Thursday, May 5, 2022
Russia Hopes For ‘Return To Stability’ In Armenia
RUSSIA – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, bottom, looks on as Russian President
Vladimir Putin speaks via video call during a news conference in Moscow,
December 17, 2020
In its first official reaction to ongoing anti-government protests in Armenia,
Russia expressed hope on Thursday that political stability there will be
restored soon.
“This is entirely and completely an internal affair of Armenia,” Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. “Armenia, as you know, is our
ally, it is our partner in several integration formats very important for us.”
“Armenia is our great friend. And therefore, of course, we are interested in
seeing this difficult period end as soon as possible and a period of stability
start again,” he said.
Peskov said that the return to political stability will allow Armenia and
Azerbaijan to gradually implement their agreements brokered by Russian President
Vladimir Putin after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The agreements call for the restoration of transport links between the two South
Caucasus nations and a demarcation of their long border. Yerevan and Baku have
made little progress towards their implementation so far.
Russia accused the European Union of trying to sideline it and claim credit for
these initiatives after European Council President Charles Michel hosted fresh
talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev in Brussels on April 5. Moscow has since been seeking to regain the
initiative in the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.
Pashinian said after the Brussels talks that the international community is
pressing Armenia to scale back its demands on Karabakh’s status and recognize
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. He signaled his readiness to make such
concessions to Baku, sparking the opposition protests in Yerevan.
Armenian Military Told To Draft Opposition Protesters
• Susan Badalian
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, May 4, 2022.
Senior pro-government lawmakers on Thursday urged the Armenian military to call
up men participating in continuing opposition demonstrations aimed at forcing
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign.
They held an extraordinary session of the Armenian parliament committee on
defense and security as thousands of opposition supporters blocked streets and
highways and marched through Yerevan for the fifth consecutive day. Opposition
leaders pledged to keep up the pressure on the government.
Police have arrested hundreds of protesters, most of them young men, since the
start of what Armenia’s leading opposition groups call a “civil disobedience”
campaign. All of them were set free after spending several hours in police
custody.
Andranik Kocharian, the chairman of the parliament committee, suggested that
many of them evade compulsory military service or periodical call-ups of army
reservists.
“We want to see [real] citizens of Armenia among the detainees, who must have
their involvement in the army, if the political goal [of the opposition] is the
security of Artsakh (Karabakh) and Armenia,” Kocharian said during the committee
meeting.
“I am calling on Armenia’s police and the National Security Service to collect
personal data of these citizens and pass them on to the Armenian Defense
Ministry,” he said.
Other pro-government lawmakers as well as high-ranking law-enforcement and
military officials attending the meeting backed the idea.
Armenia - Andranik Kocharian is interviewed by RFE/RL, January 11, 2022
“It would be very good if well-trained young men … participated in the defense
of our borders and the borders of Artsakh,” said Ashot Zakarian, the chief of
the Armenian military police.
“We will try to pass that information on to our colleagues from the Defense
Ministry who will ascertain if those individuals are of fighting age and try to
draft them,” Artur Martirosian, a deputy chief of the national police, told the
panel, for his part.
Human rights activists condemned Kocharian’s initiative as illegal and
despicable. One of them, Artur Sakunts, insisted that the police are not allowed
to share the personal data of detainees with any other state body.
“Even if there are draft dodgers they must not be caught and taken [to the
military] from protest sites,” said another activist, Nina Karapetian. “This is
not normal. This looks like a witch hunt.”
Opposition leaders likewise scoffed at the unprecedented instructions given to
the military.
“Are there no limits to their meanness?” Ishkhan Saghatelian, the main speaker
at the ongoing protests, told journalists.
Armenia - Riot police arrest an opposition protester in Yerevan, May 5, 2022.
“There were two disabled guys without legs speaking from this podium yesterday,”
Saghatelian said, referring to participants of the 2020 war in Karabakh.
In his words, at least 40 of the protesters detained in various parts of Yerevan
earlier on Thursday are also war veterans. The police reported 92 arrests.
