Monday,
Pashinian Reaffirms Opposition To ‘Corridor’ For Azerbaijan
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses the Armenian parliament.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has indicated his continuing rejection of
Azerbaijani demands for Armenia to open an exterritorial land corridor for
Azerbaijan.
A Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020 war for
Nagorno-Karabakh commits Armenia to opening rail and road links between
Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave. Armenia should be able, for its part, to
use Azerbaijani territory as a transit route for cargo shipments to Russia and
Iran.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the deal calls
for a special “corridor” that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan
via Armenia’s Syunik province. He has said people and cargo passing through it
must be exempt from Armenian border controls.
Yerevan maintains, however, that the deal envisages only conventional transport
links between the two countries.
In written comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service sent on Monday, Pashinian’s
office said the prime minister believes that the so-called “Zangezur corridor”
demanded by Baku would jeopardize Armenia’s territorial integrity.
Pashinian and Aliyev discussed the matter during their trilateral meeting with
European Council President Charles Michel held in Brussels on April 6. Pashinian
said after the talks that Baku and Yerevan continue to disagree on practical
modalities of restoring bilateral transport links. But he said the two sides
will keep trying to “find solutions.”
Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to restore Armenian-Azerbaijani rail links during
their previous meeting with Michel held in December. But they failed to patch up
their differences on the status of the Syunik highway for Nakhichevan.
Investigators Told To Revive Probe Of Tsarukian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian speaks at an election
campaign rally in Aragatsotn province, June 15, 2021.
Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian has ordered law-enforcement authorities to
reinvigorate a controversial criminal investigation into businessman and
opposition politician Gagik Tsarukian launched nearly two years ago.
Tsarukian was arrested in September 2020 on charges of buying votes for his
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) ahead of parliamentary elections held in 2017. An
Armenian court freed him on bail one month later.
The tycoon, whose party used to have the second largest group in Armenia’s
parliament, rejected the accusations as politically motivated. He claimed that
they were “fabricated” in response to his calls for Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s resignation voiced in June 2020.
A spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor-General said on Monday that Davtian
has instructed the National Security Service (NSS) to step up “investigative
measures” taken as part of the criminal case. Investigators are already trying
to “ascertain the full circle of individuals” involved in vote buying schemes,
said the official.
Tsarukian’s lawyer, Emin Khachatrian, said that ever since being set free in
October 2020 his client has not been summoned to take part in any investigative
activity.
“We stand by our belief that the criminal investigation has not found any
evidence that Mr. Tsarukian could have done what he is accused of,” Khachatrian
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Like other opposition groups, Tsarukian’s BHK also demanded Pashinian’s
resignation following Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. The
party failed to win any parliament seats in snap general elections held in June
2021. Tsarukian has kept a low profile since then.
U.S. Karabakh Mediator Visits Armenia
Armenia - Andrew Schofer, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, at a
meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, .
The U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict met with Armenia’s leaders on Monday during a visit to Yerevan that
highlighted the possible end of joint mediation efforts by the United States and
Russia.
The U.S. has for decades co-headed the OSCE Minsk Group together with France and
Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month that
Washington and Paris have stopped cooperating with Moscow because of the war in
Ukraine. U.S. and French officials have not denied that.
During their separate meetings with the visiting U.S. mediator, Andrew Schofer,
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reportedly
“emphasized the role of the co-presidency of the OSCE Minsk Group” in the
long-running efforts to settle the Karabakh conflict.
The Armenian government’s press office cited Pashinian as telling Schofer that
the U.S., Russian and French diplomats should mediate upcoming negotiations on a
peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Moscow signaled late last week that it will act alone in mediating those talks.
It said that Igor Khovaev, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, will
now work as Lavrov’s special envoy on “fostering the normalization of relations”
between the two South Caucasus states.
The issue is expected to be high on the agenda of Pashinian’s talks with Russian
President Vladimir Putin scheduled for Tuesday. The Armenian premier will fly to
Moscow on an official visit.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said last Thursday that
Washington “stands ready to engage bilaterally and with likeminded partners” to
help Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a comprehensive peace deal.
“I can’t speak to the role that Russia might play in this,” Price told reporters
when asked whether the U.S. is indeed avoiding joint mediation efforts with
Russia.
Armenian Opposition Plans New Push For Regime Change
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Opposition leader Artur Vanetsian argues with a police officer in
Liberty Square, Yerevan, .
Armenia’s leading opposition parties have pledged to stage coordinated street
protests in an attempt to topple Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and thus prevent
what they see as unacceptable concessions to Azerbaijan planned by him.
Artur Vanetsian, who leads one of those parties, began a nonstop sit-in
Yerevan’s Liberty Square on Sunday evening. He remained camped out there
together with a group of loyalists on Monday.
“Nikol Pashinian’s regime is preparing to abandon Artsakh (Karabakh),” Vanetsian
said in a video appeal to supporters. “They have started propagating the notion
that Artsakh can be a part of Azerbaijan. Unless there is an uprising in
Armenia, unless we try to oust Nikol Pashinian’s regime that process will
definitely take place.”
Pashinian said last Wednesday 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.
Vanetsian, who headed Armenia’s National Security Service from 2018-2019,
pledged to present a more detailed plan of actions late on Monday.
“The objective is clear: so that people gather here in large numbers to take the
situation under control,” said Sos Hakobian, the spokesman for his Fatherland
party. “No political force, no individual can single-handedly solve very serious
problems facing our country.”
Fatherland makes up, together with the former ruling Republican Party (HHK), the
Pativ Unem bloc, one of the two opposition forces represented in the Armenian
parliament. The HHK did not immediately join Vanetsian’s sit-in.
Leaders of the other parliamentary opposition bloc, Hayastan, voiced support for
the protest when they visited Vanetsian in the square on Sunday and Monday. One
of them, Aghvan Vartanian, spoke of a “multipolar” opposition push for regime
change. He said Hayastan will unveil soon with its own plan of actions.
“This is just the beginning,” Vartanian told reporters. “Every day you will
witness such actions across the country. I’m sure that they will be coordinated
and will eventually develop into a powerful movement.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.