Thursday, April 7, 2022
Armenia Sends Ambassador Back To Israel
April 07, 2022
Israel - Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) meets with new Armenian
Ambassador Arman Hakobian, April 7, 2022.
Armenia has sent its ambassador back to Israel in an apparent effort to mend
bilateral relations that soured during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ambassador Arman Hakobian handed his credentials to Israeli President Isaac
Herzog on Thursday 18 months after his predecessor, Armen Smbatian, was recalled
by the Armenian government in protest against continuing Israeli arms supplies
to Azerbaijan.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said at the time that the Jewish state did not
halt those deliveries even after Azerbaijan launched a full-scale offensive in
and around Karabakh on September 27, 2020.
Smbatian was recalled to Yerevan in October 1, 2020 just two weeks after
inaugurating the Armenian Embassy in Tel Aviv. The envoy was subsequently sacked
by the Armenian government after being indicted in a corruption investigation.
Hakobian was appointed as Armenia’s new ambassador to Israel in December 2021
one month after a phone call between Foreign Minister Mirzoyan and his Israeli
counterpart Yair Lapid. The two ministers discussed Armenian-Israeli relations
and “prospects for their promotion,” according to the Foreign Ministry in
Yerevan.
Reports from Israel said that during the Armenian-Azerbaijani war Azerbaijani
transport planes frequently carried out flights between Baku and Israeli
airfields. Observers suggested that they delivered more weapons to Azerbaijan.
According to the Armenian military, Azerbaijani forces heavily used Israeli-made
attack drones and multiple-launch rocket systems throughout the six-week
hostilities stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November 2020.
In an October 2020 report, Human Rights Watch said that the Azerbaijani army
used Israeli cluster munitions in the shelling of Karabakh’s civilian areas. The
U.S. watchdog said its researchers identified the remnants of these widely
banned weapons in the Karabakh capital Stepanakert and the town of Hadrut.
“Azerbaijan received these surface-to-surface rockets and launchers from Israel
in 2008–2009,” added the report.
Yerevan, Baku Still Disagree On Transport Links
April 07, 2022
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A disused railway leading to Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to disagree on practical modalities of restoring
their transport links, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday.
The issue was on the agenda of his latest talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev that was hosted by European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels
on Wednesday.
“One of the topics of discussion was the issue of opening regional communication
lines, on which we recorded some differences and agreed to continue working to
find solutions,” Pashinian told his minister during a weekly cabinet meeting in
Yerevan. He did not go into details.
Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to restore Armenian-Azerbaijani rail links during
their previous trilateral meeting with Michel held in December. But they failed
to patch up their differences on the status of a highway that would also connect
Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province.
Aliyev said at the time that people and cargo passing through that “Zangezur
corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Pashinian rejected the
demand.
“President Michel welcomed the steps towards the restoration of railway lines,
while encouraging Armenia and Azerbaijan to also find effective solutions for
the restoration of road links,” the European Union said in a statement on the
latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit.
“The EU is ready to support the development of connectivity links, including in
line with its Economic and Investment Plan and by utilizing the proposed
economic advisory forum to identify common projects,” added the statement. It
did not elaborate on that forum.
The Armenian government set up in January a task force coordinating construction
of the 45-kilometer railway that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest of
Azerbaijan.
The government said afterwards that it needs to sign a legally binding agreement
with Baku before it can start building the railway estimated to cost about $200
million. Pashinian explained that Yerevan is seeking formal guarantees that it
will be able to use Azerbaijani territory for cargo shipments to Russia and Iran.
Armenian Opposition Alarmed By Pashinian’s Agreements With Aliyev
April 07, 2022
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances hold a rally in
Liberty Square, Yerevan, April 5, 2022.
Representatives of the opposition minority in Armenia’s parliament expressed
concern on Thursday over the outcome of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s latest
talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, saying that it may herald
far-reaching Armenian concessions to Baku.
Meeting in Brussels late on Wednesday, Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to start
preparing for an Armenian-Azerbaijani “peace treaty” and to set up a bilateral
commission tasked with demarcating the border between their countries.
European Council President Charles Michel described the four-hour talks hosted
by him as “productive,” saying that they yielded “concrete and tangible results.”
