of committing “ethnic cleaning” against the
region’s Armenian population and called on the European Union to impose
sanctions on Azerbaijani leaders.
In a non-binding resolution overwhelmingly passed late on Thursday, it also
reiterated its earlier demands for the “withdrawal of Azerbaijan’s troops from
the entirety of the sovereign territory of Armenia.”
The resolution says that the EU’s legislative body “condemns in the strongest
terms the pre-planned and unjustified military attack by Azerbaijan against the
Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.” The September 19-20 offensive, which paved the
way for the restoration of Azerbaijani control over the region, represents a
“gross violation of international law,” it says.
The ensuing mass exodus of Karabakh Armenians to Armenia “amounts to ethnic
cleansing,” added the European Parliament. It went on to urge the EU’s executive
bodies and member states to “adopt targeted sanctions against the individuals in
the Azerbaijani Government responsible for multiple ceasefire violations and
violations of human rights in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The sanctions require the unanimous support of all 27 member states. None of
them -- including France, the main EU backer of Armenia -- has backed the idea
so far. French President Emmanuel Macron said later on Thursday that punitive
measures against Baku would be counterproductive at this point.
EU leaders also resisted calls to sanction Azerbaijan during its nine-month
blockade of the Lachin corridor that preceded the offensive in Karabakh.
Analysts linked their stance to a 2022 agreement to significantly increase the
EU’s import of Azerbaijani natural gas. The head of the European Commission,
Ursula von der Leyen, described Azerbaijan as a “key partner in our efforts to
move away from Russian fossil fuels” when she signed the deal in Baku.
The European Parliament resolution “regrets” von der Leyen’s statement. It says
that the EU must suspend oil and gas imports from Azerbaijan “in the event of
military aggression against Armenian territorial integrity or significant hybrid
attacks against Armenia’s constitutional order and democratic institutions.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.