Author: Adrine Hakobian

                                        Monday, January 11, 2021
Pashinian Eyes Closer Russian-Armenian Ties
January 11, 2021
Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian, Moscow, January 11, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed confidence that Armenia and Russia will 
forge even closer ties after the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh when he met with 
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.
The two men held separate talks after Putin hosted a trilateral meeting with 
Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that focused on the 
implementation of a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the war on November 
10.
In his opening remarks at the talks, Pashinian again praised Putin’s role in 
halting the six-week hostilities that left thousands of soldiers dead.
“Of course, your personal contribution to the [Karabakh] peace process has 
always been noticeable, especially now, after the known events,” he said. “I am 
confident that against the backdrop of these events the relations between 
Armenia and Russia will deepen.”
“Russia has been and remains our main strategic ally in the security sphere,” 
added the Armenian leader.
“Our relations certainly were, are and will remain allied in all respects,” 
Putin said for his part. He noted that despite the coronavirus pandemic and the 
Karabakh war Russian-Armenian trade grew by almost 4 percent in January-October 
2020.
Pashinian announced plans to further deepen the Russian-Armenian relationship in 
a televised address to the nation aired on New Year’s Eve. He said his country 
needs “new security guarantees” now.
Armenia already has close political, economic and military ties with Russia. It 
hosts a Russian military base and has long received Russian weapons at knockdown 
prices and even for free.
Moscow also deployed 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Karabakh as part of the truce 
agreement brokered by Putin. In addition, it dispatched Russian soldiers and 
border guards to Armenia’s Syunik region southwest of Karabakh to help the 
Armenian military defend it against possible Azerbaijani attacks.
Armenian Government Extends Coronavirus Restrictions
January 11, 2021
Armenia -- People wear faces masks on a street in Yerevan, August 11, 2020.
The government on Monday extended by six months most of its restrictions aimed 
at containing the spread of the coronavirus in Armenia.
But it scrapped some rules in an apparent response to concerns voiced by Economy 
Minister Vahan Kerobian and Armenian businesspeople.
The government has continued to require people wear face masks in all public 
areas and kept in place social distancing and hygiene rules set for businesses 
even after lifting a coronavirus-related state of emergency and introducing a 
nationwide “quarantine” regime in September.
The less stringent regime was due to expire on Monday. The Ministry of Health 
asked the government late last month to extend it until July 11, citing the 
continuing large number of coronavirus cases in Armenia.
Kerobian criticized the request last week, saying that the restrictions would 
hurt the Armenian economy hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Some business 
associations as well as dozens of private firms echoed his concerns.
The government sided with the Ministry of Health while making what appear to be 
concessions to the critics. In particular, it lifted restrictions on indoor and 
outdoor festive events. Those include a ban on restaurant parties attended by 
more than 60 people.
The government also allowed foreign nationals to enter Armenia through its land 
border crossings and not just by air. But those travellers will have to produce 
documents showing that they tested negative for the coronavirus up to three days 
ago or to self-isolate and take such tests in Armenia.
The Armenian authorities largely stopped fining people and businesses to enforce 
the anti-epidemic rules following the September 27 outbreak of the war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh. The daily number of new COVID-19 cases reported by them grew 
rapidly as a result. But it has been steadily falling since mid-November.
According to the Ministry of Health, there were 8,782 active cases in Armenia as 
of Monday morning, sharply down from 22,850 cases reported on December 1.
More than 162,000 coronavirus infections and at least 2,931 deaths caused by 
them have been officially confirmed in the country of about 3 million to date. 
The real number of cases is believed to be much higher.
Armenia, Azerbaijan Reaffirm Plans For Transport Links
January 11, 2021
RUSSIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Azerbaijani President Ilham 
Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin (left to right) attend a trilateral 
meeting in Moscow, January 11, 2020
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev 
reaffirmed plans to open the border between their countries for commercial and 
other traffic during their talks hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 
Monday.
The three leaders met in Moscow two months after Putin brokered an 
Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire agreement that stopped the war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting that lasted for about four hours, 
they said the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani governments will set up a joint 
“working group” that will deal with practical modalities of restoring transport 
links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
According to the statement, the group will submit by March 1 a timetable of 
“measures envisaging the restoration and construction of new transport 
infrastructure facilities” in line with the November 9 ceasefire deal. The group 
is to comprise teams of experts who will calculate the cost of these projects.
