Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on June 9
“Armenia’s Sovereignty is Not Being Questioned,” Moscow Says
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Friday in Sochi, where he emphasized the worsening humanitarian crisis in Artsakh.
The two leaders were meeting on the margins of sessions of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS countries being held in the Russian port city.
“Unfortunately the humanitarian situation there [Nagorno-Karabakh] remains tense. There has been no gas and electricity in Nagorno-Karabakh for several months, the situation in the Lachin Corridor continues to be quite tense,” Pashinyan told Putin, emphasizing that Artsakh is under the “zone of responsibility” of the Russian peacekeeping forces.
He went on to underscore the worsening humanitarian situation in Artsakh, adding that a limited amount of food is being transported there by the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk reassured Armenia that its sovereignty was not being questioned.
The Russian leader made the comments while summing up the result of meetings with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts over the opening of transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Saying that the meeting lasted nine hours, Overchuk said that a draft proposal was in the final stages of completion.
“There are a couple of contradictions which require additional discussions, specifically around issues related to where the railway will pass,” Overchuk said, adding that the railway will operate like any other ordinary rail line.
He also suggested that an agreement was reached on the customs control mechanisms, with border agents carrying out passport and customs checks.
According to Sputnik Armenia, the Russian leader was asked whether the Russian Security Service would be manning the borders, with Overchuk saying that “this would depend on Armenia.”
10:12, 9 June 2023
GYUMRI, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. The opening ceremony of the 8th Summer Pan-Armenian Games will be held in Gyumri.
The second-largest city of Armenia is getting ready to host the anticipated event.
Local authorities are reconstructing the road of the Shirak arena’s western section.
The Shirak Governor’s Office told ARMENPRESS that all necessary infrastructures are being renovated in order to organize the opening ceremony on a proper level.
The renovation of the road of the Shirak arena’s western section will cost 66,4 million drams.
The Governor of Shirak Province is personally supervising the work.
Armenuhi Mkhoyan
11:15, 6 June 2023
YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS. Flyone Armenia national airline launched Yerevan-Tehran roundtrip flights on June 6.
The airline will fly from Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport four times per week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, offering affordable prices and convenient schedules for everyone.
Flyone Armenia Chairman of the Board Aram Ananyan personally visited Zvartnots airport Tuesday morning for the ribbon cutting ceremony marking the first flight to Tehran.
“The launch of Flyone Armenia’s direct flights from Yerevan to Tehran was a highly anticipated event and we are convinced that this new destination will be as highly demanded as the rest of our nearly two dozen travel destinations. The new flights will create a convenient transport alternative between Yerevan and Tehran, enabling to promote the strong cultural, economic and tourism ties,” Ananyan said at the ceremony.
TBILISI, June 2 (Reuters) – Armenia is not a Russian ally in the Ukraine war and is worried about the impact of that crisis on its relations with other countries, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, drawing a cautious response in Moscow.
The tiny ex-Soviet nation in the southern Caucasus region has close security and economic ties to Russia, which have been further strengthened by its decades-long dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia is a member of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) military alliance, while Azerbaijan is not.
“We are not Russia’s ally in the war with Ukraine. And our feeling from that war, from that conflict, is anxiety because it directly affects all our relationships,” Pashinyan told CNN Prima News in an interview, adding that Armenia felt caught between the two sides.
“In the West they notice that we are Russia’s ally … in Russia they see that we are not their ally in the Ukraine war, and it turns out that we are not anyone’s ally in this situation, which means that we are vulnerable,” he said.
Asked about Pashinyan’s remarks on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded with caution, saying Moscow had taken note of what he called “an important statement”.
“We know that there are certain nuances in Armenia’s approach to the conflict over Ukraine. We take them into account, we know them, but at the same time we continue to develop our allied relations with Armenia,” Peskov said.
Former Kremlin adviser Sergei Markov, commenting on Peskov’s statement, said on his Telegram channel that Moscow was “hinting that it sees that Pashinyan is leading Armenia away from friendship with Russia into the arms of Russia’s enemies”.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have resumed talks aimed at clinching a peace accord to resolve their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is recognised as part of Azerbaijan but is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.
Azerbaijan recaptured in 2020 chunks of territory lost in a conflict as Soviet rule collapsed in the early 1990s.
