Wednesday,
U.S. Denies Blocking UN Resolution On Karabakh
Armenia - The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan
The United States strongly denied on Wednesday claims that it is opposed to the
passage of a UN Security Council resolution condemning Azerbaijan’s blockade of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Security Council discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Karabakh
last week during an emergency meeting initiated by Armenia. Speaking at the
meeting, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan urged it to demand the
immediate reopening of the Lachin corridor, send a fact-finding mission to
Karabakh and provide humanitarian aid to the region’s struggling population.
Although most of its members, notably the U.S. and Russia, urged the lifting of
the Azerbaijani blockade, the Council stopped short of adopting a relevant
resolution or statement.
“We have not seen a draft resolution, and claims that the U.S. is pressuring
member countries not to sign a resolution are completely false,” the U.S.
Embassy in Yerevan told the Armenpress news agency.
“As noted in our statement at the [UN Security Council] session, we remain
deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and we’re
encouraging the Azerbaijani government to open the Lachin Corridor to
humanitarian, commercial and private traffic expeditiously,” it said.
Mirzoyan also dismissed the rumors, circulated by some media outlets, when he
spoke during a news conference in Yerevan on Tuesday. He said he believes
Washington realizes that a UN resolution would help to end the crisis in
Karabakh.
An Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Monday that Armenia is not in a
position to draft such a document because of not being a Security Council member.
The U.S., the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called on Azerbaijan to
allow renewed commercial and humanitarian traffic through the Lachin corridor.
Baku has dismissed their appeals.
Pashinian Critical Of Armenia’s 1990 Independence Declaration
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a news conference in
Yerevan, July 25, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday criticized a 1990 declaration of
Armenia’s independence, saying that it fomented the conflicts with Azerbaijan
and Turkey and is now at odds with his “peace agenda.”
The document adopted by Armenia’s first post-Communist parliament stopped short
of declaring the republic’s immediate secession from the Soviet Union. It
announced instead “the start of a process of establishing independent statehood.”
The declaration made reference to a 1989 unification act adopted by the
legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous
Oblast. It also called for international recognition of the 1915 genocide of
Armenians “in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.”
In a statement issued on the 33rd anniversary of its passage, Pashinian said
that he used to view the declaration as a “biblical message” but revised his
assessment after the 2020 war in Karabakh.
“A critical analysis of the text of the declaration shows that we basically
chose a discourse and content which is based on the formula that had made us
part of the Soviet Union. Namely, a confrontational discourse on the regional
environment that was to keep us in constant conflict with our neighbors,” read
the statement.
It is the same formula that “had already led to the loss of our independence at
the beginning of the 20th century,” Pashinian went on. He claimed in this regard
that only his current “peace agenda” aimed at normalizing Armenia’s relations
with Azerbaijan and Turkey could prevent a repeat of that scenario.
“As long as we do not have peace, the ghost of the USSR will hover in our sky,
in the sky of our region,” he added.
Armenia - A copy of the 1990 Declaration of Independence.
Pashinian did not specify which concrete provisions of the 1990 declaration,
which is mentioned in a preamble to the Armenian constitution, he is unhappy
with.
Some opposition figures were quick to condemn the premier’s statement as
pro-Turkish and pro-Azerbaijani. Artur Khachatrian, a lawmaker from the main
opposition Hayastan bloc, said Pashinian is resorting to “cheap blackmail” in a
bid to convince Armenians to “abandon Karabakh.”
“I have the impression that Pashinian’s ‘declaration of independence’ message
was written in Ankara,” Eduard Sharmazanov of the former ruling Republican Party
charged in a Facebook post.
Other critics have speculated over the last two years that Pashinian is facing
strong pressure from Baku and Ankara to remove all references to Karabakh and
the Armenian genocide from the constitution.
Pashinian drew strong condemnation from the Armenian opposition and Karabakh’s
leadership in May when he pledged to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over
Karabakh through an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. He caused more outrage by
declaring that such a deal would give Armenia a “certificate of title” for its
territory.
However, Pashinian complained on August 3 Azerbaijan is seeking to sign the kind
of treaty with Armenia that would not prevent it from laying claim to Armenian
territory.
The premier’s detractors seized upon that statement to assert that even the
far-reaching concession offered by him to Baku would not safeguard Armenian
territory from future Azerbaijani attacks. They regularly say that Pashinian
himself put Armenia’s independence at serious risk by mishandling the 2020 war.
EU Urges Dialogue Between Baku, Stepanakert
• Heghine Buniatian
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel arrives for a European Union
leaders' summit in Brussels, December 15, 2022.
The European Union hopes for the start of direct dialogue between Azerbaijan and
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership while pressing Baku to end its blockade of the
Lachin corridor, a senior EU official said on Wednesday.
“[EU Council] President Charles Michel calls for the dialogue meeting between
Baku and Stepanakert to take place as soon as possible,” the official told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Sources in Stepanakert said last month that Azerbaijani officials and Karabakh
representatives were due to meet in Bulgaria’s capital Sophia Sofia in the
beginning of July. The meeting did not take place because the sides did not
agree on its agenda, according to them.
