RFE/RL Armenian Report – 09/27/2022
Tuesday,
Greece Voices Solidarity With Armenia
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (right) and his Greek
counterpart Nikos Dendias hold a joint news briefing in Yerevan, September 27,
2022.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias condemned Azerbaijan’s recent military
operations at the border with Armenia and also blamed Turkey for the dramatic
escalation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict as he visited Yerevan on Tuesday.
“We Greece have repeatedly underlined that we support the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of all states,” Dendias said after talks with his Armenian
counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan. “That goes also for our dear friends, the
Armenians, Armenia.”
“We believe in the inviolability of borders, and I am referring to the incidents
that happened just a few days ago following the shelling of Armenian territory,
including inhabited areas, by the Azeri military forces,” he told a joint news
briefing. “And I would like to quote [French] President Macron who said
yesterday: ‘I strongly condemn what happened in recent days and call for peace
and resumption of negotiations.’ So I am here to express our solidarity with the
Armenian government and the Armenian people.”
Dendias went on to denounce attempts to “redraw maps,” pointing the finger at
not only Azerbaijan but also its key ally, Turkey.
“Turkey is trying to take advantage of the recent turmoil in order to undermine
peace and stability, be it in the Caucasus or the Aegean,” he charged, pointing
to Ankara’s “threat of war against Greece” voiced in an intensifying dispute
over Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
Mirzoyan thanked Athens for its position on the border clashes of September
13-14 which Yerevan regards as Azerbaijani military aggression.
Predictably, Ankara has voiced full support for Baku after what was the worst
fighting in the conflict zone since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Dendias flew to Yerevan just over a week after he, Mirzoyan and Foreign Minister
Ioannis Kasoulides of Cyprus held a trilateral meeting in New York on the
sidelines of an annual session of the UN General Assembly. The three nations
share historically strained relations with Turkey.
“We are looking forward to enhancing our trilateral partnership with Cyprus to a
new level,” said Dendias, who held separate meetings with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian and Defense Minister Suren Papikian later on Tuesday.
The Greek minister’s trip coincided with the second anniversary of the outbreak
of the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. He had previously visited Armenia during
the six-week hostilities.
Armenian Leaders Cancel Key Ceremony On Karabakh War Anniversary
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Women visit one of the graves of Armenian soldiers killed in the 2020
war in Nagorno-Karabakh and buried in the Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan,
January 28, 2022.
Avoiding another confrontation with angry parents of fallen soldiers, Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian and other senior officials did not visit Armenia’s main
military cemetery on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the devastating
war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The war broke out early on September 27, 2020 when Azerbaijan launched a
large-scale military offensive along the Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact”
around Karabakh. The Azerbaijani army captured four districts south of the
Armenian-populated disputed territory as well as Karabakh’s southern Hadrut
district and the town of Shushi (Shusha) before a Russian-brokered ceasefire
stopped the hostilities on November 10.
Baku also regained control in the following weeks over the three other districts
occupied by Karabakh Armenian forces in the early 1990s. The truce accord
negotiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin also led to the deployment of
2,000 Russian peacekeeping forces in Karabakh.
According to the Armenian authorities, 3,825 Armenian soldiers and 80 civilians
were killed during the six-week war. At least 203 other servicemen remain
unaccounted for.
Nagorno-Karabakh - An Armenian soldier fires an artillery piece on the
frontline, October 5, 2020.
Early in the morning, the parents of several dozen soldiers killed in action
gathered at the Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan to try to prevent
Pashinian from laying flowers there as part of planned official ceremonies to
mark the war anniversary. They hold him responsible for the deaths of their sons.
The same protesters tried unsuccessfully to disrupt a wreath-laying ceremony led
by Pashinian there on Armenia’s Independence Day marked on September 21. Riot
police broke up the protest and detained dozens of its participants, causing
uproar from opposition and civic groups.
