Author: Antonian Lara

Vugar Khalilov

South Caucasus Weekly Review: 4-10 Jul 22

Azernews has launched a new project designed to cover weekly major developments in the South Caucasian nations

HIGHLIGHTS

Armenia to introduce a draft concept for constitutional reforms by late 2022

Yerevan eyes boosting multifarious cooperation with Tehran, Madrid

Armenia, Turkey agree to open borders for third-country citizens, air cargo

Georgians hold a huge pro-EU rally, and call on the government to resign

EU continues to back the Azerbaijani-Armenia normalization process

Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkiye to hold a meeting in regional format soon

Baku hosts int’l conference on Caspian Sea level fluctuations

Armenia

Armenia to introduce a draft concept for constitutional reforms by late 2022

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the Ad Hoc Commission for Constitutional Reforms will introduce a draft concept of constitutional reforms by the end of 2022, Azernews reports, citing Armenian media.

Pashinyan made the remarks in his congratulatory message on the occasion of Armenia’s Constitution Day on July 5.

The prime minister also highlighted the importance of the current parliamentary system in his message.

“Armenia should continue to maintain the parliamentary system of governance because the events of 2021 proved that this system provides a more effective mechanism for crises management, involvement, and decisive participation of the people in the political debate,” Pashinyan stressed.

Yerevan eyes boosting multifarious cooperation with Tehran, Madrid

Armenia is keen to expand cooperation in trade, infrastructure, energy, industry, and other fields with Iran and Spain.

On July 7, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received a delegation led by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani.

The officials discussed the strengthening of current cooperation in trade, infrastructure, energy, industry, and other fields. The interlocutors emphasized that the strengthening of economic ties is fundamental for the development of Armenian-Iranian cooperation in various directions.

The parties also exchanged thoughts on ensuring regional stability and security. Ali Shamkhani emphasized that Iran considers any attempt to change the geopolitical situation in the region unacceptable and noted that his country also supports the process of unblocking infrastructure within the framework of preserving the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.

In the same vein, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan discussed multifarious cooperation with his Spanish counterpart José Manuel Albares Bueno, as part of his working visit to Spain on July 5-7.

The ministers emphasized the implementation of ambitious programs in high and information technologies, renewable energy, tourism, creative education, and a number of other spheres.

Armenia, Turkey agree to open borders for third-country citizens, air cargo

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia and Turkiye had agreed to open the border to third-country citizens and to start direct air cargo commerce between the two nations.

Pashinyan made the remarks at the Cabinet meeting on July 7, adding that the agreement was reached at the latest meeting of the special representatives of the two nations.

“Now it’s very important that our agencies work with the respective agencies of Turkey because, in line with the political agreement, their implementation depends on this work, and my instruction is to work in a coordinated manner in order to implement the agreements reached as soon as possible”, the prime minister said.

On July 1, Special Representatives for the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan, and Ambassador Serdar Kilic held their fourth meeting in Vienna.

Georgia

Georgians hold a huge pro-EU rally, call on the government to resign

On July 3, Georgians organized a large demonstration demanding the government’s resignation due to its failure to legally secure the country’s bid for membership in the European Union.

The nation was gripped by massive protests since EU leaders agreed in late June to postpone Tbilisi’s bid for membership awaiting extensive political reforms.

Over 35,000 protesters gathered, obstructing traffic and carrying European flags in front of the Georgian parliament. Over the weekend, a number of opposition parties and pro-EU organizations urged people to put pressure on the ruling Georgian Dream party.

The party’s founder, tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has no formal political office but appears to dominate the government, has also come under attack.

“We demand that Ivanishvili relinquish executive power and transfer it, respecting the constitution, to a government of national unity,” organizers said in a Facebook post.

A new government must “carry out the reforms demanded by the EU, which will automatically give us the status of a candidate for EU membership,” the post added.

Just a few days after Russia’s invasion on February 24, Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova all submitted applications for EU candidacy status.

Azerbaijan

EU continues to back the Azerbaijani-Armenia normalization process

European Council President Charles Michel stressed that the organization would continue to support the Azerbaijani-Armenian normalization process.

Michel made the remarks during a phone call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on July 4.

Pointing to the trilateral meetings held at the initiative and with the participation of European Council President Charles Michel, and the agreements reached within this framework, President Ilham Aliyev expressed hope that the negotiations towards the normalization of relations and the signing of a peace treaty, delimitation and demarcation of borders, and the opening of transport and communication lines between Armenia and Azerbaijan would yield real results.

Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkiye to hold a meeting in regional format soon – Iranian FM

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that Tehran, Baku, and Ankara will soon hold a meeting in a regional format, Azernews reports.

Abdollahian made the remark during a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in Tehran on July 4, the report added.

“In the new era, regional formats existing between Iran and Azerbaijan or among Iran and other regional countries should be in the spotlight. Within one of the regional formats, a meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkiye will soon be held in Tehran,” he said.

Abdollahian added that another meeting will be convened in the 3+3 format with the involvement of high-level specialists. The meeting will begin with high-level specialists from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Iran, and Turkey, and will then progress to foreign ministers from the aforementioned nations in Tehran or another Iranian city.

Baku hosts int’l conf on Caspian Sea level fluctuations

Baku hosted an international conference to discuss fluctuations in the level of the Caspian Sea.

The hybrid international conference on the topic “Caspian Sea level fluctuations, forecasting, and adaptation measures in the face of climate change” has been organized by the Azerbaijani Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Experts from Caspian countries, representatives of international organizations, and foreign experts participated in the conference.

Azerbaijani Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Mukhtar Babayev addressed the conference participants in a video format.

In his video address, Azerbaijani Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Mukhtar Babayev spotlighted the current Caspian Sea problems, Azerbaijan’s efforts to this effect, the importance of national and regional adaptation plans, and regional cooperation through the “Framework Convention on the Protection of the Environment of the Caspian Sea”.

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources has been implementing a variety of efforts to clean up the Caspian basin, Babayev stressed.

In his words, the ministry also works and conducts research on the problem of the Caspian Sea’s decreasing water level.

ANKARA

Türkiye supports dialogue to thaw relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the immediate opening of the Zangezur corridor, the Turkish foreign minister said Monday.

In a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani and Kazakh counterparts, Mevlut Cavusoglu said: “We strongly support the Zangezur corridor, which will provide a connection between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan,” an exclave of Azerbaijani territory currently reachable only through Armenia.

Earlier on Monday, a trilateral meeting was held between the ministers of foreign affairs and transport in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

“We are expecting the opening of the corridor immediately,” Cavusoglu said, adding that this development will have a positive impact on the region.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in late May that Baku agreed with Yerevan on the opening of the Zangezur corridor, including the construction of both railways and highways.

Following the completion of the railway, Azerbaijan will be able to reach Iran, Armenia and Nakhchivan. The railway will also link Türkiye with Russia through Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a 44-day war in September 2020 over Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

The war, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal, saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

Russia-Ukraine war

Referring to the grain supply shortage caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, Cavusoglu said supported by the UN, Türkiye is making all-out efforts to solve the issue.

“We have seen once again in this crisis how important sustainable and safe transportation lines are,” he said.

Ukraine is among the leading exporters of grain in the world, however, Russia’s continued blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has created a global food shortage.

Türkiye has been pushing Ukraine and Russia to reach a deal to resolve the issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visiting Ankara last week.

Underlining that Türkiye made “significant investments” to increase its national and regional capacity, Cavusoglu highlighted the importance of the projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and TANAP pipeline, which were earlier put into operation in the region.

The Turkish foreign minister added that the tripartite meeting will also contribute to the work of the Organization of Turkic States, a regional body.

“We are once again demonstrating our common will for the spread of peace and prosperity in our region and the transformation of the Turkic world into a more integrated structure in the future,” he said.

For his part, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said: “During the talks, we focused on the development of the Trans-Caspian Corridor and the current freight traffic accordingly.”

“If particular attention is paid to current issues, ways can be found to expand our transport and communications cooperation to eliminate obstacles,” he said.

Bayramov stated that the new realities that emerged after the liberation of Azerbaijani lands from the Armenian occupation were also on the agenda of the meeting.

“The Zangezur corridor plays a special role in establishing a route to the European Union, Türkiye and Asia,” he said.

Moreover, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi said: “Our goal is to further strengthen the relations between our countries.”

Baku declaration signed by Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan

Following the tripartite meeting, the foreign ministers signed the Baku Declaration.

At the top huddle, participants discussed ways to develop the potential of the Trans-Caspian East-West Middle Corridor Initiative.