Another Karabakh official claimed afterwards that the Western-mediated talks
were rescheduled for August 1 but then cancelled by the Azerbaijani side. Baku
wants such negotiations to be held in an Azerbaijani city, he said, adding that
this is unacceptable to Stepanakert.
The EU official, who did not want to be identified, said it remains unclear when
and where the two sides could launch the dialogue strongly backed by Armenia.
The deadlock is further complicating the lifting of the Azerbaijani blockade
that has resulted in a grave humanitarian crisis in Karabakh. The EU has
repeatedly urged Baku to unblock the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia.
“President Michel has stressed to the Azerbaijani side the urgent necessity to
unblock the Lachin road in compliance with the relevant [International Court of
Justice] decision and in order to prevent a further escalation,” the official
said in thins regard. “He also noted Azerbaijan’s willingness to provide
humanitarian assistance via other roads, including Aghdam.”
Michel’s team as well as the EU’s special envoy to the South Caucasus, Toivo
Klaar, have been discussing with Baku, Yerevan and Karabakh Armenian leaders
“options for unblocking the situation,” added the official. He stressed that the
EU remains an “honest broker” in ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations.
Karabakh’s leadership has rejected the alternative, Azerbaijani-controlled
supply route proposed by Baku as a cynical ploy designed to facilitate the
restoration of Azerbaijani control over the Armenian-populated region. The EU
foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, stressed late last month that the Aghdam
route “should not be seen as an alternative to the reopening of the Lachin
corridor.”
Mayoral Election Campaign Kicks Off In Yerevan
• Robert Zargarian
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - A view of the municipal administration building of Yerevan, August 23,
2023.
Campaigning officially began on Wednesday for municipal elections in Yerevan
effectively boycotted by Armenia’s main opposition groups.
Yerevan residents will elect on September 17 a new municipal assembly that will
in turn appoint the mayor of the Armenian capital. Thirteen parties and one bloc
are vying for the assembly’s 65 seats.
The last mayor, Hrachya Sargsian, stepped down in March after only 15 months in
office. Yerevan has since been effectively run by Tigran Avinian, a deputy mayor
nominated by the ruling Civil Contract party for the vacant post. Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian expressed confidence about the party’s victory during an
election campaign fundraiser held late last month.
The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances represented in the Armenian
parliament have decided not to join the mayoral race. Some of their senior
members have said that the upcoming elections are not significant given the
grave security challenges facing Armenia as well as Nagorno-Karabakh.
Andranik Tevanian, a Hayastan parliamentarian, disagreed with the de facto
boycott, resigning from the National Assembly and cobbling together an electoral
bloc called Mayr Hayastan (Mother Armenia) to run for mayor. He has said that an
opposition victory in Yerevan would pave the way for regime change in the
country.
Armenia - Opposition mayoral candidate Andranik Tevanian (right) starts his
election campaign in Yerevan, .
Tevanian made the same point as his bloc comprising several other outspoken
opposition figures launched its campaign with a rally held in the city center.
Another major opposition contender is the Aprelu Yerkir party widely linked with
Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian-born tycoon and philanthropist who moved to
Karabakh last year. Its mayoral candidate, Mane Tandilian, too has described the
Yerevan polls as an opportunity to precipitate the Pashinian government’s ouster.
Tandilian ruled out any post-election power-sharing deals with Pashinian’s party
as she spoke during her party’s inaugural campaign event. “Our struggle is about
strengthening our statehood,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Tandilian, 50, served as labor and social affairs minister in Pashinian’s first
cabinet in 2018.
Civil Contract and Avinian may also face a serious challenge from Hayk Marutian,
a popular TV comedian whom Pashinian’s political team had installed as mayor
after winning the last municipal polls in 2018. The city council controlled by
the ruling party ousted Marutian in December 2021 after he fell out with the
prime minister.
Marutian tops the list of council candidates nominated by a little-known party
called National Progress.
Armenia - Opposition mayoral candidate Mane Tandilian speaks at an election
campaign meeting in Yerevan, .
Avinian was due to hold his first campaign gathering in the city’s southern
Nubarashen suburb on Wednesday evening. His campaign is thought to have
unofficially begun months ago, with Civil Contract disseminating videos of his
speeches and other public appearances on social media.
In a recent report issued earlier this month, Independent Observer, a coalition
of civic groups that will monitor the September 17, vote accused Avinian of
having systematically abused his administrative resources to promote his mayoral
bid.
The coalition also said that the administration of a local community in central
Armenia comprising the town of Spitak and surrounding villages is drawing up
lists of its Yerevan-based natives promising to vote for Avinian. It said the
process is overseen by Gevorg Papoyan, the ruling party’s deputy chairman.
Armenia - Former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian attends a session of
Yerevan's municipal assembly, September 23, 2022.
The allegations are based on recorded phone calls between local officials and a
civic activist posing as an aide to Papoyan. Spitak’s deputy mayor and six
village chiefs could be heard saying that they already have or will soon have
such lists.
Papoyan strongly denied the allegations. Vahagn Hovakimian, a Pashinian ally
heading the Armenia’s Central Election Commission, said, for his part, that “the
audio does not testify to an abuse of administrative resources.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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