Thursday,
Armenia, Azerbaijan Reaffirm Commitment To Russian-Brokered Deals
Tajikistan - Foreign Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan (left) of Armenia, Sergei Lavrov
of Russia and Jeyhun Bayramov of Azerbaijan meet in Dushanbe,
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan reaffirmed their countries’
commitment to implementing Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Russia
when they held a trilateral meeting with their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov
on Thursday.
Lavrov organized the talks with Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov in
Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe as part of Russia’s apparent efforts to regain the
initiative in the peace process.
Moscow accused the European Union and the United States last month of trying to
hijack the process and use it in the standoff over Ukraine.
"I hope that today's meeting will make it possible to move forward along the
path that was outlined by our leaders," the Russian news agency RIA Novosti
quoted Lavrov as saying at the start of the talks held on the sidelines of
meeting of top diplomats of ex-Soviet states.
He alluded to the Russian-brokered agreements to stop the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, open transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan and
demarcate their border.
“We believe that there is a good prospect, a good opportunity to achieve … the
full implementation of the tripartite statements in full," Bayramov said, for
his part.
In a statement issued after the talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the
three ministers “reaffirmed the commitment to strict compliance with all
provisions” of those agreements. They also discussed planned negotiations on an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty, it said, adding that Moscow is ready to
facilitate them.
The trilateral encounter followed Lavrov’s separate talks with Bayramov and
Mirzoyan. The latter was reported to tell Lavrov that a newly formed
Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on the border demarcation will hold its first
session in Moscow next week.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
agreed to set up the commission before the end of April when they met in
Brussels on April 6. European Council President Charles Michel, who hosted the
summit, said they also plan to “move rapidly” towards negotiating the peace
treaty.
Russia responded by accusing the West of trying to sideline it and claim credit
for the Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements.
Mirzoyan also indicated in Dushanbe that a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working
group dealing with economic and transport issues will resume its work in Moscow
May 16 after a nearly five-month hiatus.
The group’s Russian co-chair, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, visited
Yerevan and met with Pashinian on Thursday.
Policeman In Pashinian’s Motorcade Arrested Again Over Deadly Crash
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - Citizens pay their respects to a pregnant woman who was hit and killed
by a police car that was part of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's motorcade,
Yerevan, April 27, 2022.
A traffic police officer whose car hit and killed a young woman while escorting
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s motorcade in Yerevan was arrested again on
Thursday two weeks after being released from custody.
The 29-year-old pregnant woman, Sona Mnatsakanian, was struck by a police SUV
while crossing a street in the city center on April 26. The vehicle did not stop
after the collision that sparked more opposition calls for Pashinian’s
resignation. Its driver, Major Aram Navasardian, was arrested a few hours later.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee charged Navasardian with violating traffic
rules but released him shortly afterwards. It decided not to accuse him of also
fleeing the scene and not helping the victim, who later died from her severe
injuries
According to a spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor-General, a prosecutor
overseeing the probe ordered the law-enforcement agency to reverse that
decision, arrest the policeman again and seek a court permission to hold him in
pre-trial detention. A Yerevan court opened hearings on the arrest warrant later
on Thursday.
Navasardian rejected through his lawyer the accusations leveled against him. The
lawyer, Ruben Baloyan, insisted that he did not violate any traffic rules or
flee the scene.
“Do not forget that the motorcade escorted the country’s leader,” Baloyan told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia - Law-enforcement officers inspect the scene of a fatal accident caused
by a police car escorting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, April 26,
2022.
He cited a government directive allowing such motorcades to move at up to 100
kilometers/hour inside Yerevan. “[Navasardian’s] car moved at around that
speed,” he said.
Raffi Aslanian, a lawyer representing the victim’s family, dismissed these
arguments.
“In accordance with Armenia’s law on road safety, the driver was obliged to stop
at the scene of the accident and to take the victim to hospital in his or
somebody else’s car,” said Aslanian.
Pashinian’s limousine and the six other cars making up his motorcade also drove
past the dying woman and did not help her. The prime minister has still not
publicly commented on her death.