Pashinian, members of his government and political team as well as President
Vahagn Khachaturian decided not to visit Yerablur this time around. According to
pro-government media, they did not want to cause further tension at the cemetery
where hundreds of Armenian victims of the 2020 war were laid to rest.
Armenia - Police detain the mother of an Armenian soldier killed in the 2020 war
in Nagorno-Karabakh at the Yerablur Military Pantheon, Yerevan, September 21,
2022.
“Today, we once again bow our heads and commemorate the fallen warriors of the
44-day war, who fought to stop the existential threat facing our compatriots,”
the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on the occasion.
The ministry said the six-week war demonstrated “Azerbaijan's state policy of
ethnic cleansing of Armenians of Artsakh.”
“Even today, through the use of force and the threat of use of force, Azerbaijan
attempts to realize its maximalist aspirations, rejecting the very fact of
Nagorno-Karabakh’s existence as a territorial unit and the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict,” it said.
The war anniversary was also marked in Azerbaijan whose government has
acknowledged over 2,900 combat and civilian deaths. The country observed a
minute of silence in memory of its war dead.
Ter-Petrosian Wants Dialogue Between Armenian Government, Opposition
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian at a press conference in Yerevan,
June 10, 2021.
Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian has called on Armenia’s government and
leading opposition groups to reach a consensus on how to make peace with
Azerbaijan and Turkey.
In a televised interview aired late on Monday, Ter-Petrosian said the Armenian
opposition should help Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accept “painful solutions”
backed by the international community.
“All solutions will be bad for us,” he told Armenian Public Television. “I
believe the challenge is to choose the least painful of those solutions.”
“Pashinian is also afraid of signing such a document,” he went on. “Whatever
document he signs they will brand him a traitor, a Turk or I don’t know what. In
my view, we will give Pashinian a helping hand if we choose the least painful
variant. We will thereby shoulder responsibility for that variant.”
Ter-Petrosian claimed that Armenia will have to make even greater concessions if
it rejects such a settlement now. He said at the same time that he does not know
the exact terms of peace accords currently offered by Azerbaijan or major
foreign powers. Only Pashinian and some members of his inner circle possess such
information, he said.
The remarks came almost a week after Ter-Petrosian and two other former
presidents, Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, met to discuss grave security
challenges facing Armenia. The meeting was hosted by Catholicos Garegin II, the
supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, at his headquarters in
Echmiadzin. No concrete agreements were apparently reached by them.
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, June 14, 2022.
Kocharian and Sarkisian lead the two opposition groups represented in the
Armenian parliament. They staged virtually daily street protests in Yerevan in
May and June after Pashinian signaled readiness to make major concessions to
Azerbaijan.
“No [national] unity can be formed with the participation of Nikol Pashinian,”
Armen Ashotian, a senior member of Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK), said on
Monday night, commenting on Ter-Petrosian’s remarks.
Ashotian warned that because of his “tough personal position or unbridled
ambition” Ter-Petrosian risks dashing hopes raised by the rare dialogue of the
three ex-presidents. The latter have long had uneasy relations with each other.
There was no immediate official reaction from Kocharian’s Hayastan alliance.
Still, some of its parliamentarians rejected what they see as a defeatist agenda
promoted by Ter-Petrosian.
“What Levon Ter-Petrosian is saying is ‘forget about Karabakh’ and ‘we
capitulated, so let’s accept everything that the enemy wants,’” one of those
lawmakers, Gegham Manukian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday.
“Ter-Petrosian voiced no calls for public consolidation, self-organization and
resistance.”
Manukian claimed that Ter-Petrosian’s chief preoccupation now is to “save Nikol”
through the proposed dialogue.
Meanwhile, a senior lawmaker representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party,
Artur Hovannisian, hit out at the parliamentary opposition forces, saying that
they have “served the interests of other countries.” He did not name those
countries.
Hovannisian at the same time said: “I hope that the meetings of the former
presidents and the Catholicos will be beneficial for our country.”