03:08,
YEREVAN, MAY 14, ARMENPRESS. Sweden’s Loreen won Eurovision 2023 with the song “Tattoo” in Liverpool on Saturday, becoming the first woman to win twice in the contest.
Loreen is the only person after Ireland’s Johnny Logan to win the Eurovision song contest twice.
Finland’s Käärijä came second with “Cha Cha Cha”, but he was still behind Loreen’s points after the results from juries from participating countries were announced.
Noa Kirel of Israel came third.
“I am seriously overwhelmed,” Loreen told reporters.
Armenia’s Brunette finished 14th with “Future Lover”. She received 5 points from Italy, 1 point from Latvia, 1 point from Austria, 1 point from Poland, 2 points from Moldova, 6 points from Ireland, 7 points from France, 3 from Estonia, 3 from Spain, 3 from the UK, 4 from Cyprus, 5 from Switzerland, 10 from Georgia, 10 from Albania and 8 from Czech Republic. With another 69 points from the jury, Brunette ranked 14th with 122 points.
Armenia gave to Israel.
Monday,
Karabakh Leaders Slam EU
Nagorno-Karabakh - Karabakh Armenians rally in Stepanakert against the
Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor, May 9, 2023.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership accused the European Union late on Monday of
turning a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor when it
reacted to European Council President Charles Michel’s remarks made after the
latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Brussels.
Michel, who hosted the talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, made no mention of the five-month blockade
that has caused serious shortages of food and medicine as well as an energy
crisis in Karabakh.
Instead, he urged Baku to embark on a dialogue with “Armenians living in the
former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast” for the purpose of “guaranteeing the
rights and security of this population.”
“This fact shows that the president of the European Council not only does not
hinder but actually encourages Azerbaijan to use the sufferings of the people of
Artsakh as a political tool,” the Karabakh foreign ministry charged in a
statement.
It said Michel’s remarks also demonstrate that “the EU leadership continues to
ignore the legal rights and interests of the people of Artsakh and is guided
only by its own geopolitical and short-term interests in the region to the
detriment of the values of democracy and human rights proclaimed by the EU.”
The statement added that only international recognition of the Karabakh
Armenians’ right to self-determination can be “the basis for a sustainable
settlement of the conflict.”
The Armenian government stopped championing that right a year ago. Pashinian
subsequently declared that it recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
Michel implied after Sunday’s summit that Yerevan is now also ready to recognize
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh. The Armenian opposition expressed serious
concern over this declaration, renewing its allegations that Pashinian is
forcing the Karabakh Armenians to live under Azerbaijani rule.
By contrast, the strongly-worded Karabakh statement contained no criticism of
Pashinian.
Pashinian Under Opposition Fire After Fresh Talks With Aliyev
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Beglium - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets European Council
President Charles Michel ahead of talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev,
Brussels, May 13, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian took another step towards restoring Azerbaijan’s
control over Nagorno-Karabakh during his weekend talks with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev, the Armenian opposition claimed on Monday.
The four-hour talks hosted by European Union head Charles Michel in Brussels
focused on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty sought by Baku.
“The leaders confirmed their unequivocal commitment to the 1991 Almaty
Declaration and respective territorial integrity of Armenia (29,800 square
kilometers) and Azerbaijan (89,600 square kilometers),” Michel said after the
meeting.
Azerbaijan’s total Soviet-era area cited by Michel includes Karabakh. This is a
further indication that Pashinian’s administration is ready to recognize
Azerbaijani sovereignty over the Armenian-populated territory.
Not surprisingly Baku seemed satisfied with the outcome of the latest
Armenian-Azerbaijani summit. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry emphasized
“Armenia’s acceptance of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territorial
integrity.”
Tigran Abrahamian, a senior Armenian lawmaker representing the opposition Pativ
Unem alliance, said this is consistent with Pashinian’s statements on the
Karabakh conflict made over the past year.
Pashinian stopped invoking the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination a
year ago. Since then, he has spoken instead of the need to protect their “rights
and security.”
Abrahamian described his rhetoric as a smokescreen for “surrendering Artsakh to
Azerbaijan as smoothly as possible.” The Brussels meeting only highlighted this
policy, he said.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a key member of the main
opposition Hayastan bloc, expressed serious concern over Michel’s statement. In
a statement, the party’s leadership accused Pashinian of helping Baku regain
full control over Karabakh and force its residents to flee their homeland.
