Author: Ani Kharatian

                                        Thursday, 
U.S. Urges Armenia, Azerbaijan To Intensify Diplomacy For ‘Comprehensive 
Solutions’
        • Astghik Bedevian
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia
As a Minsk Group Co-Chair, the United States urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to 
continue and intensify their diplomatic engagement to find comprehensive 
solutions to all outstanding issues, the U.S. embassy in Yerevan said on 
Thursday.
In reply to an RFE/RL Armenian Service question regarding Washington’s position 
on Armenia’s request for mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in 
organizing talks with Azerbaijan on a peace treaty, the embassy said: “The 
United States remains committed to promoting a peaceful, democratic, and 
prosperous future for the South Caucasus region. As a Minsk Group Co-Chair, we 
urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue and intensify their diplomatic 
engagement to find comprehensive solutions to all outstanding issues. The United 
States is ready to assist Armenia and Azerbaijan with these efforts.”
As for whether the Minsk Group co-chairs plan a visit to the region any time 
soon, the embassy said it did not have anything new to share on this matter.
The mediating troika, including representatives of the United States, Russia and 
France, have not visited the region after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. 
Armenia claims the mediators’ visit is hampered by Azerbaijan’s position.
At a news briefing in Moscow today Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria 
Zakharova said that Moscow welcomes the readiness of Armenia and Azerbaijan to 
engage in the preparation of a peace treaty. She added that Russia was ready to 
provide “all possible assistance” to such a negotiation process.
Talking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service earlier this week, French Ambassador to 
Armenia Anne Anne Louyot also said that as one of the co-chairs of the OSCE 
Minsk Group, France is ready to do everything possible to achieve a lasting 
peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Two Conscripts Found Dead In Armenia
        • Gayane Saribekian
Two conscripts have been found dead at different locations in Armenia’s southern 
Syunik province, according to the country’s military authorities.
The Defense Ministry reported the two deaths within a space of only several 
hours.
It said in the morning that the body of 20-year-old Albert Siroyan was found 
last night at a military post along the border with Azerbaijan near the town of 
Kapan with a gunshot wound to the jaw.
According to the Investigative Committee, a criminal case has been initiated on 
the hallmarks of a penal code article dealing with inadvertently causing a 
serviceman to commit suicide.
The Investigative Committee has not provided other details yet and there is no 
suspect in the case at this moment.
Siroyan was conscripted in December 2020.
A few hours later, the Defense Ministry reported the death of another conscript, 
Eduard Rustamian. The body of the 19-year-old soldier was found at a military 
unit in Meghri with a gunshot wound on it.
The Investigative Committee said a criminal probe has been launched to establish 
the circumstances of the incident. It said the soldier received a fatal gunshot 
wound in the chest from an automatic rifle registered to his name.
Leading human rights activist Artur Sakunts, who has dealt with army incidents 
for years, believes that continuing cases of deaths, murders and suicides in 
non-combat conditions in the ranks are an indicator that reforms carried out in 
the army are nowhere near enough.
“After the [2020] war [in Nagorno-Karabakh], approaches should have been much 
more radical, much more effort should have been made. And we, unfortunately, 
record that such problems were not solved during the year after the war. We 
attach great importance to reforms, liberal transformation, but the concept of 
rebuilding or reform of the Armed Forces is still unknown. First of all, of 
course, the responsibility lies with the General Staff of the Armed Forces. 
Because it is the General Staff of the Armed Forces that is directly responsible 
for the organization of military service,” Sakunts, the head of the Helsinki 
Citizens’ Assembly’s Vanadzor office, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
According to the organization headed by Sakunts, seven Armenian servicemen have 
already died this year, including the latest deaths; four of them were killed as 
a result of ceasefire violations and one was killed by accidentally 
electrocuting himself.
Russia Hails Readiness Of Armenia, Azerbaijan For Peace Talks
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova gives a news briefing in 
Moscow (file photo).
Moscow welcomes the readiness of Armenia and Azerbaijan to engage in the 
preparation of a peace treaty, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on 
Thursday.
During a weekly news briefing in Moscow Maria Zakharova said that Russia is 
ready to provide “all possible assistance” to such a negotiation process.
“As for the likely timing of the completion of this process, the signing of a 
peace treaty, I think it is now premature to talk about this topic,” the 
diplomat added, as quoted by Russia’s Tass news agency.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it had applied to the OSCE Minsk 
Group co-chairs (Russia, the United States and France) to organize 
Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on a peace treaty “on the basis of the UN 
Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the 
Helsinki Final Act.”
It followed a statement by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov that 
Baku had submitted a five-point proposal to Yerevan to normalize relations.
During today’s news briefing Zakharova also said that Moscow is in favor of 
launching the process of delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border as soon 
as possible by setting up an appropriate bilateral commission.
