Friday,
Armenia, Azerbaijan Urged To Finalize Peace Deal In 2023
Belgium - European Union flags flutter outside the European Commission
headquarters in Brussels, June 5, 2020.
The European Union urged Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday to finalize a
bilateral peace agreement before the end of this year.
The EU’s decision-making Council discussed the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict,
among other issues, at a two-day meeting held in Brussels.
“The European Council underlines the importance of ensuring the rights and
security of the Karabakh Armenians, including those who wish to return to their
homes,” it said in a concluding statement. “It supports the Brussels
normalization process and calls on the Parties to engage in good faith and to
finalize this process by the end of this year.”
Council President Charles Michel said the 27-nation bloc is “determined” to
continue its efforts to broker such a deal.
“We had a strategic exchange on this subject, it was important to be well
coordinated,” Michel told a news conference in Brussels.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
had been expected to sign a document laying out the key parameters of a peace
treaty at a meeting with Michel and the leaders of Germany and France slated for
October 5. However, Aliyev withdrew from the talks at the last minute, citing
pro-Armenian statements made by French officials. Michel said afterwards that
the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders will likely hold a trilateral meeting with
him in Brussels later in October.
Armenian and EU officials confirmed on Thursday that the rescheduled meeting
will not take place in the coming days. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat
Mirzoyan said Aliyev “did not find the time” for it.
Yerevan maintains that the main hurdle to the signing of the peace treaty is
Baku’s reluctance to recognize Armenia’s existing borders. The two sides
continue to disagree on mechanisms for delimiting the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border.
Russia has been very critical of Western peace efforts, saying that their main
goal is to drive Moscow out of the South Caucasus. The Russian Foreign Ministry
on Thursday chided Yerevan for preferring the EU mediation and declining Russian
offers to host more Armenian-Azerbaijani talks.
Armenian Official Downplays Tensions With Moscow
• Aza Babayan
Armenia - Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian speaks to journalists in
Syunik, July 28, 2023.
Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian on Friday downplayed Armenia’s
unprecedented tensions with Russia and insisted that Yerevan is not radically
changing its traditional foreign policy.
“It’s a normal working process,” Kostanian told News.am. “The two partners have
questions to each other, and we are clarifying things through diplomats.”
He also reiterated Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s recent assurances that he
has no plans to change the “vector” of Armenian foreign policy.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal this week, Pashinian reiterated that his
government is now trying to “diversify” that policy because Russia and the
Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have not honored
their security commitments to Armenia. But he made clear that Yerevan is not
considering demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from the country even if
it sees no “advantages” in their presence.
An estimated 4,000 Russian soldiers backed up by MiG-29 fighter jets,
helicopters and long-range air-defense systems are currently stationed in the
South Caucasus state in accordance with bilateral treaties. One of those
treaties signed in 2010 extended their presence until 2044.
Citing senior Russian lawmakers, the Moscow daily Izvestia suggested on Friday
that Yerevan cannot shut down the Russian military base before that time at
will. The pro-Kremlin paper argued that another Russian-Armenian agreement,
signed in 1995, stipulates that time frames for a possible pre-term closure of
the base must be jointly agreed upon by the two sides.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Pashinian late last month of seeking to
ruin Russian-Armenian relations and reorient his country towards the West.
Earlier in September, it deplored “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by
Yerevan. Moscow reacted rather cautiously to the latest criticism voiced by
Pashinian.
Hungarian FM Makes Fence-Mending Visit To Armenia
Armenia - Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at a joint news conference
with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, Yerevan, .
Hungary’s foreign minister did not deny that his country blocked a collective
condemnation by the European Union member states of Azerbaijan’s recent military
offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh as he visited Armenia on Friday to complete the
normalization of bilateral ties.
Armenia’s former leadership froze diplomatic relations with Hungary in 2012
after Hungarian authorities controversially extradited to Azerbaijan an
Azerbaijani army officer who hacked to death a sleeping Armenian colleague in
Budapest in 2004. The officer, Ramil Safarov, whom a Hungarian court sentenced
to life imprisonment in 2006, was pardoned, rewarded and promoted by Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev on his return to Azerbaijan.
The Hungarian government claimed to have received prior assurances by Baku that
Safarov would serve the rest of his life sentence in an Azerbaijani prison.
Yerevan dismissed that explanation.
The current Armenian government decided to restore the diplomatic ties last year
even though Hungary never apologized for Safarov’s release and continued to
support Azerbaijan in the Karabakh conflict. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan
and his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto reached an agreement to that
effect when they met in Poland in December 2022. Yerevan and Budapest appointed
non-resident ambassadors to each other’s country earlier this year.