The opposition claimed that the authorities ordered security forces to step up
the use of force against its supporters because the anti-government protests are
gaining momentum.
“The disproportionate force used against Armenia’s citizens testifies to one
thing: Nikol has no power anymore,” said Anna Grigorian, a lawmaker from the
opposition Hayastan alliance. “Real power lies in the streets.”
Hayastan and the other parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, say that
Pashinian must resign because he wants to cede Karabakh to Azerbaijan. The prime
minister rejected the opposition demands when he spoke in the parliament on
Wednesday.
Armenia Eyes U.S. Boost To Energy Security
• Sargis Harutyunyan
USA - Senior U.S. and Armenian diplomats hold a session of the U.S.-Armenia
Strategic Dialogue, Washington, May 3, 2022
A memorandum of understanding on “strategic nuclear cooperation” between Armenia
and the United States could strengthen the South Caucasus country’s energy
security, a senior Armenian diplomat said on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat
Mirzoyan signed the document after talks held in Washington on Monday. An
Armenian delegation led by Mirzoyan also met with other senior U.S. State
Department officials as part of a bilateral “strategic dialogue” launched three
years ago.
In a joint statement issued after the talks, the two sides said the memorandum
“will serve as a mechanism through which our governments can develop stronger
ties between our nuclear experts, industries, and researchers.” They gave no
further details.
Armen Yeganian, a senior Armenian Foreign Ministry official accompanying
Mirzoyan, expressed hope that this and two other US.-Armenian documents signed
in Washington “will contribute to Armenia’s energy security and independence and
the strengthening of democracy.”
“This memorandum will enable us to use, to a certain extent, American know-how
and achievements and to engage in exchanges between our scientists,” Yeganian
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Commenting on the memorandum, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on
Monday that “Armenia looks to diversify its energy supply.”
Russian nuclear fuel and natural gas generate roughly two-thirds of Armenia’s
electricity. Russia has financed the $300 million modernization of the Metsamor
nuclear power plant completed last year and expressed readiness to help the
Armenian government replace it by a new facility in 2036.
Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Hakob
Vartanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last week that Moscow and Yerevan have
formed a task force that will explore the possibility of jointly building the
new nuclear plant.
In Yeganian’s words, Armenian and U.S. officials have not discussed a possible
U.S. participation in the ambitious project.
Armenian-Azeri Commission On Border Demarcation Still Not Formed
• Nane Sahakian
ARMINIA -- An Armenian flag flies at a new Armenian army post on the border with
Azerbaijan, June 18, 2021
Armenia and Azerbaijan have not yet formed a joint commission on demarcating
their border despite an agreement to that effect reached by their leaders, a
senior Armenian official said on Thursday.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
agreed to set up the commission before the end of April at their last meeting
held in Brussels a month ago. They said it will also be tasked with easing
tensions along the long and heavily militarized border.
The foreign ministers of the two states discussed the issue in two phone calls
in the following weeks.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said on April 25 that the two sides will soon hold
a “meeting regarding the commission.” Aliyev announced, meanwhile, that he has
already appointed Azerbaijani members of the body.
Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, said Yerevan and
Baku are continuing their “intensive discussions” on the issue.
“We have not yet found final answers to questions regarding the working group
and some other issues,” he said without elaborating.
Grigorian again met with Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide, Hikmet Hajiyev, in
Brussels on Monday. He said they also discussed preparations for separate
negotiations on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
In March, Baku presented the Armenian side with five elements which it wants to
be at the heart of the treaty. They include a mutual recognition of each other’s
territorial integrity. Yerevan said they are acceptable to it in principle,
fuelling more Armenian opposition allegations that Pashinian is ready to help
Azerbaijan regain full control over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Grigorian told reporters that Armenia has also presented its own proposals
regarding the peace treaty but declined to reveal them. Baku signaled its
readiness to discuss them at the upcoming negotiations, he said.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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