Author: Ani Kharatian

MP Arthur Khachatryan visits European Parliament, presents opposition stance on Artsakh settlement

Ani Kharatian
Panorama
Armenia – May 7 2022

On the initiative of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD), ARF member Arthur Khachatryan, an MP from the opposition Hayastan bloc, paid a visit to Strasbourg, Brussels from May 2-6, EAFJD said in a statement.

The lawmaker and representatives of EAFJD had meetings with two dozen members of the European Parliament. In particular, meetings were held with Vice President of the European Parliament Eva Kaili (Greece, Socialists & Democrats), Chair of the Delegation for Cooperation with the South Caucasus Marina Kaljurand (Estonia, Socialists & Democrats), Head of the Delegation of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania, European People’s Party), European Parliament Rapporteur on Armenia Andrey Kovatchev (Bulgaria, European People’s Party), Head of the Friendship Group with Armenia in the European Parliament Lucas Fourlas (Cyprus, European People’s Party) as well as Head of the Friendship Group with Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh Peter van Dalen (Netherlands, European People’s Party).

During the meetings, the issue of Artsakh was discussed, in particular, the anti-Armenian policy pursued by Azerbaijan, the ongoing military provocations in Artsakh (in particular, the tensions in Khnapat-Khramort border section, the establishment of Azerbaijani control over Parukh village and the Karaglukh height), the psychological terror and humanitarian crisis aimed at the eviction of Armenians from Artsakh.

Arthur Khachatryan briefed the MEPs on the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the aspirations of the Azerbaijani forces towards the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. Special attention was paid to the issue of Armenian captives held in Azerbaijan.

“At the request of the interlocutors, Mr. Khachatryan presented the opposition’s approaches to the settlement of the Artsakh issue, emphasizing the importance to respect the right to self-determination of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh and the exclusion of any status of Artsakh within Azerbaijan. Mr. Khachatryan also briefed the MEPs on the internal political situation in Armenia, the latest developments, raising the issue of disproportionate use of force against the protesters and journalists covering the protests,” EAFJD said.

A separate meeting was held with Special Rapporteur on Azerbaijan Željana Zovko. The main topic during the meeting was the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as well as Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy pursued at state level.

The visit was summed up in Brussels with a round table discussion with the members of the Armenian National Committee of Belgium.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 04/29/2022

