Thursday,
Iran Again Warns Against ‘Outside Powers’ In South Caucasus
Iran - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi meets Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher
Grigorian, Tehran, .
In what appeared to be a fresh warning to Armenia, Iranian President Ebrahim
Raisi told a visiting senior Armenian official on Thursday that Tehran remains
strongly opposed to the geopolitical presence of outside powers in the South
Caucasus.
Raisi’s office singled out the issue in its readout of his meeting with Deputy
Prime Minister Mher Grigorian reported by Iranian news agencies. The
intervention of “outsiders” in regional disputes could only exacerbate, rather
than resolve, them, he said in a clear reference to the United States and the
European Union.
Raisi made the same point in a December phone call with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian. In recent years, Pashinian’s government has increasingly pinned its
hopes on U.S. and EU efforts to broker an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
Russia is very critical of those efforts, saying that they are primarily aimed
at driving Moscow out of the region and could only spell more trouble for the
Armenians.
“The future of the South Caucasus should be decided by the countries for which
this region is a common home. Neither the United States, nor France, nor the
European Union are among such countries,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Mikhail Galuzin told the Moscow daily Izvestia in an interview published on
Thursday.
“Therefore, we believe that the involvement of extra-regional forces,
representatives of the West in this region, something towards which official
Yerevan is unfortunately inclined, is not useful,” said Galuzin.
Amid Armenia’s unprecedented rift with Russia, Pashinian’s government has
pledged to “diversify” the South Caucasus country’s foreign and security policy
through closer links with the Western powers. Last September, it hosted a
U.S.-Armenian military exercise criticized by both Moscow and Tehran.
Despite his clear warning to Yerevan, Raisi on Thursday described Iran’s current
relationship with Armenia as “friendly” and “constructive.” He called for the
“full implementation” of economic agreements reached by the two neighboring
states.
An Armenian delegation headed Grigorian visited Tehran for a regular session of
an Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation.
Iran backs Armenia in its rejection of Azerbaijani demands for an
extraterritorial corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan
exclave through Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering the Islamic Republic.
According to an Armenian government statement, during his meeting with Raisi,
Grigorian praised Tehran’s stance on “the inviolability of Armenia’s territorial
integrity and sovereignty.”
Pashinian Warns Of ‘Large-Scale’ Azeri Attack On Armenia
Russia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijan's President
Ilham Aliyev listen to a guide during a visit to the Catherine Palace on the
sidelines of the CIS summit in St. Petersburg, December 26, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday rejected Azerbaijan’s continuing
demands for legislative changes in Armenia and said that Baku may be planning
“large-scale” military aggression against his country.
Pashinian complained that despite his readiness for compromise, the Azerbaijani
leadership is pursuing a “policy of military coercion” in an effort to clinch
more Armenian territory and other concessions from Yerevan. He said that it is
reluctant to delimit the long border between the two states where four Armenian
soldiers were killed in an Azerbaijani ceasefire violation on Tuesday.
“Our analysis shows that there may be one reason for this and that reason may
be, for example, the launch of military operations at some sections of the
border with the prospect of turning the military escalation into a full-scale
war against Armenia,” he said during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
Pashinian went on to reject Azerbaijani statements regarding the Armenian
constitution and other legislative acts, saying that they constitute a violation
of Armenia’s sovereignty and interference in its internal affairs.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reiterated on Wednesday that he will not sign
a peace treaty discussed by the two sides “if Armenia does not bring its
legislation to a normal state.” He said that legislation contains territorial
claims to Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is sworn in for a new term in
office, .
Aliyev said on February 1 that Armenia should remove from its constitution a
reference to its 1990 declaration of independence which in turn mentions a 1989
unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.
Pashinian countered on Thursday that during their peace talks and written
exchanges last year two sides agreed to make sure that they “cannot refer to
their respective laws to refuse to comply with any provisions of the peace
treaty.”
“Therefore, there are no legal provisions in Armenia that prevent the
implementation of the peace treaty,” he said.
Pashinian himself declared last month, before Aliyev’s statements on the issue,
that Armenia needs a new constitution reflecting the “new geopolitical
environment” in the region. His political foes and other critics say that he did
so under Azerbaijani pressure. They also maintain that Pashinian’s appeasement
policy will not stop Azerbaijan from demanding further Armenian concessions and
resorting to military action for that purpose.
Pashinian has denied that he wants to scrap the current Armenian constitution at
the behest of Baku. Still, he has said that peace with Azerbaijan will be
impossible as long as the constitutional reference to the 1990 declaration
remains in place.
