Author: Ani Basmajian

                                        Wednesday, 
Azerbaijan Slams Armenia For ‘Unconstructive Approaches’
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov (file photo).
Armenia has shown unconstructive approaches in terms of the implementation of 
the terms of the Russian-brokered 2020 ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijan’s top 
diplomat charged on Wednesday.
Speaking at a joint press conference with his visiting Algerian counterpart in 
Baku, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said that Azerbaijan wants to 
have good relations with its neighbors.
“The only right path to settle relations is to mutually respect the principle of 
the inviolability of each other’s borders, and we are moving forward based on 
that principle,” Bayramov said, as quoted by Azerbaijani media.
In March, Azerbaijan presented Armenia with five elements which it wants to be 
at the heart of a peace treaty to be signed by the two South Caucasus nations 
that fought a bloody six-week war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020.
The elements include a mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity. 
The Armenian government, in principle, agreed to the elements, but said they 
should be complemented by other issues relating to the future status of 
Nagorno-Karabakh and the security of its population.
Amid a fresh escalation of violence in the conflict zone on August 3 when at 
least two Armenians and one Azerbaijan soldier were killed, Nagorno-Karabakh’s 
de facto ethnic Armenian authorities ordered the evacuation, by the end of 
August, of several Armenian-populated settlements along the Lachin corridor, 
which is protected by Russian peacekeepers under the terms of the 2020 ceasefire 
agreement.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian argued during a cabinet session on 
August 4 that the trilateral agreement requires Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia 
to work out, before 2024, a joint “plan” for the construction of a new 
Armenia-Karabakh road. No such plan has been drawn up yet, he said.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, however, that the three sides did agree 
on the “route” of the new corridor early this year and accused Yerevan of 
dragging out work on its Armenian sections.
Eventually, the few remaining Armenian residents of the town of Lachin and 
Armenian families in the village of Aghavno have been ordered to leave their 
homes for good until August 25 as the area is due to be handed over to 
Azerbaijan’s control then.
In his remarks made on August 9 Bayramov accused Armenia of dragging out the 
fulfilment of another term of the 2020 ceasefire concerning the unblocking of 
regional transport links.
The Azerbaijan foreign minister again stressed that Armenia has still not opened 
road and railway links to connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave that 
Baku calls the ‘Zangezur corridor’ implying the extraterritorial status to be 
given to the routes passing through Armenia’s southern Syunik province.
Last week, the Armenian prime minister again implicitly rejected the corridor 
logic for the unblocking of regional transport routes, insisting that Armenia 
must maintain sovereignty over the transport routes in its territory. At the 
same time, he said that Azerbaijan is free to use any territory of Armenia, 
including Syunik, for transit purposes in accordance with Armenian legislation.
Bayramov said yesterday that Azerbaijan will in any case get an alternative 
transport link to its western exclave, referring to the recently launched 
construction of a bridge over the river Arax, which is part of the 
infrastructure for such a connection via Iran.
“Armenia is simply given a chance not to be left out of regional cooperation. If 
Yerevan fails to make the right decision, then it will damage its own 
interests,” the top Azerbaijani diplomat said, as quoted by Azerbaijan’s Turan 
news agency.
Armenian Opposition Slams Government Over Karabakh Corridor ‘Deal’
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
A Russian peacekeeper stands guard on a road in the town of Lachin (file photo).
Armenian opposition lawmakers have slammed the government for “again making 
deals behind the people’s back” after it was announced last week that Armenians 
will have to leave two settlements along the Lachin corridor linking Armenia and 
Nagorno-Karabakh in the coming weeks.
“Here again we are dealing with agreements and verbal arrangements reached 
behind the people’s back, and the deadline [for the evacuation of villages] 
revealed to the public is just another evidence of this,” the Armenian 
parliament’s opposition Hayastan faction said in a statement.
After the latest escalation of violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on 
August 1-3 in which at least two Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldiers were 
killed authorities in the Armenian-populated region revealed arrangements made 
with Azerbaijan through Russian peacekeepers that Armenian residents of several 
settlements along the current Lachin corridor, including the town of Lachin and 
the village of Aghavno, will be required to leave their homes for good until 
August 25.
The five-kilometer-wide corridor became Nagorno-Karabakh’s sole overland link to 
Armenia following the 2020 war. Armenian forces pulled out of the rest of the 
wider Lachin district under the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire that 
stopped the six-week hostilities.
The truce accord calls for the construction of a new Armenia-Karabakh highway 
that will bypass the town of Lachin and two Armenian-populated villages located 
within the current corridor protected by Russian peacekeeping troops.
Construction work on a new road in the Lachin corridor
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership revealed early last week that Azerbaijan had 
demanded through the peacekeepers the quick closure of the existing corridor and 
suggested that the Armenian side use a bypass road which has yet to be 
constructed.
