Thursday, November 9, 2023
Moscow, Yerevan Trade More Barbs
Russia - Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova gestures while
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's annual news conference in Moscow,
January 18, 2023.
Armenia insisted on Thursday that it never agreed to Russian “control” of
potential transport links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave passing
through Armenian territory, rejecting Moscow’s latest claims to the contrary.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, provoked a fresh
bitter exchange between the two increasingly estranged allies when she seemingly
blamed Yerevan for the fact that Russian-brokered agreements to open the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border to travel and commerce have still not been
implemented.
Zakharova said that a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force came close to
working out all practical modalities of the transport links during over a dozen
meetings held in Moscow. The process was not completed because “somebody simply
lacks the political will to do this,” she told a news briefing.
Zakharova also commented on the recent creation of a special unit of Armenia’s
National Security Service (NSS) tasked with ensuring the safe transit of people,
goods and other cargo through the country. Citing the ceasefire agreement that
stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, she said that it is Russian border
guards that should exercise “control over transport communications” between
Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan.
Responding to Zakharova, the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Ani
Badalian, said: “Armenia has never, in any document, agreed to any limitation of
its sovereignty, and control of a third country cannot be established over any
part of its sovereign territory,”
Article 9 of the truce agreement stipulates that the Russian border guards
stationed in Armenia will “control” the movement of people, vehicles and goods
to and from Nakhichevan. Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian said
earlier this year that this only allows them to “monitor” the commercial
traffic, rather than escort it, let alone be involved in border controls.
The Azerbaijani government is understood to have demanded that the special
transport link for Nakhichevan be exempt from Armenian border controls. Yerevan
has repeatedly ruled out that.
The main goal of the agreement cited by Zakharova was to stop fighting in
Karabakh and prevent new hostilities. It called for the deployment of Russian
peacekeepers in Karabakh and gave them control over the Lachin corridor
connecting the region to Karabakh.
The peacekeepers did not push back when Baku disrupted commercial and
humanitarian traffic through the corridor last December and set up a checkpoint
there in April in breach of the agreement. Nor did they intervene when the
Azerbaijani army went on the offensive in Karabakh on September 19, forcing its
practically entire population to flee to Armenia. Unlike the European Union and
the United States, Russia did not denounce the offensive.
Iran Reaffirms Support For Alternative Transport Link For Azeri Exclave
Uzbekistan - Iranian Presiednt Ebrahim Raisi meets his Azerbaijani counterpart
Ilham Aliyev, Tashkent, November 9, 2023.
Iran on Thursday pledged to complete “as soon as possible” the construction of a
new road that will connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through the
Islamic Republic and bypass Armenia.
Azerbaijani and Iranian officials broke ground on the road during a ceremony
held on October 7. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said
afterwards that Baku and Tehran have also agreed to build a similar rail link
bypassing Syunik, the sole Armenian province bordering Iran.
Tehran has repeatedly warned against attempts to strip Iran of the common border
and transport links with Armenia, responding to Azerbaijani demands for a
presumably extraterritorial “corridor” for Nakhichevan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has implicitly threatened to open the
corridor by force. Azerbaijani September 19-20 military offensive in Karabakh
raised more fears in Yerevan that Baku will act on those threats.
Earlier in October, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reportedly told a visiting
Azerbaijani official the “Zangezur corridor” sought by Baku is “resolutely
opposed by Iran.” Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide, Hikmet Hajiyev, said later
in October that the corridor “has lost its attractiveness for us” and that Baku
is now planning to “do this with Iran instead.”
Raisi and Aliyev discussed the issue on Thursday when they met in Uzbekistan’s
capital Tashkent on the sidelines of an Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO)
summit.
“While expressing his satisfaction with the agreement between the two countries
to solve problems of the region, Dr. Raisi emphasized the determination of the
Islamic Republic of Iran to complete the Aghband Route as soon as possible to
connect the Republic of Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan,” the Iranian president’s
office said in a statement on the talks.
Raisi also said that Baku and Tehran are expanding bilateral ties now that
“conspiracies by the ill-wishers of the two countries have failed.”
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued to publicly press
Armenia to open the special corridor. In a speech at the ECO summit, Erdogan
stressed the need for Armenia to honor its “obligations to Azerbaijan.”