The statement argued that Armenia had signed the 1991 declaration cited by the
EU chief with reservations relating to Karabakh. It also pointed to a 1992
parliamentary act that bans Armenia’s governments from signing any document that
would recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
Any Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement running counter to that decision would
therefore be “null and void,” warned Dashnaktsutyun.
“It is obvious that we are entering the final phase of surrendering Artsakh,”
claimed Vartan Oskanian, who served as Armenia’s foreign minister from 1998-2008.
“If Pashinian's hand is to be grabbed so that he does not sign such a document,
then now is the time to do that. Otherwise it will be too late,” he wrote.
Andranik Kocharian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliament
committee on defense and security, downplayed Michel’s remarks on the
Aliyev-Pashinian meeting.
“Armenia always recognized Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity … but Artsakh has
its own territory and status,” Kocharian told reporters.
“Today Artsakh is probably the most independent state in the world; [it will
remain so] for the next three or four years,” he claimed. “We’ll see what
happens after that.”
In recent months Pashinian has publicly encouraged Karabakh’s leaders to
negotiate with Azerbaijan while accusing Baku of planning to commit “genocide”
in the region. The authorities in Stepanakert have repeatedly denounced his
public pronouncements on the conflict.
Kremlin Upbeat On Russian-Armenian Ties
Armenia - People carry giant Armenian and Russian flags as they mark the 78th
anniversary of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, May 9, 2023.
Russia’s relationship with Armenia has a “bright future” despite current
friction between the two allies, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted over
the weekend.
Peskov described bilateral ties as “advanced partnership” and a “special
relationship that has deep historical roots.”
“We are convinced that they also have a bright future,” he told Russian state
television.
“Of course, there are certain sensitive points,” he added without elaborating.
Russian-Armenian relations deteriorated in the last several months mainly
because of what Yerevan sees as lack of Russian support in the conflict with
Azerbaijan.
In an interview with the Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta published on
Sunday, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, accused
Russia of not honoring security obligations to Armenia enshrined in bilateral
and multilateral treaties.
Moscow is also not supplying Yerevan with weapons despite several defense
contracts signed by the two sides, he said without going into details. The
Armenian military has to look for alternative sources of arms supplies because
“we are not receiving what we ordered from Russia and what we paid for,” added
Grigorian.
The rift between the two nations deepened further in March after Armenia’s
Constitutional Court gave the green light for parliamentary ratification of the
International Criminal Court’s founding treaty. The ruling followed an arrest
warrant issued by the ICC for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes
allegedly committed by Russia in Ukraine.
Moscow warned that recognition of The Hague tribunal’s jurisdiction would have
“extremely negative” consequences for Russian-Armenian relations. Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s government appears to have refrained from sending the treaty
to the Armenian parliament for ratification.
Pashinian was among the leaders of several ex-Soviet states who joined Putin in
attending the May 9 military parade in Moscow that marked the 78th anniversary
of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Peskov said afterwards that Putin and
Pashinian held a separate meeting during the celebrations.
EU Envoy Hopes For Armenian, Azeri Troop Withdrawals
• Anush Mkrtchian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Andrea Wiktorin, head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, speaks during a
news conference in Yerevab, .
Not only Azerbaijan but also Armenia should withdraw troops from contested areas
along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, a senior EU diplomat said on Monday.
Azerbaijani troops seized chunks of what Armenia regards as its internationally
recognized territory during border clashes in 2021 and 2022. Speaking shortly
after the deadliest of those clashes that broke out in September, the EU’s
foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, acknowledged that they “occupied part of
Armenia’s territory” and demanded their withdrawal from those border areas.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovannisian said on Monday that Yerevan
expects to get back a total of 139 square kilometers of land as a result of
mutual recognition by the two South Caucasus of each other’s territorial
integrity reaffirmed by their leaders during weekend talks in Brussels.
European Council President Charles Michel, who hosted the talks, said Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, agreed,
among other things, to revive joint efforts to demarcate the heavily militarized
border.
Andrea Wiktorin, the head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, essentially equated
Armenia with Azerbaijan when she commented on the matter during a joint news
conference with Hovannisian.