“I am confident that the realization of these understandings will benefit both 
the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples, the region as a whole and, therefore, the 
interests of the Russian Federation,” Putin said at a joint news briefing with 
Aliyev and Pashinian held after the talks.
“This is an area which could give a lot of dynamism to the region’s development 
and reinforce security because the opening of transport links meets the 
interests of the people of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia and our neighbors,” 
Aliyev said, for his part.
The truce agreement specifically commits Yerevan to opening rail and road links 
between the Nakhichevan exclave and the rest of Azerbaijan that will presumably 
pass through southeastern Armenia. The Armenian government has stressed that 
Armenia will be able, for its part, to use Azerbaijani territory as a transit 
route for cargo shipments to and from Russia and Iran.
Pashinian indicated in the run-up to the Moscow talks that the opening of the 
transport links will be conditional on Baku releasing dozens of Armenians 
remaining in Azerbaijani captivity and facilitating the ongoing search for other 
soldiers and civilians who went missing during the six-week war.
“Unfortunately, we did not manage today to solve the issue of prisoners of war,” 
Pashinian told the press after the talks.
He said that Baku is still not fully complying with another provision of the 
truce agreement that calls for the exchange of all prisoners of war and 
civilians held by the conflicting sides. “I hope that we will succeed in finding 
a concrete solution very soon,” added the Armenian premier.
The November 9 agreement locked in sweeping territorial gains made by Azerbaijan 
during the war that killed thousands of Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers. It 
also led to the Armenian withdrawal from four other districts around Karabakh.
In his opening remarks at the talks, Putin noted with satisfaction that the 
ceasefire is holding thanks to 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in 
Karabakh. This, he said, is “creating necessary prerequisites for a long-term 
and full-fledged resolution” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Pashinian cautioned that the conflicting parties continue to disagree on “many 
issues,” including the main bone of contention: the status of Karabakh.
Armenian President Again Calls For New Government
January 11, 2021
Armenia -- Armenian President Armen Sarkissian meets with public figures in 
Gyumri, December 25, 2020.
Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian on Monday renewed his calls for Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian to hand over power to a new and interim government that 
would hold snap parliamentary elections.
In an article posted on the presidential website, Sarkissian said Pashinian’s 
administration must be “held accountable” for the Armenian side’s defeat in the 
recent war with Azerbaijan and the resulting “deep political, economic, social 
and psychological crisis” in his country.
“The country and the people need treatment,” he wrote. “The only logical and 
civilized prescription is pre-term elections [to be held] within reasonable time 
frames with necessary amendments to the Electoral Code and the Constitution, 
which will allow us to start a real process of state building from scratch.”
“Until then, a government of national accord must be formed with the help of the 
institute of the president,” he added, staking a claim to a major role in that 
process.
Sarkissian stressed that the new government must be made up of technocrats 
tasked with overcoming the post-war crisis.
Virtually all Armenian opposition parties demanded Pashinian’s resignation 
immediately after a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the war in and 
around Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10. More than a dozen of them joined forces 
to hold anti-government rallies.
Pashinian has rejected the opposition demands while expressing readiness to hold 
fresh elections soon. He held late last month consultations with the leaders of 
the two opposition parties represented in the Armenian parliament. The latter 
insisted that the snap polls must take place after Pashinian’s resignation.
Sarkissian held similar consultations earlier in December. The president 
insisted on Monday that despite his largely ceremonial powers he can “become the 
irreplaceable platform where the constitutional ways-out and mechanisms for 
overcoming the crisis will be worked out through a dialogue.”
In his article, Sarkissian also portrayed Armenia’s post-Soviet history as a 
period of missed opportunities and made a case for the “construction of a new 
state.” In that regard, he took a critical look at the 2018 popular uprising 
that brought Pashinian to power.
“The change of government in 2018 could have been the beginning of a new phase 
in our history … but it became the end of the previous phase, without offering a 
new ideology,” he said.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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