Hayastan and the HHK demanded a parliamentary vote of no confidence in Pashinian
after he sparked on September 14 a spontaneous antigovernment demonstration in
Yerevan on the second day of deadly border clashes between Armenian and
Azerbaijani forces.
Speaking in the parliament, the prime minister expressed readiness to sign an
unpopular peace treaty with Azerbaijan “as a result of which many people will
criticize, curse and declare us traitors.” He said he is ready to recognize
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity through such a treaty if Baku withdraws its
troops from Armenian border regions occupied by it.
Pashinian’s statement fueled rumors that Yerevan will unconditionally accept
Baku’s terms of the treaty, including recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty
over Nagorno-Karabakh. Thousands of angry people rallied outside the parliament
building in Yerevan to demand Pashinian’s removal from power.
U.S. Insists On Azerbaijani Troop Withdrawal
U.S. -- U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price speaks during a press briefing
at the State Department in Washington, February 8, 2021
The United States has publicly urged Azerbaijan to withdraw its troops from the
territory seized by them during border clashes with Armenian forces earlier this
month.
“Our message has been consistent for some time,” Ned Price, the U.S. State
Department spokesman, said on Monday. “We call on Azerbaijan to return troops to
their initial positions. We urge disengagement of military forces and work to
resolve all outstanding issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan through peaceful
negotiations.”
“The use of force is not an acceptable path,” Price told a daily news briefing
in Washington. “We’ve made that clear privately. We’ve also made that clear
publicly, and we’re glad that our continued engagement, including at high
levels, including last week in New York, with both countries has helped to halt
the hostilities.”
Price referred to the meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York on
September 19. No concrete agreements were announced after the talks held on the
sidelines of an annual session of the UN General Assembly.
Blinken reportedly urged the two ministers to meet again before the end of
September. Price would not say whether such a meeting will take place in the
coming days.
He also declined to shed light on other Armenian and Azerbaijani officials’
ongoing visits to Washington. A senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried earlier on
Monday.
“We are in regular contact with both Armenian and Azeri officials,” said Price.
“That will continue.”
The conflicting sides blame each other for the September 13-14 fighting that
left at least 280 soldiers dead. Azerbaijani troops reportedly attacked and
seized some of the Armenian army positions along the long border between the two
states. Blinken urged Aliyev to “cease hostilities” when they spoke by phone
during what was the worst escalation of the conflict since the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday likewise called for the Azerbaijani
troop withdrawal. Meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Paris, Macron
said Baku should also stop using or threatening to use force to resolve the
conflict with Armenia.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province calls for broader ties with Armenia
East Azerbaijan Province Governor Abedin Khorram considers the visit of the province’s economic and trade delegation to Armenia as evidence of Iran’s seriousness in expanding ties with its neighbors, Mehr reported.
During a speech at the Iran-Armenia trade conference in Yerevan on Saturday, Khorram said that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers the peace, stability and security of neighboring countries as its own.
“In line with developments in the region, strengthening relations with other countries is of great importance to Iran… Iran and Armenia are in a good strategic situation in terms of political and economic relations,” he said.
The Iranian governor also stressed the need to improve economic and trade relations between the countries.
“The serious will of both sides is to remove obstacles to the development of relations, and I hope that after this trip, regardless of the formalities, we can see the materialization of the will of the two governments and the two peoples,” Khorram said.
He also noted that “East Azerbaijan and Syunik province can play an important role in expanding economic exchanges between the two countries.
“The suitable infrastructure of East Azerbaijan, including the “Aras” free zone on the common border with Armenia and the presence of 50 border towns and industrial zones, can increase the level of trade between the two countries. Our private sector is determined to develop relations with neighboring countries, and we hope that the Armenian private sector will also take this opportunity for cooperation and joint investments,” he said.
Khorram added that the establishment of joint border markets and industrial cities on the common border of the two countries could be one of the achievements of this trip.