Ani Kharatian 
                                        Friday, April 29, 2022
Officer In Pashinian Motorcade Freed After Deadly Crash
April 29, 2022
        • Nane Sahakian
        • Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Law-enforcement officers inspect the scene of a fatal accident caused 
by a police car escorting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, April 26, 
2022.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency has set free a police officer whose car hit 
and killed a young woman while escorting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
motorcade in Yerevan earlier this week.
The 28-year-old pregnant woman, Sona Mnatsakanian, was struck by a police SUV 
while crossing a street in the city center. The vehicle did not stop after the 
collision that sparked more opposition calls for Pashinian’s resignation. Its 
driver, Major Aram Navasardian, was arrested a few hours later.
The Investigative Committee charged Navasardian with violating traffic rules on 
Friday hours before releasing him from custody. A spokesperson for the 
law-enforcement agency said the officer signed a formal pledge not to leave 
Armenia during the investigation.
The investigators did not identify any other suspects in the high-profile case.
Navasardian’s lawyer, Ruben Baloyan, said his client is not accused of fleeing 
the scene and not helping the victim who later died from her severe injuries.
“He came back to the scene of the accident and took part in its examination,” 
Baloyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
According the Investigative Committee, the traffic policeman showed up only two 
hours after Tuesday’s crash.
Pashinian’s limousine and the six other cars making up his motorcade also drove 
past the dying woman and did not try to help her. The prime minister has still 
not publicly commented on the unprecedented accident.
The deputy chief of his staff, Taron Chakhoyan, claimed on Wednesday that the 
motorcade would have caused a traffic jam and made it harder for an ambulance to 
reach the victim had it stopped right after the crash.
Chakhoyan also said that “internationally accepted rules” stipulate that the 
motorcades of government leaders “have no right to stop in unauthorized places.”
Narek Martirosian, a reporter with the fact-checking website fip.am, dismissed 
the official’s claim. He said that both Armenian law and an international 
convention on road safety signed by Armenia require everyone to stop at the 
scene of an accident caused by them.
Opposition figures have been even more critical of Pashinian’s failure to halt 
his motorcade. Some of them have blamed him for the woman’s death and demanded 
his resignation.
The victim’s family has not publicly commented on the crash so far.
Russia’s Lavrov Offers Talks With Armenian, Azeri FMs
April 29, 2022
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shakes hands with Armenian Foreign 
Minister Ararat Mirzoyan during a joint news conference in Moscow, Russia April 
8, 2022.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has offered to hold a trilateral meeting 
with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts next month, the Armenian Foreign 
Ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan accepted the proposal in a 
phone call with Lavrov. Mirzoyan, Lavrov and Azerbaijan’s Jeyhun Bayramov would 
hold the talks on the sidelines of a meeting of top diplomats of ex-Soviet 
states that will be held in Tajikistan on May 13, it added in a statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not mention the proposed talks in its readout 
of the phone call. It said Lavrov discussed with Mirzoyan the creation of an 
Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on demarcating the border between the two South 
Caucasus states. They also “exchanged views” on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace 
treaty sought by Baku.
Mirzoyan and Bayramov discussed these issues on Monday in what was their second 
phone call in two weeks. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the two sides will 
soon hold a “meeting regarding the commission” on border demarcation.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
first agreed to form such a body during their trilateral meeting with Russian 
President Vladimir Putin last November. However, it was not set up in the 
following months.
Aliyev and Pashinian pledged to form the commission before the end of this month 
when they met in Brussels on April 6 for talks in Brussels hosted by European 
Council President Charles Michel. The latter said they also plan to “move 
rapidly” towards negotiating the peace treaty.
Russia responded by accusing the European Union and the United States of trying 
to hijack Russian efforts to broker peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part 
of the ongoing geopolitical standoff over Ukraine.
Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed Russia’s key role in 
the peace process in a joint declaration issued after their April 19 talks 
outside Moscow.
Michel phoned the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders a few days later. He said 
afterwards that the EU “remains committed to supporting Armenia and Azerbaijan 
in their dialogue.”
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, announced on 
Friday that he will meet again with Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide, Hikmet 
Hajiyev, in Brussels on May 2.
Aliyev revealed plans for such talks earlier in the day. He praised the EU’s 
“honest” role in the peace process.
Armenia’s Top Court Upholds Criminalization Of Insults
April 29, 2022
        • Naira Bulghadarian
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia - The Constitutional Court announces its decision to reject opposition 
appeals against official results of the June 20 parliamentary elections, 
Yerevan, July 17, 2021.
The Constitutional Court has refused to strike down a controversial law that 
made it a crime to insult Armenian officials and public figures.
The amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code passed by the country’s parliament 
last summer made “grave insults” directed at individuals because of their 
“public activities” an offense punishable with hefty fines or prison sentences 
of up to three months. Those individuals may include government and 
law-enforcement officials, politicians and other public figures.
Opposition and human rights groups have criticized the measure, calling it an 
infringement of free speech. Late last year, opposition lawmakers as well as 
human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan asked the Constitutional Court to declare 
the amendments unconstitutional.
The court said on Friday that it has rejected the appeals. It is due to 
publicize the full text of the decision by Tuesday.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General reported on Thursday that 51 Armenians have 
been charged with defamation and hundreds of others investigated on the same 
grounds since the amendments took effect in September. Six of them have already 
been found guilty by courts, it said in a statement.
Many of those individuals are thought to have been prosecuted for insulting 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
According to the statement, the vast majority of people facing such criminal 
proceedings are not politicians or journalists. The prosecutors portrayed this 
as further proof that the controversial law is not meant to suppress press 
freedom or political dissent.
Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to Protect the Free Speech 
dismissed that argument.
“Freedom of speech does not just apply to mass media,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service. “It’s a much broader concept.”
Melikian again called for a repeal of the legislation that has also been 
criticized by Western watchdogs such as Freedom House and Amnesty International.
Senior lawmakers representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party have repeatedly 
dismissed such calls.
All forms of slander and defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 
during former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule.
Pashinian Meets Karabakh Leaders, Defends ‘Peace Agenda’
April 29, 2022
        • Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pasinian and Karabakh President Arayik 
Harutiunian arrive for a meeting in Yerevan, Aprl 29, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian defended his conciliatory policy towards 
Azerbaijan as he met with Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership in Yerevan on Friday.
“I want to say that the agenda of peace is not an agenda of defeat,” he told 
Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, and other senior Karabakh officials. 
“The agenda of peace is an agenda of overcoming the horrors of war and the 
difficulties that followed the war and guaranteeing the security, rights and 
future of the people.”
It was Pashinian’s first face-to-face meeting with the Karabakh leaders since 
his April 13 speech in the Armenian parliament which caused an outcry in Armenia 
and Karabakh.
Addressing the parliament, Pashinian said 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.
Armenian opposition leaders portrayed the speech as further proof that Pashinian 
has agreed to Azerbaijani control over Karabakh.
The authorities in Stepanakert also deplored it. In a resolution, the Karabakh 
parliament demanded that the Armenian authorities “abandon their current 
disastrous position.”
Earlier this week, Harutiunian claimed to have received assurances from 
Pashinian that Yerevan will not back any agreements on the territory’s status 
unacceptable to the Karabakh Armenians.
Pashinian said in this regard on Thursday that he will not cut any peace deals 
with Azerbaijan without consulting with the Karabakh leadership.
Harutiunian confirmed his support for the “agenda of peace.” But he also 
stressed: “On the other hand, I want to make clear that we see no way of 
deviating from our right to self-determination.”
Pashinian made no mention of that right in his opening remarks publicized by his 
press office. He again did not specify Karabakh’s future status acceptable to 
Yerevan. He reiterated instead that the people of Karabakh must be able to 
continue to live in the disputed territory and “consider themselves Armenians.”
“This is the agenda which we must jointly advance. I am convinced that we are 
moving in the right direction, and I am happy when the Artsakh authorities share 
that conviction,” added the Armenian premier.
The meeting with Harutiunian and other Karabakh officials came amid intensifying 
opposition demonstrations in Yerevan sparked by Pashinian’s Karabakh discourse. 
Armenia’s leading opposition groups are trying to force Pashinian to resign.
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.

