Thursday, October 5, 2023
Putin Blames Yerevan For Azeri Takeover Of Karabakh
• Aza Babayan
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking at the annual
meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, October 5, 2023.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Thursday claimed that Russian peacekeepers
could not have thwarted Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in
Nagorno-Karabakh and blamed it on Armenia’s recognition of Azerbaijani
sovereignty over the region.
The Armenian government urged the peacekeepers to step in to protect Karabakh’s
population hours after the start of the Azerbaijani assault. Russian officials
ruled out such intervention, leading Yerevan to accuse Moscow of not honoring
its obligations spelled out in a 2020 truce accord brokered by it.
“The peacekeepers only had the right to monitor the ceasefire regime,” Putin
countered during an annual meeting of Russia’s Valdai Discussion Club.
He said that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sharply downgraded the
status of the Russian peacekeeping contingent when he recognized Karabakh as
part of Azerbaijan during Armenian-Azerbaijani summits organized by the European
Union in October 2022 and May 2023. Pashinian’s moves legitimized Baku’s
military action that led to the mass exodus of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian
population, he said.
“I learned about Armenia's recognition of Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan from
the press, they did not inform us separately,” Putin added in another stern
rebuke of the Armenian leader.
Other Russian officials as well as the Foreign Ministry in Moscow similarly
pointed to Pashinian’s decision, denounced by the Armenian opposition, in the
months leading up to the Azerbaijani takeover. They used it to try to justify
the peacekeepers’ failure to reopen traffic through the Lachin corridor blocked
by Azerbaijan last December.
Many in Armenia feel that the peacekeepers could have also prevented Azerbaijan
from arresting about a dozen current and former leaders of Karabakh, who are now
facing long prison sentences in Baku. The authorities in Stepanakert have long
been known for their pro-Russian views.
Putin expressed hope that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will show clemency
for the jailed Karabakh Armenian leaders “now that all territorial issues for
Azerbaijan have been resolved.” But in another jibe at Pashinian, he suggested
that the Armenian authorities “don’t quite want to see them in Yerevan.”
European Leaders Voice ‘Unwavering Support’ For Armenia
Spain - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meet during an EU summit in Granada,
October 5, 2023.
The leaders of the European Union and its key member states, France and Germany,
expressed strong support for Armenia’s territorial integrity and promised more
aid to refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh when they met with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian on Thursday.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was also due to attend the meeting held on
the sidelines of a European Union summit in the Spanish city of Granada. But he
withdrew at the last minute, citing pro-Armenian statements made by French
leaders and the rejection of his demands that Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan be allowed to join the talks.
A senior aide to Aliyev said on Thursday that he is ready to hold a trilateral
meeting with Pashinian as well as European Council President Charles Michel in
Brussels “soon.”
A joint statement issued after the Granada talks said Michel, French President
Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “underlined their unwavering
support to the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and
inviolability of the borders of Armenia.”
“They also expressed their support to the strengthening of EU-Armenia relations,
in all its dimensions, based on the needs of the Republic of Armenia. They
agreed on the need to provide additional humanitarian assistance to Armenia as
it faces the consequences of the recent mass displacement of Karabakh
Armenians,” added the statement.
The EU allocated 5.2 million euros ($5.5 million) in humanitarian aid to the
refugees shortly after the mass exodus of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population
resulting from Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 offensive. Ursula von der Leyen, the
head of the European Commission, said earlier on Thursday that the EU’s
executive body will double that sum in addition to giving the Armenian
government 15 million euros in “direct budgetary support.” Von der Leyen held a
separate meeting with Pashinian in Granada.
Spain - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen in Granada, October 5, 2023
The Azerbaijani takeover of Karabakh raised more fears in Yerevan that Baku will
also attack Armenia to open an exterritorial land corridor to Azerbaijan’s
Nakhichevan exclave. Michel, Macron and Scholz appeared to allude to such a
possibility in their joint statement with Pashinian. It called for the “strict
adherence to the principle of non-use of force and threat of use of force.”
Pashinian indicated on Wednesday that he and Aliyev were very close to signing
in Granada a “framework document” laying out the key parameters of an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty and the delimitation of the long border
between the two South Caucasus states. He said he still hopes that it will be
signed “at an opportune time.”
Baku and Yerevan have disagreed, at least until now, on the mechanism for the
border delimitation. The Armenian side has insisted on using 1975 Soviet
military maps for that purpose.
The European leaders clearly backed Yerevan’s stance during the Granada talks.
Their joint statement cited the “urgent need to work towards border delimitation
based on the most recent USSR General Staff maps that have been provided to the
sides.”
Armenia’s First Foreign Intelligence Chief Named After ‘Training’
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Human rights ombudswoman Kristine Grigorian attends a public
discussion in Yerevan, March 2, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has appointed Armenia’s former human rights
ombudswoman, Kristine Grigorian, as the first head of a foreign intelligence
agency formally set up by his government about a year ago.