“It is really important to come to an agreement,” she said. “Actually it is our
hope that both sides will withdraw their troops and embark on the work of the
delimitation and demarcation.”
Asked to elaborate on her comment, Wiktorin said: “It was clearly stated [at
Brussels] that there are one or two spots where also Armenian forces are, let’s
say, in border areas and there needs to be a very clear delimitation and
demarcation.”
Armenia - Yerevan-based foreign military attaches visit an area in Armenia's
Syunik province where Armenian and Azerbaijani troops are locked in a border
standoff, May 20, 2021.
The diplomat did not specify those “spots,” saying that she is not aware of
further details of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
Hovannisian seemed bemused by Wiktorin’s remarks. “I also find it hard to tell
what this is about,” he said.
Andranik Kocharian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defense
and security, countered, for his part, that it is Baku that occupied Armenian
territory after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“What I know is that Armenian troops are where they must be at the moment,” he
said. “What I know is that Azerbaijani troops violated Armenia’s sovereign
territory. Again, what is ours is ours.”
In further comments to the press made after his news conference with Wiktorin,
Hovannisian suggested that the EU envoy referred to several small enclaves
inside Armenia which were controlled by Azerbaijan in Soviet times and occupied
by the Armenian army in the early 1990s. Baku wants to regain control over them
but has yet to clarify whether it is ready to give up a bigger Armenian enclave
occupied by Azerbaijani forces in 1992.
“It is clear to everyone that at this stage we are talking about [Azerbaijani]
troop withdrawal from Armenian territory,” stressed Hovannisian.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
The view from the top of Cascade, overlooking Yerevan and Mount Ararat (Photo: Varak Ghazarian)
Injustice done to those so close to home. An injustice that has allowed further injustices to persist. Injustices done prior, allowing this injustice to take place. Injustices on the grandest level, affecting millions, forever altering the paths of the future of a people and its land. Altering its course, yet further deepening the injustice, the hatred, the fear. Allowing it to persist endlessly and rather worsen as time passes.
When will the next injustice take place, and how will we choose to stand against such an injustice? How can we call ourselves humans if we don’t allow our humanistic side to shine? We pride ourselves on being such advanced and evolved beings and that we are so much greater than animals, but we continuously choose to let our animalistic side reign supreme. Fear, flight or fight, territorialism, inability to establish trust, survival instincts. With such animalistic behaviors, we choose to allow our primal instincts to take over and dictate our lives and future and thus never look past our basic instincts.
How can we allow these injustices to take place and simply decide to stand idly by, or even worse, aid such injustice? To be given a demand or to be presented with an uncomfortable situation, we are thought to believe that we had no other choice and that we were simply just doing what we were told to do. However, we always have a choice in life. Even if the choice might be death, we always have a choice. Yet, we as a human race have decided to trudge on and choose the choice which is the easiest for us; obey and stay obedient. To sit idly by or aid killings, destruction, massacres, violence and genocide.
When will it stop? When will we decide as a whole that enough is enough? To push aside our animalistic approach to life and allow our humanistic side to shine? Simple. When we say, “Enough is enough.” Kill us all if it must be, and you can sit alone on your throne in this world all for yourself. When we rise up to the apparent evil and disallow it from growing. Disallowing it to hit the ground and begin to root itself in the soil we walk on and spread like an infectious disease to everything that neighbors it. We must be like the wind, and uniformly sweep evil away and blow it somewhere far. Somewhere so far that anything of its nature will never be able to implant in the minds of us humans.
For if we were to change our mindset and perspective toward such evil, we will never allow it to sow its rotten roots in our minds and souls. Rather, we should choose beauty and love to implant into every corner of the world. To entrench its roots deep into this earth through the constant watering and care we display for it. For one day, this beauty will allow us to take our full form as humans. To take the shape we need to take, in order to thrive and become the beings we think we are today.
I have and will no longer stand idly by. I no longer fear what the choice of going against injustice will bring, because the fear of simply sitting idly by and watching is far greater. To see what the world will come to due to another injustice isn’t worth seeing. For if death may come of it, so be it, because that is the price I will pay to defend what I believe in. The world may be dark and full of terrors because that is what we have allowed to persist through our constant mismanagement of justice. But it is on us to make the switch, to resist, and thus allow our humanistic side to shine.