Lawmakers representing Armenia’s two main opposition alliances pointed out that
Michel made no mention of Nagorno-Karabakh, let alone an agreement on its status
or the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination. They portrayed this as a
further sign that Pashinian is ready to help Azerbaijan regain control over the
disputed territory.
“Why are these authorities carrying on with that behavior? For the sake of
what?” said Aram Vartevanian of the Hayastan alliance.
Vartevanian stood by opposition allegations that Pashinian is preparing the
ground for further concessions to Baku by scaring Armenians with the prospect of
another war with Azerbaijan.
“War is not the only alternative to this disgraceful situation,” he said. “Just
because there is a possibility of war doesn’t mean that you must act meekly and
cowardly. That’s not how things work.”
Hayastan and the other opposition bloc, Pativ Unem, rallied thousands of
supporters in Yerevan on Tuesday to warn Pashinian against recognizing
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
Belgium - Charles Michel, Nikol Pashinian and Ilham Aliyev begin a trilateral
meeting in Brussels, April 6, 2022.
Pashinian confirmed on Thursday that he and Aliyev agreed to instruct their
foreign ministers to prepare for official negotiations on the peace treaty. He
reiterated that Baku’s proposals on the treaty, including mutual recognition of
each other’s territorial integrity, are acceptable to Yerevan but must be
complemented with other “issues of the peace agenda,” including Karabakh’s
future status and “security guarantees for the people of Karabakh.”
“These issues are included in our responses regarding the peace agenda and must
become a subject of negotiations,” he said during a weekly cabinet meeting in
Yerevan.
Pashinian also said the OSCE Minsk Group co-headed by the United States, Russia
and France should continue to mediate Armenian-Azerbaijani talks. “We need to
continue working in that direction,” he said.
Michel did not mention the Minsk Group either in his comments on the Brussels
talks and planned negotiations on the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal.
Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry described the Armenian-Azerbaijani
summit as an “important step for regional security.” It said Aliyev’s
understandings with Pashinian fully correspond to Azerbaijan’s interests.
Armenia, Azerbaijan Make Progress Towards Peace Deal
April 07, 2022
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel, Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev begin a trilateral
meeting in Brussels, April 6, 2022.
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to start drafting a bilateral
“peace treaty” and set up a joint commission on demarcating the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border during fresh talks in Brussels hosted by European
Council President Charles Michel.
“We have decided all together to launch a concrete process, to prepare a
possible peace treaty and to address all necessary elements for such a treaty,”
Michel told reporters on Wednesday night after his trilateral meeting with
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
that lasted for more than four hours.
“I am confident that tonight we took an important step in the right direction,”
he said. “It doesn’t mean everything is solved. But it means that we made
progress.”
In a written statement issued shortly afterwards, Michel said Aliyev and
Pashinian pledged to “move rapidly” towards the comprehensive treaty meant to
resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They will instruct their foreign
ministers to “work on the preparation” of such a deal, added the head of the
European Union’s main decision-making body.
The Armenian government’s press office confirmed these instructions in a
statement on the late-night talks.
Baku wants the peace deal to be based on five elements, including a mutual
recognition of each other’s territorial integrity. Pashinian has publicly stated
that they are acceptable to Yerevan in principle, fuelling Armenian opposition
claims that he is ready to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said last week that Yerevan will also raise the
issue of Karabakh’s status with the Azerbaijani side. The Armenian government
statement on the Brussels talks made no mention of the issue.
Michel said after the talks that the two sides now have a better understanding
of possible parameters of the deal. But he did not elaborate.
The top EU official also announced that Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to “convene
a Joint Border Commission by the end of April.” “The mandate of the Joint Border
Commission will be to delimit the bilateral border between Armenia and
Azerbaijan and ensure a stable security situation along and in the vicinity of
the borderline,” he said.
The Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders already agreed to set up such a commission
during their November 2021 talks in Sochi hosted by Russian President Vladimir
Putin. It was expected that Russian officials will actively participate in the
commission’s work.
It was not immediately clear whether Yerevan and Baku decided to exclude any
Russian involvement in the border demarcation.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
