Author: Ani Basmajian

                                        Monday, 
Deal On Karabakh’s Status Not Urgent For Russia
        • Aza Babayan
RUSSIA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds his annual press 
conference via video link, Moscow, 
The status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved and it must be a subject of 
future Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov 
said on Monday.
In the meantime, he stressed, the disputed territory will be protected by 
Russian peacekeeping forces deployed there after a Moscow-brokered agreement 
that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10.
“Precisely because the problem of the status is so thorny it was decided by the 
three leaders [of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia] to circumvent and leave it to 
the future,” Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow. “The [Russian, U.S. and 
French] co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group must deal with this as well. They have 
resumed their contacts with the parties and are going to visit the region again.”
He suggested that the return to normality and confidence-building measures in 
the conflict zone will eventually facilitate an agreement on the main sticking 
point.
Speaking after his talks with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev hosted by 
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said 
that Karabakh’s status is among “many issues” that have yet to be settled by the 
conflicting sides. Yerevan maintains that Karabakh’s population must be able to 
exercise its right to self-determination in line peace proposals made by the 
Russian, U.S. and French mediators.
By contrast, Aliyev again said after the Moscow talks that the six-week war, 
which resulted in sweeping Azerbaijani territorial gains, essentially resolved 
the long-running conflict.
Earlier this month, Aliyev demanded that Armenian officials stop visiting 
Karabakh without Baku’s permission. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said 
Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian’s recent trip to Stepanakert violated the 
ceasefire agreement.
Yerevan rejected those claims as “completely baseless.” Lavrov also dismissed 
them, arguing that the agreement brokered by Putin provides for a land corridor 
between Armenia and Karabakh, which is also guarded by the Russian peacekeepers.
“If we agree … that there must be a link between the Armenians of Karabakh and 
Armenia then I see no reason why contacts carried out at that level should be 
hampered,” he said. “Armenian officials are involved in the provision of 
humanitarian assistance to Karabakh which does not cause negative emotions in 
Baku.”
Lavrov stressed at the same time that Armenian leaders should avoid making 
“emotional” statements when visiting Karabakh. He chided them for making such 
statements before the war.
New Lawmaker Defends Exit From Ruling Bloc
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Anna Grigorian is sworn in as a member of the Armenian parliament, 
Yerevan, .
A new member of Armenia’s parliament on Monday defended her decision to defect 
from the ruling My Step bloc and backed calls for Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s resignation.
The 29-year-old Anna Grigorian took up a vacant seat in the National Assembly 
two years after participating in the last Armenian parliamentary elections on 
the My Step ticket. She replaced a pro-government lawmaker who resigned last 
month.
“I believe that a government defeated in the war [in Nagorno-Karabakh] must 
inevitably resign,” Grigorian told reporters after being sworn in as a 
parliament deputy.
In that regard, Grigorian dismissed Pashinian’s offer to hold snap parliamentary 
elections to resolve a political crisis sparked by Armenia’s defeat in the 
recent war. She said such polls must be held by a new, interim government made 
up of “technocrats.”
Accordingly, she did not endorse a caretaker prime minister nominated by an 
alliance of Armenian opposition parties campaigning for Pashinian’s resignation. 
“I do not support any political force right now,” she stressed.
Four other deputies affiliated with My Step quit the parliament’s pro-government 
majority shortly after the Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the 
six-week war on November 10. Their and Grigorian’s defections reduced to 83 the 
number of seats officially controlled by Pashinian’s bloc in the 132-member 
legislature.
The defectors have drawn stern rebukes from senior lawmakers remaining loyal to 
Pashinian. Deputy parliament speaker Alen Simonian questioned their legitimacy 
on Monday, saying that they owe their parliament seats to the prime minister’s 
popularity.
Armenia -- Deputies from the ruling My Step bloc attend the opening of a regular 
session of the Armenian parliament, Yerevan, .
“It is very doubtful that many, many people would sit in the National Assembly 
if it wasn’t for Nikol Pashinian, the main driving force of [My Step’s landslide 
victory in] the last elections,” said Simonian.
Grigorian dismissed the criticism while acknowledging Pashinian’s personal 
contribution to her performance in the December 2018 elections.
“I want to remind that I was elected from an individual constituency,” she said. 
“I got more than 5,500 votes and a large part of them were given to me as an 
individual and to the team which I represented.”
Grigorian represents a constituency in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province 
which was directly affected by the recent war.
Many Syunik residents have been angered by Armenian troop withdrawals from 
adjacent districts southwest of Karabakh, which were handed back to Azerbaijan 
as part of the ceasefire deal, and ensuing Armenian-Azerbaijani border 
delimitations. They say that they can no longer feel safe because Azerbaijani 
forces are now deployed dangerously close to their communities.
The mayors of virtually all Syunik towns have issued statements demanding 
Pashinian’s resignation. Some of them organized protests that forced the prime 
minister to cut short on December 21 a trip to the mountainous region.
Armenian Health Minister Replaced
        • Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Health Minister Arsen Torosian speaks at a meeting of a task force 
coordinating the Armenian government's response to coronavirus outbreak, 
Yerevan, April 27, 2020.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian was sacked and appointed as chief of Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s staff on Monday.
In separate decrees requested by Pashinian, President Armen Sarkissian relieved 
Torosian of his duties and appointed his first deputy, Anahit Avanesian, as 
Armenia’s new health minister.
Torosian in turn replaced Eduard Aghajanian as chief of the prime minister’s 
staff. Aghajanian has been a key member of Pashinian’s political team.
Pashinian did not explain the moves. Torosian also issued no statements on his 
sacking and new appointment predicted by some Armenian media outlets over the 
weekend.
Torosian, 38, is a senior member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party who was 
appointed as health minister right after the “Velvet Revolution” of April-May 
2018. Throughout his tenure he has been criticized not only by opposition groups 
but also some pro-government parliamentarians.
The criticism intensified after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which has 
hit Armenia hard. Torosian has repeatedly defended his and other government 
officials’ response to the unprecedented health crisis strongly condemned by the 
Armenian opposition.
It was not immediately clear whether Pashinian decided to replace the health 
minister because of the pandemic or as part of a cabinet reshuffle promised by 
him shortly after the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the autumn war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10.
Six other Armenian ministers were sacked in late November and early December.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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