Armenia’s government dismissed the demands as “not legitimate” amid renewed 
deadly fighting along the corridor in which Azerbaijan claimed to have captured 
several strategic heights. The Armenian side has not confirmed the loss of such 
heights yet.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian argued during a cabinet session on August 4 that 
the truce accord requires Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia to work out before 2024 
a joint “plan” for the construction of a new Armenia-Karabakh road. No such plan 
has been drawn up yet, he said.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, however, that the three sides did agree 
on the “route” of the new corridor early this year and accused Yerevan of 
dragging out work on its Armenian sections.
In its latest statement the opposition Hayastan parliamentary faction accused 
the current Armenian authorities of “serving the Turkish-Azerbaijani interests” 
in implementing a plan for the “exodus of Armenians” from Nagorno-Karabakh 
together with Ankara and Baku.
Hayastan, a bloc whose leader outside of parliament is former President Robert 
Kocharian, a top Pashinian critic, called for “nationwide consolidation”, 
stressing that “stopping the spinning wheel of defeats is possible only by 
removing the current authorities.”
Gegham Manukian
Hayastan lawmaker Gegham Manukian claimed that the Pashinian government 
“consistently fulfills the points of the trilateral statement of November 9, 
2020 that are beneficial to Azerbaijan, while not taking any steps towards the 
release of Armenian prisoners of war mentioned in the same document.”
“The authorities of Armenia have washed their hands of the Artsakh 
[Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.] Republic, the Artsakh Armenians and Artsakh’s security. 
Even though under the government program presented to the National Assembly in 
2021 as well as the election program of the [Pashinian-led] Civil Contract party 
the guarantor of the security of Artsakh Armenians is the Republic of Armenia, 
today Armenia is trying to completely put itself aside and leave Artsakh and 
Artsakh Armenians alone in this process,” Manukian said.
Vahagn Aleksanian, a member of the ruling Civil Contract faction, dismissed 
Hayastan’s criticism, claiming that instead of criticizing Azerbaijan, the 
opposition faction “extends the Azerbaijani aggression to the Armenian political 
and media domains.”
Vahagn Aleksanian
“First, I am very surprised that the Hayastan faction has finally decided to 
speak about the existence of the Lachin corridor and the Azerbaijani aggression 
there, because I had the impression that they did not want to talk about it. It 
was especially surprising, considering the fact that the Lachin corridor, under 
the terms of the 2020 ceasefire, is under absolute control of Russian 
peacekeepers. The Hayastan faction, for some reason, did not talk about that,” 
Aleksanian said.
“But generally the same pattern appears to be working with Azerbaijan and the 
Hayastan faction. Azerbaijan commits some kind of provocation, aggression, 
violates agreements, and after that the Hayastan faction, in its own style, 
starts accusing the Armenian authorities over the matter,” the pro-government 
lawmaker added.
Armenia To Conduct Population Census in October
        • Naira Nalbandian
People in a park in Yerevan, Armenia, July 2022.
After twice postponing a decennial census of the population due to the 
coronavirus pandemic, Armenia will hold it this year, with questionnaires for 
the first time to be filled in electronically.
According to the government, the third census of the population in the history 
of independent Armenia will be conducted from October 13 to October 22, with its 
results to be summarized within a year.
Authorities plan to spend about 1.5 billion drams, or some $3.7 million, on the 
event that will include visits to households and other data collection.
Armenia took its previous two population censuses in 2001 and 2011. It planned 
to conduct its third population census in 2020, but had to postpone it first 
until 2021 and then until 2022 because of the pandemic.
Vardan Gevorkian, head of the population census department of Armenia’s 
Statistics Committee, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that a combined method will 
be used for the population census this time around.
“We will use data from the state register with a 25-percent sample to be 
interviewed. Electronic questionnaires will be filled in with the use of 
tablets. This is new for us. If earlier paper questionnaires were filled in and 
census takers visited all households, now 25 percent of the sample will be made 
automatically, using a computer, in other words, it will concern every fourth 
household,” the official said.
By law, answering questions during a population census in Armenia is mandatory. 
According to officials, people will be asked a total of 39 questions, including 
those about their marital status, education, occupation, health, housing 
conditions, the main sources of livelihood and so on. Among the questions will 
also be ones about the availability of a second citizenship and the place of 
permanent residence of absent family members.
“If people answer questions correctly, we will get the correct results. Of 
course, there may be deviations, because we are using the combined method for 
the first time. There will be certain differences between the data in the 
administrative register and the data that we will actually obtain, which is due 
to the fact that the register keeps records of registered citizens, while we are 
going to deal with actual residents,” Gevorkian said.
According to the 2011 population census, Armenia had a population of a little 
more than 3 million people, which was by some 200,000 people less than according 
to the results of the population census taken 10 years earlier.
Reposted 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.