RFE/RL Armenian Report – 05/12/2021

                                Wednesday, 

Tensions Rise At Armenian-Azerbaijani Border Section (UPDATED)

        • Susan Badalian

Armenia -- Armenian army officers at a new border post in Syunik province 
bordering Azerbaijan, December 11, 2020.

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of resorting to border “provocations” after 
Azerbaijani troops reportedly crossed into its southeastern Syunik province 
early on Wednesday.

The incident occurred in a mountainous area about 10 kilometers north of the 
provincial town of Goris. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and local government 
officials said Azerbaijani troops crossed a nearby section of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border and advanced more than three kilometers towards the 
village of Verishen.

Pashinian held an emergency session of his Security Council late in the evening 
to discuss what he described as a security crisis.

“These [Azerbaijani] actions are intolerable for Armenia because this is an 
attack on Armenia’s sovereign territory,” Pashinian told members of the council 
in his opening remarks.

“They are trying to justify their actions with some maps which our first 
observations showed are false and fabricated,” he said.

“Armenia cannot put up with the existing situation … Our primary objective is to 
solve this problem through negotiations and by diplomatic means. But this is one 
of the options,” added Pashinian.

The Verishen mayor, Ararat Ordian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that 
Azerbaijani troops advanced to within six kilometers of the village. He said the 
Armenian military responded by sending reinforcements to the area.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said more vaguely that early in the morning 
Azerbaijani forces “tried to carry out some works at one of the border sections 
of Syunik under the pretext of ‘border clarification.’”

“After measures taken by Armenian army units the Azerbaijani forces stopped 
those works,” it said in a statement issued early in the afternoon. “Right now 
negotiations are being held for resolving the situation.”

The ministry denied rumors about fighting triggered by the Azerbaijani troop 
movements. Pashinian likewise stressed that no gunshots were fired at the border 
section.

Some officials in Syunik said afterwards that Russian troops stationed in 
Armenia are also taking part in those negotiations while building up forces in 
the area to get the Azerbaijani side to pull back. The Russian military did not 
confirm that.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow reported later in the day that Russian Defense 
Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke with his Armenian counterpart Vagharshak 
Harutiunian by phone. A short ministry statement said they discussed the 
situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and “other topics of mutual 
interest.”

Meanwhile, Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian had a phone call with Russia’s 
Sergei Lavrov. According to his press office, Ayvazian briefed Lavrov on “the 
latest incident on Armenia’s state border” and stressed “the inadmissibility of 
such provocations by the Azerbaijani side.”

Lavrov met with Azerbaijan’s leaders in Baku earlier this week. He visited 
Yerevan last week.

A member of Goris’s municipal council, Narek Ordian, said late in the afternoon 
that the border standoff has not yet been resolved. “The negotiations are 
continuing,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “They [Azerbaijani forces] are 
still there.”

Syunik borders districts southwest of Nagorno-Karabakh which were retaken by 
Azerbaijan during and after last year’s war. Russia deployed soldiers and border 
guards there to help the Armenian military defend the region against possible 
Azerbaijani attacks.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said last month that Moscow and Yerevan are 
holding “quite productive discussions” on a possible deployment of more Russian 
troops to Syunik.



Yerevan Officials Prosecuted For Assault


Armenia -- The entrance to the Investigative Committee headquarters in Yerevan.

The deputy head of Yerevan’s central administrative district has been arrested 
and charged with beating up one of his subordinates.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee confirmed on Wednesday media reports that that 
the official, Armen Azizian, and a dozen other local government employees 
assaulted Manvel Margarian, the head of the Kentron district’s urban development 
division, in his office on Tuesday.

A statement released by the law-enforcement agency said the violence broke out 
as a result of “differences over work-related issues.” It said Azizian and other 
men hit Margarian “in various parts of his body.” One of them, Arman Davoyan, 
struck the latter in the head with a computer keyboard, added the statement.

The Investigative Committee charged Azizian and Davoyan with abuse of power and 
hooliganism respectively. Both men were arrested on Tuesday. It was not clear if 
the investigators will ask a court to remand them in pre-trial custody.

Margarian was reportedly taken to hospital after the incident. He told the 
“Haykakan Zhamanak” daily that he was attacked by about 15 men led by Azizian 
and Davoyan after refusing to resign.

Kentron’s chief executive, Avet Poghosian, is currently on vacation. He has 
declined to comment on the extraordinary incident.

Yerevan’s Mayor Hayk Marutian, who appoints all district heads, has also not 
reacted to it so far. Marutian is a senior member of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.



Georgian PM Visits Armenia


Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) and his Georgian 
counterpart Irakli Gharibashvili meet in Yerevan, .

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his visiting Georgian counterpart Irakli 
Gharibashvili met in Yerevan on Wednesday for talks that focused on regional 
security and Georgian-Armenian commercial ties.

It was the first Georgian-Armenian summit held after last year’s war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Gharibashvili, who visited Baku last week, said the war as well as the 
coronavirus pandemic left the region facing “significant difficulties.”

“I think that there is no alternative to peace negotiations and dialogue,” he 
said after the talks with Pashinian. “Georgia has always stood for cooperation 
and peaceful co-existence in the South Caucasus and will stick to this course.”

Pashinian reaffirmed, for his part, Armenia’s support for a resolution of the 
Karabakh conflict based on peace proposals made by the U.S., Russian and French 
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Speaking at a joint news briefing, Pashinian said he and Gharibashvili agreed to 
“put greater emphasis on the development of trade and economic ties” between 
their countries.

“In particular, we stressed the importance of more effectively using regional 
transport routes and developing the region’s transport potential,” he said.

Gharibashvili also stressed the need to expand bilateral trade and “discuss new 
projects.”

An Armenian government statement on the talks said the Armenian and Georgian 
governments support the “development of transport links, including railway 
infrastructures.”

“The parties expressed an interest in initiating new joint projects and agreed 
to work intensively in this direction,” read the statement.

It added that both sides are specifically interested in the creation of a new 
“transport corridor” that would connect not only Armenia and Georgia but also 
Iran, Bulgaria and Greece.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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