Thursday,
Karabakh Leaders Warn Pashinian
• Susan Badalian
• Artak Khulian
Nagorno-Karabakh - The main government buildings in Stepanakert, September 7,
2019.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership on Thursday criticized Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian and warned him against helping Azerbaijan regain control over the
Armenian-populated territory.
“Any attempt to incorporate Artsakh into Azerbaijan would lead to bloodshed and
the destruction of Artsakh,” said Davit Babayan, the Karabakh foreign minister.
“And after the destruction of Artsakh there would be no Republic of Armenia.”
Pashinian said on Thursday that the international community is pressing Armenia
to “lower a bit the bar on the question of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status” and
recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. He signaled Yerevan’s intention to
make such concessions to Baku, fuelling more opposition allegations that he has
agreed to Azerbaijani control over Karabakh.
Babayan said Pashinian’s remarks caused a “wave of discontent” in Karabakh. He
said he believes that they are also unacceptable to most residents of Armenia as
well as the worldwide Armenian Diaspora.
“We have no bars anymore, we have only red lines drawn by blood,” added the
Karabakh official. “Our red line is that we will not be part of Azerbaijan. This
is out of the question.”
Davit Babayan, the Karabakh foreign minister, is interviewed by RFE/RL in
Stepanakert, March 31, 2022.
Pashinian, he went on, is wrong to claim that “the whole international community
is against us.” “Even if the whole international community is against us … we
will still fight till the end,” said Babayan.
The Karabakh parliament debated the implications of Pashinian’s statement at an
emergency session held later on Thursday. In a resolution adopted by it
unanimously, it demanded that the Armenian authorities “abandon their current
disastrous position.”
“No government has a right to lower the negotiating bar for a status acceptable
to Artsakh and the internationally recognized right to self-determination under
the pretext of peace,” reads the resolution.
Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, discussed the matter with with local
politicians and civil society members during separate meetings held in
Stepanakert on Wednesday. He stressed that the Karabakh Armenians will not give
up their right to self-determination.
Meanwhile, Pashinian defended and reaffirmed his stance when he again addressed
the Armenian parliament on Thursday.
“What I’ve been saying is all about not surrendering Karabakh … If we follow a
difference path we will surrender Karabakh,” the Armenian prime minister told
lawmakers.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses the Armenian parliament, Aprl
13, 2022.
“I have the impression that there are people who dream about seeing the
population leave Karabakh as soon as possible,” he said. “No, what we are saying
is that the people of Karabakh must not leave Karabakh, the people of Karabakh
must live in Karabakh, the people of Karabakh must have rights, freedoms and a
status.”
Pashinian again declined to specify what that status should be.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly ruled out granting Karabakh
any status of autonomy, let alone recognizing its de facto secession from
Azerbaijan. Aliyev maintains that Baku put an end to the Karabakh conflict with
its victory in the 2020 war.
Pashinian and Aliyev met in Brussels on April 6 for talks on an
Armenian-Azerbaijani “peace treaty” hosted by Charles Michel, the European
Union’s top official. Aliyev said after the talks that “Armenia is renouncing
territorial claims” to his country.
Turkish FM Expects ‘More Courageous’ Steps From Yerevan
• Tatevik Sargsian
TURKEY - Turkey's Foreign Minister Mavlut Cavusoglu (R) shakes hands with
Armenia's Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum
(ADF) in Antalya, March 12, 2022.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu complained on Thursday that Armenia
remains reluctant to hold the next rounds of Turkish-Armenian negotiations on
normalizing bilateral relations in Yerevan or Ankara.
He said the Armenian side should become “more courageous” and stop insisting on
third countries being the venues of those talks.
“On one hand, you say that relations must be normalized and the
[Turkish-Armenian] border must be opened,” Cavusoglu told the Turkish NTV
channel. “On the other hand, you do not dare to meet in Turkey and Yerevan.”
“If you don’t agree to even meet in each other’s countries how are you going to
take steps on other issues?” he said, appealing to Yerevan.
Special envoys of the two neighboring states met in Moscow in January and in
Vienna in February for talks described by both sides as productive. In a related
development, Cavusoglu and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met last
month on the sidelines of an international security forum held in the Turkish
city of Antalya.
Cavusoglu said that the envoys’ next meeting will again be held in Vienna. But
he gave no date for it.
Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Cavusoglu has repeatedly
made clear that his government will coordinate the Turkish-Armenian
normalization talks with Baku.
The chief Turkish diplomat on Thursday stressed the importance of last week’s
meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev that took place in Brussels. He said he has discussed the
summit hosted by the European Union with Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun
Bayramov.
Pashinian said on Wednesday that the Turkish-Armenian dialogue enjoys strong
international support and that his government intends to continue it.
Moscow Rejects Armenian Criticism Of Russian Peacekeepers
Russia - Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova at a news
briefing in Moscow, January 20, 2022.
Responding to criticism by Armenia, Russia said on Thursday that its
peacekeeping forces did not breach any agreements when they refused to allow
Armenian opposition parliamentarians to visit Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this week.
The deputies representing Armenia’s two main opposition groups headed to
Karabakh on Tuesday as part of their campaign against far-reaching Armenian
concessions to Azerbaijan. Russian peacekeepers manning a checkpoint in the
Lachin corridor connecting Armenia and Karabakh did not allow them to proceed to
Stepanakert.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the peacekeepers’ actions,
saying that they run counter to the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire that
stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November 2020. Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian echoed the criticism on Wednesday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the Russian
soldiers acted “in strict conformity” with the truce accord. Claims to the
contrary “do not correspond to reality,” she said.
“We expect that given the incidents that have taken place both in the zone of
responsibility of the [Russian Peacekeeping Contingent] and at certain sections
of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, both sides will refrain from steps that
could further aggravate the situation in the region,” Zakharova added in written
comments. She did not clarify the reason for the travel ban.
Armenian opposition leaders claim that they were barred from entering Karabakh
at the behest of Armenia’s government. They argue that lawmakers representing
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party condemned the trip when it was announced
by their opposition colleagues beforehand.
The government has denied any responsibility for the unprecedented ban.
Pashinian and the Foreign Ministry in Yerevan have also criticized the
peacekeepers for not preventing Azerbaijani troops from seizing a village in
Karabakh and nearby hills late last month. They have repeatedly called on Moscow
to investigate the peacekeepers’ “inactivity.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared to dismiss the criticism after
holding talks with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in Moscow on April 8.
“Calls for bringing this contingent to account and conducting an internal
inquiry, which are sometimes voiced, do not reflect the real attitude of the
Armenian people and leadership towards the huge role that the Russian
peacekeeping contingent plays in maintaining stability in this region,” said
Lavrov.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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