The deputy chief of Pashinian’s staff, Taron Chakhoyan, claimed on April 27 that
the motorcade would have caused a traffic jam and made it harder for an
ambulance to reach the victim had it stopped right after the crash.
Opposition figures and other government critics brushed aside that explanation.
Some of them blamed Pashinian for the unprecedented accident.
Armenia To Increase Gas Imports From Iran
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - An under-construction gas pipeline leading to Iran, 19Mar2007
Armenia plans to significantly increase the presently modest import of natural
gas from neighboring Iran, a senior Armenian official said on Thursday.
Hakob Vartanian, a deputy minister of territorial administration and
infrastructures, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the governments of the two
states will finalize a corresponding agreement during Territorial Administration
Minister Gnel Sanosian’s visit to Tehran next week.
Armenia has imported roughly 350 million cubic meters of Iranian gas annually
under a swap deal agreed more than a decade ago. It has paid for the fuel with
electricity generated by Armenian thermal power plants and exported to the
Islamic Republic.
The deal runs until 2026. Vartanian said that it will be extended by four years.
“There is now an agreement to increase that volume to up to 600 million cubic
meters per annum,” added the official.
In his words, Armenia will be able to import up to 1.8 billion cubic meters of
Iranian gas after completing the protracted construction of a third power
transmission line connecting it to Iran.
Work on the 276-kilometer Armenian section of the high-voltage line began in
2006 and repeatedly fell behind schedule. It is now slated for completion by the
end of 2023.
Russia will likely remain the principal supplier of gas to Armenian households
and corporate consumers even after its construction. Armenia buys over 2 billion
cubic meters of Russian gas annually, paying $165 per thousand cubic meters.
By comparison, the market-based gas price for Germany and other European Union
nations currently stands at $1,200 per thousand cubic meters.
Blinken, Aliyev Discuss ‘Positive Momentum’ In Armenian-Azeri Talks
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken phoned Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
late on Wednesday to discuss ways of building on recent progress made in
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
“I spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev today about how the United
States can continue to support recent positive momentum on peace talks between
Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Blinken tweeted after the call.
According to the U.S. State Department, the two men discussed “future concrete
steps on the path to peace in the South Caucasus,” including the planned
demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and opening of transport links
between the two nations.
“Secretary Blinken reiterated the United States stands ready to help by engaging
bilaterally and with like-minded partners, including through our role as an OSCE
Minsk Group Co-Chair, to help the countries find a long-term comprehensive
peace,” said the department spokesman, Ned Price.
Price did not mention plans for negotiating a comprehensive Armenian-Azerbaijani
peace treaty sought by Baku.
In March, Azerbaijan presented Armenia 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. The Armenian government said they are acceptable to it in
principle, setting the stage for official negotiations on the issue.
Armenian officials revealed earlier this month that Yerevan came up, for its
part, with six other issues that should also be included on the agenda of the
talks. They said the proposals relate to the future of status of Karabakh and
the security of its ethnic Armenian population.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov dismissed them on Tuesday, saying
that they “can’t be called proposals.”
Netherlands - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at the Dutch
Institute of International Relations, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian complained on Wednesday that Baku wants the
planned talks on the peace treaty to focus only on its own ideas.
“That does not correspond to understandings reached by us in Brussels,”
Pashinian said, referring to his April 6 meeting with Aliyev hosted by European
Council President Charles Michel.
Speaking during a visit to the Netherlands, Pashinian also said that during that
meeting Aliyev promised to free more Armenian soldiers who were taken prisoner
during the 2020 war in Karabakh. The Azerbaijani leader has still not honored
that pledge, he said.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry rejected Pashinian’s “baseless allegations” on
Thursday. A ministry spokeswoman said they show that Yerevan is “far from being
sincere about normalizing relations between the two countries.”
Incidentally, Blinken also discussed with Aliyev the “release of the remaining
Armenian detainees,” according to the State Department spokesman.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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