Anti-Pashinyan protest held outside Armenian parliament

Ani Kharatian
Panorama
Armenia –

A protest against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was held outside the Armenian parliament on Wednesday morning.

Several employees of the National Assembly held posters reading “Stop Nikol” on the stairs of the parliament building, were photographed and shared their photos on social media.

Earlier on Monday, Armenia’s opposition groups started coordinated protests and marches in Yerevan to topple Pashinyan and his cabinet in a bid to thwart “new concessions” to Azerbaijan.

Pregnant woman killed in car accident: driver detained

Ani Kharatian
ARMINFO
Armenia –
Marianna Mkrtchyan

ArmInfo. Law-enforcers have detained the officer platoon commander who was driving the off-roader that run over a pregnant young woman at the intersection of Paronyan street and Leo street. 

“According to the preliminary data, on April 26, at 18:06pm, the  commander of an officer platoon of the Traffic Police, driving a  Toyota Prado, run over a 28-year-old resident of the Ararat region.  The woman was admitted to the Nairi medical center with bodily  injuries and died without regaining consciousness. 

“The driver left the scene, but later returned and participated in  the investigative action. He has been detained. The preliminary  investigation is in progress,” the official report reads.

The off-roader was among the escort vehicles of Armenia’s Premier  Nikol Pashinyan. The killed woman was expecting her firstborn this  June. Last evening people were bringing toys and lit candles to the  scene of accident.

https://arminfo.info/full_news.php?id=69119&lang=3

Armenia ex-ruling party official: Turkey and Azerbaijan are the ‘international community?’

Ani Kharatian
News.am
Armenia –
Armenia ex-ruling party official: Turkey and Azerbaijan are the ‘international community?’
10:20, 18.04.2022

What is happening before and after the [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war [in the fall of 2020] is happening because of these anti-state, destructive authorities. Eduard Sharmazanov, National Assembly ex-deputy speaker as well as vice-chairman and spokesperson of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“In one part they say, ‘What genocide?’ In another part they say, ‘What Artsakh status?’ They say we must lower the bar on the matter of the status of Artsakh. Who is the ‘international community?’ Are Turkey and Azerbaijan the ‘international community?’ The international community stands with those who keep their homeland,” Sharmazanov said.

According to him, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not learn about the negotiation process from the former presidents, but from his “constructive” colleague: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

“This man [i.e., Pashinyan] has put forward theories in 3-4 years that even the Azerbaijani propaganda has not put forward. Or what does it matter who left what negotiation legacy? (…). During [preceding Armenian President and RPA chairman] Serzh Sargsyan’s talks, Aliyev was saying, ‘Behind closed doors, they are forcing us to recognize Artsakh’s independence.’ But now Pashinyan is saying that the international community is forcing us to lower the [Artsakh] status bar,” he said.

As per Sharmazanov, all former Armenian leaders should put aside their differences, come together, and make a decision because Armenia is facing very serious challenges, and the question of its existence is put.

“Armenian blood is shed on every square [meter] in Artsakh. I say again: this is not only an Artsakh issue, this is a matter of the dignity of the Armenian people. The movement in [19]88 was not only for the people of Artsakh; this is a pan-Armenian issue. After the [Armenian] Genocide, the Artsakh issue is our national awakening,” Eduard Sharmazanov added.

Armenian FM receives French Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group

Ani Kharatian

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 14:37,

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan received today French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Brice Roquefeuil, the spokesperson of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Vahan Hunanyan said in a statement on social media.

“On April 11 Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan received French Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Brice Roquefeuil. Details later”, the spokesperson said.

