Author: Ara Felekian

Armenian FM, MEP discuss post-war situation

Ara Felekian

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 15:38, 5 April, 2021

YEREVAN, APRIL 5, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ara Aivazian received today Member of the European Parliament representing France François-Xavier Bellamy, the foreign ministry told Armenpress.

The officials praised the unique nature of the Armenian-French relations, which, they said, are connected with centuries-old traditions and common values.

They highlighted further developing the productive partnership at the parliamentary level in bilateral and multilateral formats.

The Armenian FM and the MEP exchanged views on the current situation in the region caused by the recent Azerbaijani-Turkish war against Artsakh.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Azerbaijan follows Turkey’s Syria playbook in Nagorno- Karabakh

Ara Felekian
AHVAL News
April 2 2021

  • Apr 02 2021 12:04 Gmt+3
  • Last Updated On: Apr 02 2021 12:11 Gmt+3

Azerbaijan is following Turkey’s Syria playbook in seeking to erase the cultural and religious identity of areas recently captured in the disputed Nagorno- Karabakh region, Armenian news outlet Massis Post said on Thursday.

In September, Azerbaijan launched a successful military offensive against pro-Armenia forces in Nagorno- Karabakh, regaining control of much of the territory, including the second largest settlement of Shusha.

In a recent visit to the region, Azeri President İlham Aliyev ordered the destruction of “historical inscriptions on the Armenian churches, calling them fake”, the Massis Post said.

Turkey provided crucial military support to Azerbaijan during the conflict. And the Azeri presence in Nagorno-Karabakh has come to closely resemble the Turkish occupation of the predominantly Kurdish region of Afrin in Syria, the news outlet said.

Turkey took control of Afrin in March 2018 after a cross-border incursion against Kurdish-led forces known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

The region is now dominated by Turkish-backed Syrian militia groups, which are accused by the United Nations of atrocities including looting, extortion, and desecration of cultural sites.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group, more than 2,500 Syrian militants were also deployed by Turkey to fight alongside the Azeri armed forces in Nagorno- Karabakh.

“One could have thought the only goal of sending the Syrian mercenaries to Nagorno-Karabakh was to instruct the Azerbaijanis in the ways of committing war crimes,” Massis Post said.

Azerbaijan now aims to “make it impossible for the uprooted people to return to their homeland,” the Armenian news outlet said.

“Ankara has made every effort to achieve this in Syria. Baku must not be allowed to do the same in Armenia.”

 

Armenia opposition MP: OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs not allowed to visit Artsakh due to Azerbaijan’s preconditions

Ara Felekian
News.am, Armenia
April 2 2021
Armenia opposition MP: OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs not allowed to visit Artsakh due to Azerbaijan’s preconditions
21:44, 02.04.2021

The format of the Co-Chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group exists and is active, but there are several problems. For instance, the Co-Chairs have trouble visiting Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) since the sides set different conditions. This is what leader of the opposition Bright Armenia faction of the National Assembly Edmon Marukyan told reporters at Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan today.

“In the past, they would visit through the Lachin corridor, now they can’t because Azerbaijan sets preconditions and tells them to visit via Aghdam. The activities of the Co-Chairmanship depend on Armenia’s proactive foreign policy. Armenia doesn’t have such a foreign policy today,” Marukyan said.

Marukyan said it’s absurd to rely on the Minsk Group to solve all the issues, including the reduction of brigades in Syunik Province or the reduction of the number of soldiers of the Armed Forces.

Asked about the territories of Artsakh, Marukyan said the following: “Artsakh is occupied, but before de-occupation, there are many other issues to solve. For instance, prisoners of war aren’t being returned since there are preconditions, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is unable to serve our national interests.”

214 entities under investigation within framework of stolen asset recovery law

Ara Felekian

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 10:59,

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. In 2020, the General Prosecution’s Confiscation of Illegally-Obtained Assets Division launched probes over assets owned by 214 entities, the Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan told lawmakers during the meeting of the parliamentary committee on state-legal affairs on the government’s 2020 action plan’s performance report.

The stolen asset recovery law, officially known as the Law on Confiscation of Illegally-Obtained Assets, was adopted by parliament in 2020 April. In September of 2020 the division in charge of investigating alleged illicitly acquired assets was launched in the general prosecution.