Also called the Middle Corridor, the network of railways and roads starts in Türkiye and covers Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea and Central Asia to reach China, making it an important effort to revive the ancient Silk Road.

Head of the country’s Supreme Judicial Council Gagik Jhangiaryan

Pressure is mounting on Armenia’s authorities to fire and prosecute the head of the country’s Supreme Judicial Council Gagik Jhangiaryan after a secret recording of him surfaced on Monday, in which he is allegedly blackmailing his predecessor Ruben Vartazaryan, who was controversially suspended from his position last year when he criticized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Supreme Judicial Council, however, signaled its reluctance to take action against Jahangirian, who also has been a controversial in Armenian political circles for more than a decade.

Vartazaryan, who was fired last year, released the secret recording of a conversation he had with Jhangiaryan during a dinner meeting last year. Jhangiaryan can be heard on the recording urging Vartazaryan to resign or face criminal charges.

Armenian authorities faced on Tuesday growing calls to sack and prosecute the acting head of the country’s judicial watchdog accused of blackmailing his predecessor at odds with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Jhangiaryan has not yet disputed the authenticity of the recording.

Vartazaryan did not heed Jhangiaryan’s call and was charged with obstruction of justice. In April 2021, the other members of the Supreme Judicial Council suspended Vartazaryan, with Pashinyan supporters accusing him of allegedly planning to free opposition figures jailed or prosecuted since Pashinyan came to power.

The SJC is a judicial watchdog group, which is tasked with nominating judges and monitoring their work. The group is empowered to take disciplinary action or fire judges if it concludes they are fulfilling their responsibilities.

Vartazaryan has denied any wrongdoing and has rejected the charges brought against him. He has maintained that the entire incident was machinated by the government, which allegedly sought to oust him from the SJC and appoint a loyalist—Jhangiaryan, who in the recording says that he wants to prevent former president Robert Kocharian from coming to power.

After the release of the recording, opposition groups and activists swiftly reacted to the contents of the conversation, with one activist, Daniel Ioannisyan, telling RFE/RL’s Armenian service that he has filed a “criminal report” with the country’s prosecutor general’s office, which said that it has launched an inquiry.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for an individual carrying out such deeds or making such a confession … to continue to serve as head of the Supreme Judicial Council,” Ioannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

The SJC discussed the scandal at a meeting held on Tuesday. One of its members, Grigor Bekmezyan, said that neither he nor any of his colleagues demanded disciplinary proceedings against Jhangiaryan.

“Mr. Jhangiaryan gave us clarifications and explanations,” Bekmezyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We are satisfied with what we have at this point. In order to have a full picture, we need a full audio [of the February 2021 meeting with Vartazarian.]”

After the release of the recording, the opposition Armenia Alliance addressed a letter to Lynne Tracy and Andrea Wiktorin, the ambassadors of the United States and the European Union in Armenia, urging them to publicly voice their assessment of the situation, given their long-standing praise for Armenia’s judicial reforms.

Wiktorian was one of the speakers at a judicial reforms conference in Yerevan, from which the opposition members of parliament were banned.

In its letter, the Armenia Alliance tells the ambassadors that the recording “contains elements of criminal offenses, interference in pending criminal cases, as well as literal threats in case of refusal to fulfil specific demands. We have voiced the existence of such phenomena in Armenia many times only to encounter your silence. These circumstances are to be examined by the law enforcement bodies, to which, however, according to the recording, the well-known member of the Supreme Judicial Council, Gagik Jhangiaryan, in fact, feels entitled to give mandatory instructions.”

“The recording also contains a promise to interfere in political activities, the consequences of which are in fact recorded, including through allegedly fair and transparent parliamentary elections. Gagik Jhangiaryan, the person vested with exclusive authority in charge of the judiciary, confesses that he has undertaken to interfere in the political activities of Robert Kocharian, who led the pre-election list of the ‘Armenia’ alliance, and the ARF. It is worth noting that on the day of the snap elections, June 20, 2021, as well as in the pre-election and post-election periods, we have voiced the obviously biased, dependent behavior of the judiciary towards the opposition political team over and over only to face your silence again,” said the letter.

“Failure to provide answers to the aforementioned questions in a short period of time will be considered, by reasonable logic, as evidence of your support regarding the stated vivid unlawful atrocities.
The copy of this letter has been forwarded to all the ambassadors accredited in Armenia,” the Armenia Alliance said in the letter.