Azerbaijan intends to undermine the peace process, warns Armenian FM
13:29, 3 September 2022
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Continued arbitrary, false interpretations of the negotiations and the avoidance to implement the agreements make an impression that Azerbaijan intends to undermine the peace process and continue its policy of ethnic cleansing through the use of force, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said regarding some speculations on the Brussels meeting of August 31st.
“The position of the Armenian side regarding the five provisions proposed by Azerbaijan is unchanged. As we have stated before, we find nothing unacceptable in the proposals forwarded by Azerbaijan on March 10, 2022. Another thing is that these proposals do not address all issues of the Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda. With our response forwarded to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, we completed the agenda, and therefore, on that basis, we are ready for the continuation of peace negotiations.
This was once again confirmed by Prime Minister Pashinyan during the recent discussions held in Brussels.
Not listening or trying not to listen to this position gives the Armenian side a reason to question the sincerity of Azerbaijan’s intention in achieving peace. Moreover, the continued arbitrary, false interpretations of the negotiations and the avoidance to implement the agreements make an impression that Azerbaijan intends to undermine the peace process and continue its policy of ethnic cleansing through the use of force,” FM Mirzoyan said.
Azerbaijani forces open fire at Armenian military vehicle
Azerbaijani troops opened fire at an Armenian army vehicle in the eastern border section late on Friday, the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
No casualties were reported on the Armenian side.
The ministry also denied the Azerbaijani accusations of cross-border shooting.
“At the same time, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spread disinformation, claiming that the Armenian army units opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions and military vehicles in the eastern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” the statement said.
Asbarez: Lachin Corridor Will Close to Armenians Tomorrow
The map shows the new road and the current Lachin corridor (Azatutyun.am graphics)
Beginning at 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday, the Lachin Corridor, which for more than three decades has served as the main artery connecting Armenia with Artsakh, will be permanently closed to Armenian travelers. Instead, a new temporary road that bypasses the Aghavno and Sus villages in Artsakh’s Berdzor region will begin operating and will be monitored by Russian peacekeepers.
The closure comes weeks after Azerbaijan launched an attack on Berdzor, killing two Artsakh soldiers, and effectively forcing the authorities of Armenia and Artsakh, as well as the Russian peacekeeping contingent to give in to its demands and occupy the region ahead of the timeline outlined by the November 9, 2020 agreement.
Artsakh’s Urban Development Minister Aram Sargsyan said that the 4.7-kilometer (2.9 miles) temporary road has already been paved, adding that some last-minute work is underway, such as drawing the traffic lines, reported Azatutyun.am’s Armenian Service.
The temporary road is slated to operate as “corridor.” The Russian peacekeeping leaders last week said that the new road will also have the legal status of a corridor.
According to Artsakh’s Interior Ministry spokesperson Hunan Tadevosyan, the Russian peacekeeping forces are currently finalizing their posts along the stretch of the road and will be ready by Tuesday.
The temporary road is expected to be used until the spring, when the construction of the new main road is expected to be completed.
Last week, Artsakh authorities announced that the Lachin corridor would remain open until the end of August 31. However, on Monday, the Artsakh Security Council decided to close that road earlier and reroute the traffic onto the temporary road.
Tadevosyan, the ministry spokesperson, said that there were no incidents during the past four days when there was simultaneous Azerbaijani and Armenian traffic.
Azerbaijanis entered Berdzor, Aghavno and Sus on Friday with loud fanfare. The first order of business for them was destroying the Berdzor sign and the entered Aghavno blasting Azerbaijani music. This was followed by a convoy Azerbaijani military personnel flooding the region, according to Azatutyun.am.
Azerbaijani military convoy enters Berdzor and Aghavno
The Russian peacekeeping forces have fortified their presence within Berdzor.
Locals reported to Azatutyun.am that there is heaving military presence in Aghavno. In Berdzor, where Armenian vehicles also travel, there are unarmed Azerbaijanis. In the city, however, power supply and other infrastructure management workers were observed.