“It is very important to open in the near future transport routes that will
connect Azerbaijan’s western regions to Nakhichevan,” he said.
Erdogan said last week that the corridor rejected by Armenia is important also
because it would link Turkey to Central Asia.
Erdogan too met with Raisi in Tashkent. The official Iranian and Turkish
readouts of the meeting made no mention of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Pashinian May Skip CSTO Summit
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends an expanded meeting of
representatives of the CSTO, including foreign ministers, defence ministers and
security councils' secretaries, in Yerevan, November 23, 2022.
The Armenian government signaled on Thursday that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
may skip an upcoming summit of the leaders of Russia and other ex-Soviet states
making up the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian said that Pashinian has not yet decided
whether to attend the summit that will place in Minsk on November 23. “When the
decision is made the public will be informed about it,” he told the press
“In theory, Armenia may and may not participate in it,” Kostanian said when
asked about the possibility of a summit boycott.
Pashinian declined to attend a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS), a wider and looser grouping of ex-Soviet states, in Kyrgyzstan on October
13. The secretary of his Security Council, Armen Grigorian, on Wednesday
similarly shunned a meeting of his CIS counterparts in Moscow and met with a
visiting U.S. diplomat instead.
Earlier this year, Armenia also refused to participate in CSTO military
exercises and boycotted a meeting of the defense ministers of the Russian-led
alliance.
Armenia’s relationship with the CSTO and its key member, Russia, has steadily
deteriorated in the last few years, with Yerevan increasingly complaining about
a lack of support from its allies in the conflict with Azerbaijan. The tensions
between Yerevan and Moscow rose further after Azerbaijan’s September 19-20
military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russian Foreign Ministry last week
accused Pashinian’s administration of systematically “destroying”
Russian-Armenian relations.
Despite the deepening rift, Pashinian has so far announced no plans to pull his
country out of the CSTO or demand the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Major Hurdles Remain To Armenian-Azeri Peace Deal
• Astghik Bedevian
ARMENIA -- A view from Gegharkunik province of Azerbaijani and Armenian army
posts on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, June 18, 2021
Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to disagree on several key issues hampering the
signing of a peace treaty between them, a senior Armenian official indicated on
Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian said they include the mechanism for
delimiting the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and practical modalities of opening
it for travel and cargo shipments.
“We believe that the delimitation of the border between the two countries must
be the cornerstone of a possible document on the normalization of relations,” he
told journalists.
Yerevan insists on using 1975 Soviet military maps as a basis for the
delimitation process. European Union head Charles Michel, French President
Emmanuel and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz effectively backed this stance in a
joint a statement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian issued after their October
5 meeting in Granada, Spain.
Azerbaijan made clear afterwards that it continues to reject the idea and wants
the Armenian side to unilaterally withdraw from “eight Azerbaijani villages”
occupied in the early 1990s.
Armenian officials and observers believe that Baku is reluctant to sign a peace
deal that would require it to cede Armenian territory seized three decades ago
and after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, and preclude Azerbaijani territorial
claims to Armenia. Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in Karabakh
raised more fears in Yerevan that it may also invade Armenia to open a land
corridor to the Nakhichevan exclave.
The Granada statement voiced the European leaders’ “unwavering support” for
Armenia’s territorial integrity and called for “regional connectivity links
based on full respect of countries’ sovereignty and jurisdiction, as well as on
the principles of equality and reciprocity.”
In Kostanian’s words, the Armenian government believes that these principles
should also be incorporated into the peace treaty along with a “clear mechanism
for the settlement of disputes.”
“These are the issues on which the two sides still need to bring their
positioners closer to each other,” said the official.
Pashinian hoped to meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at Granada and sign a
document laying out the main parameters of the peace treaty. However, Aliyev
withdrew from the talks at the last minute. He also appears to have cancelled
another meeting which Michel planned to host in Brussels later in October.
Kostanian said that there is no agreement yet on the date and venue of the next
Aliyev-Pashinian meeting.
“The mediators are working on organizing a new meeting,” he added, pointing to
U.S. special envoy Louis Bono’s talks with Armenian leaders held on Wednesday.
Some members of Pashinian’s political team have said that the peace deal may
still be signed before the end of this year.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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