Turkish press: Azerbaijan, Armenia to start process for peace talks: EU’s Michel

Ani Kharatian
Rabia İclal Turan   |07.04.2022


ISTANBUL 

Azerbaijan and Armenia have decided to launch a “concrete process” for peace talks, European Council President Charles Michel said Wednesday after a meeting with the two countries’ leaders in Brussels.

Speaking to reporters following the meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Charles Michel said they made “a lot of progress.”

“It means that we have decided all together to launch a concrete process for peace talks to prepare a possible peace treaty and to address all the necessary elements for such a treaty,” he said.

The leaders also agreed to set up a joint committee and to maintain a “channel of communication,” Michel said after the five-hour meeting.

“We are working very hard. We are making progress. I don’t underestimate the challenges, the difficulties on both sides, but I feel there’s a common will to make progress,” he stressed.

Michel later released a statement about the outcome of the three-way meeting, in which he reiterated the European Union’s commitment to “deepen its cooperation with Armenia and Azerbaijan” to overcome tensions in the South Caucasus and for a “secure, stable, peaceful and prosperous” region.

According to Michel, Aliyev and Pashinyan both stated their desire to “move rapidly towards a peace agreement between their countries.”

“To this end, it was agreed to instruct the ministers of foreign affairs to work on the preparation of a future peace treaty which would address all necessary issues,” the statement added.

They also agreed to convene a Joint Border Commission by the end of April, the statement noted.

“The mandate of the Joint Border Commission will be to delimit the bilateral border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and ensure a stable security situation along, and in the vicinity of, the borderline,” it added.

Last December, around a year after the two countries ended a 44-day war over Nagorno-Karabakh, Michel met separately with both leaders and then hosted them both at a dinner in Brussels.

Relations between the two former Soviet countries have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted in September 2020, and a 44-day conflict saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

A tripartite agreement was brokered by Russia to bring an end to the war in November 2020.

Forecast: If Moscow is not forced to choose, it will continue to balance between Baku and Yerevan

Ani Kharatian
ARMINFO
Armenia – April 1 2022
David Stepanyan

ArmInfo. Despite the fact that the current crisis around Nagorno- Karabakh is clearly not provoked by the situation in Ukraine, and the settlement of this conflict will be  within its own logic, it would be wrong to completely deny the  influence of the Ukrainian factor in all this.  Sergei Markedonov,   Leading Researcher at the MGIMO Institute for International Studies,  Editor- in-Chief of the Journal of International Analytic told  Arminfo

“The Western informational narrative, one way or another, has a huge  resource of influence beyond the US and Europe as well. Accordingly,  the latest assessments of the campaign in Ukraine may well contribute  to the formation of interpretations, according to which Moscow no  longer has time for Transcaucasia. The latter may well lead,  moreover, it is already leading to Baku’s attempts to push back the  “red lines,” he stressed.

Noting the growing criticism of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan  regarding the actions of the Russian Federation in Karabakh, the  analyst expressed an opinion that similar criticism could be heard in  Yerevan as well. In this light, he singled out the demands voiced by  Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan during his last conversation with  Russian President Putin for greater toughness of peacekeepers against  the Azerbaijani military. As well as the need to investigate the  actions of the Russian military, which allowed the advancement of  Azerbaijanis in the zone of responsibility of the Russian military.

According to Markedonov, all these events and statements by the  parties to the conflict do not change geopolitical realities. The  West is still not ready to discriminate against the actions of the  Russian Federation in Karabakh, following the example of actions in  Ukraine, although the same American and French politicians are doing  this in relation to Baku’s latest actions in Karabakh. This allows us  to state that what is allowed to Kiev will not necessarily be allowed  to Baku, which is not at all due to sympathies or antipathies towards  Russia.

According to the analyst’s forecasts, another reality that is  interesting from the point of view of prospects is the possibility of  a tough reaction from Moscow in the event of attempts to oust it from  areas of interest to it. And this is against the background of the  traditional desire of the Russian Federation to avoid breaking the  status quo in conflict regions as much as possible. In this light, he  recalled that Moscow recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia after four  years of unfreezing these conflicts as well asthe LPR and DPR after  eight years of futile negotiations around the Minsk agreements.  

“And finally, the last but by no means least important circumstance.  The lack of any claims from all sides to the quality of the Russian  peacekeeping mission in Karabakh leaves no alternative to it at all.   The West, ready for total containment of Russia in Karabakh, does not  offer anything. The latter means that Moscow, avoiding a hard choice,  will continue the policy of careful balancing between Baku and  Yerevan as a conflict moderator until, as in other “hot spots” of the  former USSR, this choice is not imposed on it, leaving no elementary  room for maneuvering. That is why today it is extremely important not  to cross the line in Karabakh separating crisis management from  conflict defrosting,” Markedonov summed up.