Hungary -- Thousands of people protest against the government's decision to
extradite soldier Ramil Safarov, in Budapest, 04Sep2012
Visiting Yerevan, Szijjarto emphasized the “Christian heritage and Christian
faith” shared by the two nations.
“This is the easiest foundation based on which we can rebuild this
relationship,” he told Mirzoyan at the start of their talks. He also voiced
support for Armenia’s efforts to deepen ties with the EU.
Szijjarto’s visit came one month after the Azerbaijani offensive that restored
Baku’s full control over Karabakh and forced its entire ethnic Armenian
population to flee to Armenia.
“The EU condemns the military operation by Azerbaijan against the Armenian
population of Nagorno-Karabakh and deplores the casualties and loss of life
caused by this escalation,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a
September 21 statement.
Rikard Jozwiak, RFE/RL’s Europe editor, reported that the statement was due to
be issued by the EU’s 27 member states but that Hungary blocked it. The
Azerbaijani news agency Trend likewise cited “sources in European diplomatic
circles” as saying that Budapest vetoed its adoption.
Szijjarto commented vaguely on the issue during a joint news conference with
Mirzoyan. He said only that Borrell is free to make statements on various issues
and that the Hungarian government does not think it necessary to “agree on what
he should say on behalf of everyone.”
In an October 5 resolution, the European Parliament accused Azerbaijan of
committing “ethnic cleansing” against the Karabakh Armenians and called on the
EU to impose sanctions on Azerbaijani leaders.
HUNGARY - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (r) and Azerbaijani Presdent
Ilham Aliyev at a joint press conference in Budapest, January 30, 2023.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has long maintained a warm rapport
with Aliyev, spoke out against such sanctions the following day. He said
Azerbaijan is a “strategically important country” which is helping Europe reduce
its dependence on Russian natural gas.
“Without Azerbaijan we cannot have energy independence,” Orban told reporters
during an EU summit in Spain. “It’s a great country, we need them.”
Unlike other EU member states, Hungary has openly supported Azerbaijan in the
Karabakh conflict. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed that support three
days after the outbreak of the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Karabakh.
Shortly after the six-week war, Orban’s government encouraged Hungarian firms to
participate in infrastructure projects planned by Baku in areas recaptured by
the Azerbaijani army. Szijjarto said at the time that Hungary’s state-run
development bank is ready to lend them $100 million for that purpose.
Mirzoyan did not mention Hungary’s pro-Azerbaijani stance when he spoke at the
news conference with Szijjarto. Instead, he thanked Budapest for providing over
$100,000 worth of humanitarian aid to Karabakh refugees. Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian similarly called for closer Armenian-Hungarian ties “in various areas”
when he met with the Hungarian minister later in the day.
Nobody Charged In Renewed Probe Of 1999 Parliament Killings
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- People lay flowers at a memorial to the victims of the October 1999
deadly attack on the Armenian parliament, Yerevan, October 27, 2019.
Four years after reopening a criminal investigation into the 1999 deadly attack
on the Armenian parliament, law-enforcement authorities have identified no new
suspects in the high-profile case.
Five gunmen who burst into the National Assembly and sprayed it with bullets on
October 27, 1999, killing its speaker Karen Demirchian, Prime Minister Vazgen
Sarkisian and six other officials. The gunmen led by an obscure former
journalist, Nairi Hunanian, accused the Armenian government of corruption and
misrule and demanded regime change.
They surrendered to police after overnight negotiations with then President
Robert Kocharian. They were subsequently tried and sentenced to life
imprisonment. Hunanian insisted during his and his henchmen’s marathon trial
that he himself had decided to seize the parliament without anybody's orders.
Nevertheless, some relatives and supporters of the assassinated officials still
suspect Kocharian and his successor President Serzh Sarkisian (no relation to
Vazgen), who was Armenia’s national security minister in October 1999, of
masterminding the killings to eliminate powerful rivals. Both men repeatedly
dismissed such suggestions during and after a serious political crisis caused by
the killings.
In 2004, investigators formally stopped looking for other individuals possibly
involved in the attack, citing a lack of evidence. Armenia’s Office of the
Prosecutor-General overturned that decision in 2019.
In a statement released on Friday, the office acknowledged that nobody has been
indicted in the renewed investigation. But it stressed that the probe is still
not over, saying that investigators are continuing to conduct forensic tests and
examine documents as well as audios and videos relating to the case.
They have also interrogated about a dozen individuals, added the statement timed
to coincide with the 24th anniversary of the shootings. It did not name them.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged to find and punish “organizers” of the
killings when he campaigned for the 2021 parliamentary elections. He pointed the
finger at Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, claiming that Armenian security
services had been aware that Hunanian and his men will carry out the attack. The
investigators have not publicly backed up Pashinian’s claim.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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