Author: Anna Tamamian

                                        Tuesday, 
Russian Troops Reassure Karabakh Leaders Over New Corridor To Armenia
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Russian peacekeepers are seen at a checkpoint in the town of 
Lachin, December 1, 2020
Russian peacekeeping forces reportedly assured Nagorno-Karabakh’s main political 
factions on Tuesday that a new road connecting the territory to Armenia will 
have the same status as the existing corridor that will be handed over to 
Azerbaijan next week.
The five-kilometer-wide Lachin corridor became 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.
Bowing to strong Azerbaijani pressure, the Armenian side agreed earlier this 
month to evacuate these settlements by August 25 and start using a bypass road 
newly constructed by Azerbaijan about a dozen kilometers south of that area.
The leaders of the five political groups represented in the Karabakh parliament 
met with the commanders of the Russian peacekeeping contingent to discuss the 
functioning of the new corridor. According to a statement released by the 
parliament’s press service, they received assurances that “the new route will 
have a legal status of the same corridor” and will be controlled by the Russian 
peacekeepers.
The statement said they also discussed the August 3 fighting in Karabakh which 
left at least one Azerbaijani and two Karabakh Armenian soldiers dead. It cited 
the Russian officers as saying that they have drawn “necessary conclusions” and 
“will make additional efforts to prevent a repeat of such ceasefire violations 
in the future.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on August 4 publicly criticized the 
Russian troops over the latest deadly fighting there. Pashinian complained that 
Baku has been stepping up ceasefire violations in Karabakh “in the presence of” 
the 2,000 peacekeepers deployed after the Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism.
Turkey Reiterates Normalization Conditions For Armenia
        • Tatevik Sargsian
Turkey - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks during a news 
conference in Antalya, March 10, 2022.
The normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations remains conditional on Armenia 
accepting Azerbaijan’s key demands, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu 
reiterated on Tuesday.
Cavusoglu said normalization talks launched by Ankara and Yerevan early this 
year cannot be delinked from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“Peace in the South Caucasus can become a reality with a comprehensive peace 
agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan which we also support,” he told the 
Turkish TV channel Haber Global. “Azerbaijan made a proposal to Armenia to which 
Armenia did not respond positively for a long time.”
Baku wants Yerevan to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh through 
such a treaty. Cavusoglu also mentioned another Azerbaijani demand: the opening 
of a land corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave passing through Armenia’s 
Syunik province. The Armenian side has ruled out any exterritorial corridors.
Cavusoglu already put forward these preconditions late last month following a 
fourth round of negotiations held by Armenian and Turkish envoys in Vienna. 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan likewise made clear later in July that 
Turkey will normalize relations with Armenia only “after problems with 
Azerbaijan are solved.”
The Armenian government says it wants an unconditional opening of the 
Turkish-Armenian border and establishment of diplomatic relations between the 
two neighboring states. Its domestic political opponents claim that Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian is ready to make sweeping concessions to both Ankara 
and Baku.
Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that Pashinian’s administration has a popular mandate 
to make such concessions because it won last year’s Armenian parliamentary 
elections. Yerevan should stop using pressure from the Armenian Diaspora and 
“local extremist forces” as excuses for not accepting the Turkish-Azerbaijani 
demands, he said.
Armenia Still Fighting For Independence, Says Pashinian
        • Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, 
August 18, 2022.
Armenia is still fighting for its independence more than three decades after the 
breakup of the Soviet Union, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Tuesday.
Pashinian stressed the importance of national security and normalizing relations 
with Azerbaijan and Turkey as he congratulated Armenians on the 32nd anniversary 
of a declaration of independence adopted by their country’s first post-Communist 
parliament.
The 1990 declaration stopped short of announcing Armenia’s immediate secession 
from the Soviet Union. It announced instead “the start of a process of 
establishing independent statehood.”
“De facto, that process has not ended until today, not because we don't have 
independence but because independence is like health, which even if you have it, 
you have to take care of it every day,” Pashinian said in a statement issued on 
the occasion.
“The Government is fighting for the independence of the Republic of Armenia 
every day,” he said. “For us, independence is security. The international 
structures that provide it are cracking in front of all of us, and one of the 
first cracks unfortunately manifested itself in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Independence is normalized relations with neighbors. Although we have excellent 
relations with some of our neighbors, there is no significant progress in our 
relations with others because they demand too much from us or they think that we 
are demanding too much from them.”
“For us, independence is strong allied relations, but allies are not always only 
allies to you but also to those who ally against you,” Pashinian added in an 
apparent reference to Russia.
Pashinian’s and political opponents and other critics regularly claim that he 
has put Armenia’s independence at serious risk by mishandling the 2020 war with 
Azerbaijan, weakening the Armenian armed forces and undermining relations with 
Russia. They say that he must therefore resign.
Pashinian did not allude to security issues or improving relations with 
Azerbaijan and Turkey in his previous statements on the 1990 declaration. In 
August 2021, for example, he put the emphasis on internal political and economic 
challenges facing Armenia.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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