Armenia already had intelligence services operating within its National Security
Service (NSS) and military when the National Assembly approved last December the
creation of the Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS). The NSS division is supposed
to be fully replaced by the FIS within three years. The new agency directly
subordinate to Pashinian has still not officially started its operations.
“The main task of the service is to forecast opportunities and external threats
to the state and society and to provide political decision-makers with reliable,
credible intelligence information about them,” Pashinian’s press secretary,
Nazeli Baghdasarian told the Armenpress news agency following Grigorian’s
appointment announced on Wednesday.
Grigorian unexpectedly resigned as ombudswoman in January after less than a year
in office. She said at the time that she is planning to move on to another job.
The 42-year-old lawyer, who has never worked for security agencies before, has
not been seen in public since then. A senior pro-government lawmaker, Gagik
Melkonian confirmed rumors that she underwent relevant training before taking up
her new post.
“He has been trained but I don’t know where,” Melkonian told the Hraparak daily.
“She came back and got appointed.”
Citing another, unnamed source, the paper claimed that Grigorian was trained by
“Western intelligence services.” It noted that the chief of Britain's foreign
intelligence agency, Richard Moore, visited Yerevan and met with Pashinian just
days before the Armenian government pushed a bill on the FIS through the
parliament. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns visited
Armenia in July 2022.
Grigorian could not be reached for comment, and nothing is known about the
structure and size of her nascent agency. Nor have Pashinian and his political
allies explained the choice of the FIS chief.
Grigorian’s appointment came amid mounting tensions between Armenia and Russia.
The parliament controlled by Pashinian’s party added to those tensions on
Tuesday when it approved a government proposal to ratify the founding treaty of
an international court that issued an arrest warrant for Russian President
Vladimir Putin in March. The move was condemned by Russia but welcomed by the
European Union.
Former Defense Chief Vows To Fight For Pashinian’s Ouster
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia- Defense Minister Arshak Karapetian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
visit the Yerablur Military Pantheon, Yerevan, September 21, 2021.
Arshak Karapetian, a former Armenian defense minister and national security aide
to Nikol Pashinian, has blamed him for the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh and pledged
to fight for his removal from power.
In a surprise video message circulated late on Wednesday, Karapetian charged
that Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive and resulting takeover of
Karabakh were “made possible by the Armenian authorities’ cowardice and treason.”
The retired general also blamed them for Azerbaijan’s arrests of about a dozen
former and current leaders of Karabakh, including Armenian-born billionaire
Ruben Vardanyan. He alleged that Pashinian himself asked Baku to jail Vardanyan
because he regards the latter as a formidable political opponent.
Karapetian branded Pashinian’s political team as “a bunch of cowards and
amateurs” who have also put Armenia’s independence and territorial integrity at
serious risk. He said he has therefore set up a “political movement to liberate
Armenia from internal and external enemies.”
“In the near future, you will see and feel the seriousness of my intentions,” he
said in what was his first public statement in almost two years. He gave no
details of his planned push for regime change.
Karapetian, 57, had served as chief of Armenian military intelligence until
being fired in 2016 by then President Serzh Sarkisian. Pashinian appointed him
as his national security adviser shortly after coming to power in May 2018. The
premier promoted him to the post of defense minister in August 2021 only to
dismiss him three months later.
Armenia - Defense Minister Arshak Karapetian visits a disputed section of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border, November 17, 2021.
Karapetian claimed that he was sacked because he ordered the Armenian army to
resist Azerbaijani attempts to seize more Armenian territory and visited
Karabakh in his ministerial capacity.
The Armenian government did not react to the allegations on Thursday. Senior
lawmakers from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party were likewise reluctant to
comment on them at a news conference in Yerevan. Still, they made no secret of
their contempt for the ex-minister who was for years thought to be a figure
loyal to Pashinian.
“This question offends my common sense,” one of them, Arman Yeghoyan, said when
asked for comment. He insisted that “nobody could be sacked for protecting
Armenia’s borders.”
Another pro-government lawmaker, Artur Hovannisian, said that the Armenian media
should not take Karapetian seriously because he has “offered his services to a
concrete center.” It was not clear whether Hovannisian referred to Russia, whose
relationship with Pashinian’s administration has been rapidly deteriorating.
In his Facebook video, Karapetian signaled support for Armenia’s continued close
ties with Russia while effectively acknowledging the failure of the Russian
peacekeeping mission in Karabakh.
“Together with our current authorities, the enemy is trying to redirect our
national anger towards our Russian brothers,” he said before urging Moscow to
“more resolutely counter attempts to destroy the Armenian people and our
statehood.”
Significantly, Karapetian recorded and posted the same message in Russian. He
did not clarify whether he is currently in Armenia.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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