Aliyev on Wednesday also indicated that he still has no intention to resume
peace talks with Armenia mediated by the European Union and the United States.
“We don’t need mediators to normalize relations with Yerevan,” he said after
being sworn in for a fifth term in office.
Karabakh Official Unconvinced By Russia’s Calls For Return Of Refugees
• Shoghik Galstian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Russian peacekeepers help ethnic Armenian civilians to take
shelter at their base near Stepanakert, September 21, 2023
Nagorno-Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman dismissed on Thursday Russia’s offers
to help Karabakh Armenians displaced by last September’s Azerbaijani military
offensive return to their homeland.
Gegham Stepanian insisted that they will not go back even if Moscow offers them
additional security guarantees.
“I believe that international guarantees are needed instead,” he told a news
conference in Yerevan. “The track record of the Russian peacekeeping contingent
deployed to Artsakh after 2020 shows that that guarantee is not enough to ensure
security in Artsakh.”
Armenia has denounced the Russian peacekeepers for their failure to prevent or
stop the September 19-20 assault that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh
and forced the region’s practically entire population to flee to Armenia.
President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have rejected the criticism.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday
that Moscow is now discussing with Baku the possibility of the safe return of
the more than 100,000 Karabakh refugees. Earlier this week, Russia’s Deputy
Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin similarly called for “creating conditions” for
their repatriation.
Armenia - Gegham Stepanian, Karabakh's human rights ombusdman, at a news
conference in Yerevan, .
Galuzin also claimed that the Karabakh Armenians left their homeland willingly.
Stepanian condemned the claim.
“The Russian peacekeeping contingent should have been the first to certify that
people left under real threat of physical annihilation,” said the ombudsman
exiled in Armenia along with other Karabakh leaders.
Moscow is not known to have contacted any of those leaders so far to discuss the
repatriation issue. It did not prevent Azerbaijani security services from
arresting eight former political and military leaders of Karabakh during the
mass exodus.
The 2,000 or so Russian peacekeepers remain stationed in Karabakh despite the
fact that only a few dozen ethnic Armenians are reportedly left there. A senior
Russian diplomat said in October that their mission “will also be necessary in
the future.”
Fired Armenian Minister Indicted
• Robert Zargarian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian speaks in the Armenian parliament,
December 6, 2023.
One day after being relieved of his duties, former Economy Minister Vahan
Kerobian was indicted and detained on Thursday in an ongoing corruption
investigation criticized by him.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee implicated him in the alleged rigging of a
procurement tender which was organized by the Ministry of Economy and
invalidated by a court last June.
Kerobian entered the committee headquarters in Yerevan early in the afternoon
and remained there as of 9 p.m. local time. His lawyer, Tigran Yegorian, said
later in the evening that the law-enforcement agency has asked a court to remand
his client in pre-trial custody on charges of abuse of power. Kerobian denies
the accusations, Yegorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
A U.S.-registered software company, Synergy International Systems, initially won
the tender despite submitting a much higher bid, worth 392 million drams (about
$1 million), than the other bidder, Harmonia. In a statement issued on Thursday
evening, the Investigative Committee said a group of ministry officials colluded
with senior Synergy executives to illegally disqualify Harmonia and ensure
Synergy’s victory “at any cost.”
The statement said that the unnamed officials planned on granting the
procurement contract to Synergy even after the Ministry of Economy reluctantly
declared Harmonia the winner of the tender in August. It did not accuse them of
bribery or give any reasons for the preferential treatment allegedly enjoyed by
Synergy.
The committee spokesman, Gor Abrahamian, confirmed that Kerobian is among five
ministry officials indicted in the case. But he did not elaborate on the charges
brought against the ex-minister.
The investigators rounded up the four other officials, including Kerobian’s
deputy Ani Ispirian, on January 31. They all were set free or moved to house
arrest in the following days.
Also arrested two weeks ago were Synergy’s founder Ashot Hovanesian and two
current and former employees. The latter were set free on Monday. Hovanesian’s
lawyers on Tuesday condemned his continuing detention as “illegal and
discriminatory.”
Another ministry official was arrested in a separate corruption inquiry jointly
conducted by the Investigative Committee and the National Security Service. It
stems from the alleged misuse of government aid meant for private entrepreneurs
setting up intensive fruit orchards.
Kerobian repeatedly criticized both criminal cases before losing his job,
arguing that the investigators did not charge his subordinates with bribery or
embezzlement of public funds. He complained last week that the inquiries have
“paralyzed the work of the entire state system” as many government officials are
now not sure that “their honest work will not be punished in the end.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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