“We are concerned about the situation in the [Karabakh] region and at certain 
sections of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border. We have noted regular violations of 
the ceasefire since early March. The Russian peacekeeping contingent is taking 
appropriate measures in its area of responsibility to ensure stability and 
control the situation. Thanks to these efforts, no armed incidents have been 
recorded since March 13,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
Russian School In Armenia Lines Up Students In Support Of War In Ukraine
        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Students of a Russian school in Gyumri, Armenia, line up to make the letter Z, a 
symbol of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Teenagers attending a Russian school in Armenia have been lined up in letter Z 
in support of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The action organized by the administration of the school in Gyumri reporting to 
Russia’s Defense Ministry took place earlier this week and involved children of 
both Russian and Armenian parents.
Gyumri, in the northwest of Armenia, hosts a Russian military base with some 
3,000 servicemen. Children of these servicemen as well as other ethnic Armenian 
personnel of the base attend the local Russian school.
Some of the children aged 13 and 14 who took part in the action told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service that they knew little about the ongoing war in Ukraine. Nor did 
they know anything about what letter Z stands for, they said.
From day one of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 the letter Z 
could be seen on Russian tanks, armored vehicles, trucks and other equipment 
deployed as part of the war effort as a distinct marking apparently to avoid 
friendly fire.
Analysts have speculated that along with other markings, including the letter V, 
it may denote, in Russian, the direction of the onslaught like in Zapad (West) 
or Vostok (East – letter V). Russia’s Ministry of Defense explained that those 
markings denoted “Za Pobedu” (“For Victory”). Whatever the signs mean, it is 
clear that the letter Z that was most frequently seen in footage during the 
first few days of the Russian aggression has become a pro-Russian symbol of the 
war used in many publicity stunts across Russia.
“They gathered us to form Z and made a video,” one of the children in Gyumri 
said.
The action took place in freezing temperatures in the schoolyard. Children said 
the school administration had also handed to them papers with the letter Z on 
them to hold during the action.
“They did not precisely explain to us what was it all about. They simply 
gathered us outside the school,” one of the action participants said.
School No. 19 in Gyumri is located in the military district near Russia’s 102nd 
military base and operates under the auspices of the Russian Defense Ministry.
An RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent was not allowed to do video recording 
inside the two-story building of the school without the permission of the 
Russian Defense Ministry. For the same reason, the school administration 
categorically refused to comment on the action with the participation of the 
school’s students. However, some of the ethnic Armenian students agreed to talk 
on condition that they are not shown on video and that their voices are changed.
“We were all gathered. We have a person who organizes such things, such events 
in our school. That person gathered us all in the schoolyard and made a video. 
They gave to children papers with the letter Z written on them. The children 
were lined up for Z and the video was made,” one of the students said.
Another participant of that action added: “We were told to go outside in 10 
minutes after the school bell rings. They made a video recording of [our lining 
up in Z] and we went back to the school building.”
Children also said that they had been told to line up in the yard by high school 
students who wore military uniforms. Asked whether they could refuse to 
participate in the action, one of the students said: “Only those attending 
elementary school could refuse and stay in the classrooms, because they are too 
small. But those attending between the fifth and eleventh grades were all taken 
outside.”
Levon Barseghian, chairman of the board of the Asparez Journalists’ Club in 
Gyumri, denounced the kind of publicity stunt involving children. He said that 
parents have a reason for concern because their children are being used for 
Russian propaganda purposes.
“That [Z] event shows that the Russian Federation will stop at nothing in its 
propaganda effort and that nothing is wrong for them. They use children to 
justify war. I think the parents of these children have something to think 
about,” Barseghian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Barseghian, a former member of Gyumri’s municipal assembly, said that he did not 
rule out that Russia may organize other similar propaganda events in Armenia. He 
urged the country’s authorities to take some steps to make sure such events are 
not associated with Armenia.
Levon Barseghian
“I think that Armenian authorities should have some conversation with the 
commanders at the [Russian military] base to urge them to stay away from 
involving children in such things. If today they organize some marches, 
demonstrations in support of the aggressive war in front of the embassy, 
tomorrow they may start posting propaganda posters on cars, defending the war 
unleashed by Russia against Ukraine. The traffic police must do something about 
it and the Armenian authorities in general must do something in this regard. You 
can’t just sit and wait for what will occur to those at the [Russian military] 
base. Go to your military unit and show your joy there. Don’t get the city 
involved in it, don’t get our country involved in your aggressive war,” 
Barseghian said.
A small pro-Moscow rally was organized in front of the Russian Embassy in 
Yerevan on Monday. About a week ago leaders of the Kremlin propaganda machine, 
including Russia Today’s ethnic Armenian editor-in-chief Margarita Simonian, 
posted a video on their social media showing a statue of Mother Armenia 
overlooking capital Yerevan with red lights at its foot forming the letter Z. 
The other symbol of the Russian invasion, the letter V, is also seen at the end 
of that video.
Days after the posting of the video it is still unclear who made it. Yerevan 
authorities said they have nothing to do with the action called “In Support of 
the Russian Military”. They said they know nothing about it and that the 
municipality did not give permission for holding such actions.
Despite hosting a Russian military base and being a member of the Russian-led 
defense alliance, Armenia has so far demonstrated a largely neutral position on 
the war in Ukraine.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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