“The road leading from the northern portion of Kashatagh to the south or from the southern section to the north passes through the Berdzor corridor. Many vehicles pass through there, as well as through the city of Berdzor, from the upper part to the lower part. Since they [the Azerbaijanis] just arrived, at the moment there are probably infrastructure repair efforts,” Tadevosyan told Azatutyun.am, adding that situation will continue until Tuesday evening. The temporary road bypassing the corridor enters Stepanakert through the Mets Shen village of Berdadzor and past Old Shen. The construction was carried out by the Azerbaijani side.
According to Davit Davtyan, the mayor of Mets Shen, there are no services for travelers in this section of the new corridor connecting Armenia with Artsakh.
Yerevan prosecutor seeks shutdown of Surmalu trade center over multiple violations of safety rules
13:04, 25 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. Amid an ongoing investigation into the explosion at the Surmalu trade center, the Prosecutor of Yerevan Sevak Hovhannisyan filed motions to the Urban Development, Technical and Fire Safety Inspection Agency to determine and eliminate the circumstances which contributed to the crime.
The investigations into the 2021 fire at Surmalu and the 2022 explosion revealed that the Urban Development, Technical and Fire Safety Inspection Agency’s Director ordered inspections in 2021 in the Yerevan Canning Factory CJSC (Surmalu trade center). 16 technical and fire safety violations were registered and the company was given deadlines to eliminate the risks.
The probe also revealed that some businesses at the Surmalu trade center were illegally storing and selling pyrotechnics.
Documents confiscated from the Urban Development, Technical and Fire Safety Inspection Agency showed that no inspections or preventive measures were taken by the agency at the Yerevan Canning Factory CJSC after the deadline of eliminating the violations registered earlier. Numerous fire safety violations were recorded in Surmaly trade center, which caused the fire.
The Yerevan prosecutor recommended authorities to swiftly launch inspections at all major trade centers, especially where the buildings are reconstructed on premises that were used for other purposes in the past, to enforce the ban on trade of pyrotechnics in trade centers and crowded areas, and to cease the operations of the Yerevan Canning Factory CJSC until the company eliminates the fire safety violations.
The August 14 explosion in Surmalu trade center killed 16 people and injured over 60 others. One person is presumed missing in the blast.
The criminal case is opened on Violation of Fire Safety Rules Causing Deaths and Violating of Safety Rules for Storing, Transporting, Using or Supplying Flammable or Incendiary Materials Causing Death.
President of Kyrgyzstan receives Azerbaijani PM
18:54,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. As part of his working visit to Kyrgyzstan, Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov met with the President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, ARMENPRESS reports, citing Azerbaijani media.
Before the meeting with the President of Kyrgyzstan, Asadov participated as a guest in the session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council on August 25.
Assembly Cites The Christian Post’s Article in Calls for Release of Armenian POWs
Amendments to Law on Military Service unacceptable -MP
ArmInfo.The government-proposed bill allowing early demobilization provided servicemen pay AMD 24mln (about $50,000) to the state budget is unacceptable, the opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan wrote on his Facebook page.
It will only confound social injustice and deepen the social crisis.
As regards the authorities’ claims that the initiative will allow contract servicemen to receive higher salaries, Mr Abrahamyan said:
“That is, they are convincing us that the state has no money for contract servicemen. Our servicemen’s social conditions must meet higher-than-average standards as these people are safeguarding our security. However, they are not feeling support on the government’s part. Rather they are facing constant threats because of the authorities’ policy,” he wrote.
Armenia’s government has posted amendments to the Law on Military Service. According to one of the amendments, after a four-and-a-half-month training course, a serviceman can be exempted from further military service after paying AMD 24mln to Armenia’s state budget, which, according to the bill, will allow one contract serviceman to receive AMD 400,000 (about $1,000) for five years running.