Badasyan said that within the period of the division’s inception until December 31 the prosecution received materials on 201 casefiles regarding 430 entities possibly owning illegally acquired assets. “As a result of checking the grounds required for launching studies, a decision was made to start studies regarding the assets owned by 214 of them, and the studies are ongoing,” he said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia PM on his statement about Karabakh’s Shushi

Ara Felekian
News.am, Armenia
Armenia PM on his statement about Karabakh’s Shushi
12:02, 21.03.2021

I was careless when I made a statement about Shushi that I wasn’t supposed to make. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during his visit to Aragatsotn Province yesterday, touching upon the sensational statement that he had made about Shushi in the National Assembly a few months ago.

“Today the people who criticized me for my statement have become the biggest so-called defenders of Shushi. Who visited Shushi in 2020? What have we Armenians done in Shushi over the past 30 years? Yes, I made the wrong statement in terms of the way I made the statement, but I didn’t say anything wrong in terms of content because, for those people, Baden-Baden was a nice city to visit, not Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh. They built places like Shushi in all places around the world, but as far as possible from Shushi,” he said.

When a citizen told him that Ruben Hayrapetyan has built a house in Shushi, Pashinyan said the following in response: “Yes, sure, an oligarch was tricked and taken there and forced to build a house, or he wasn’t tricked, I don’t know. This is the reality.”

During a question-and-answer session with government officials in the National Assembly on January 20, Pashinyan declared the following: “I would like to call your attention to the fact that, before the signing, 90 and more percent of the population of Shushi was Azerbaijani. So, you want to say that the city of Shushi with a population of 90 and more percent Azerbaijanis was an Armenian city with that status?”

Armenian MP: Pashinyan afraid that deputies of his ruling party will elect opposition candidate for PM

Ara Felekian
News.am, Armenia
March 10 2021
15:28, 10.03.2021

The Prime Minister of Armenia fears that certain deputies of the My Step bloc might vote for an opposition candidate for Prime Minister, if that candidate runs in the elections. This is what deputy of the opposition Bright Armenia faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Ani Samsonyan told reporters today.

According to her, the problem is not only that the parliamentary opposition will nominate its candidate, but also the fact that the Prime Minister is afraid that the deputies of the ruling faction will vote for that particular candidate.

“Pashinyan is trying to neutralize these dangers as much as possible. The memorandum that he offered us was about not letting the parliamentary opposition nominate its candidate,” Samsonyan said, adding that the Bright Armenia Party hasn’t held discussions with the deputies of the Prosperous Armenia Party.

Armenian President concerned over EU and NATO stance during and after 2020 Artsakh war

Ara Felekian

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 15:27, 11 March, 2021

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian spoke over the phone with the President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid at the latter’s initiatve, the Armenian presidency said in a news release.

Kaljulaid inquired on Sarkissian’s state of health and wished him full recovery.

The presidents exchanged views around prospects of bilateral cooperation, and spoke about the COVID-19 response in their countries.

They also addressed the new challenges, humanitarian and other issues that emerged after the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war. Sarkissian said that the return of Armenian prisoners of war from Azerbaijani captivity is crucial, as well as revealing the fates of those missing. Sarkissian stressed that Armenia expects its international partners’ support in solving these highly important issues. At the same time, Sarkissian expressed his concern regarding the positions of the European Union and NATO during the war and in the post-war period.

Editing and Translatng by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia’s FM: Statement of General Staff not attempted coup d’etat in Armenia

Ara Felekian
AYSOR, Armenia

The results of the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan had its negative impact on internal stability in Armenia, Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian said in an interview to Al Arabiya.

“Of course, you know that we have a very complicated situation in the aftermath of the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh. The situation also had its repercussions on the internal situation in Armenia. Of course, we are now confronting internal difficulties, but I would like to emphasize the fact that Armenia is a democracy, may not a perfect one. And the recent years we witnessed significant achievements in this regard. This is the path of development that we have chosen and we are not going to backtrack from this path. As for the internal processes within Armenia, this is going on strictly upon the provisions of the Constitution. And it’s my conviction that the current difficulties can be overcome through dialogue, consolidation and unification of our society both in Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to safeguard and protect our state and national interests,” he said.

He also stressed that the results of the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan had its negative impact on internal stability in Armenia but added that he strongly disagrees with the qualification of the attempted coup d’etat in Armenia.

Asked about the statement of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Aivazian said, “This was a kind of political positioning of some members of General Stuff. They just made a political statement, which is not  an attempted coup itself. This was also the assessment of different countries and international organizations. There are no elements of a coup d’etat in Armenia. And Armenia continues to be a democracy and the current situation, as I said, will be dealt according to democratic standards in our society.”


Armenia-EU Agreement Entered into Force on Monday

Ara Felekian

March 1,  2021



The European Union-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement went into effect on March 1

The European Union-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement entered into force on Monday. It has now been ratified by the Republic of Armenia, all EU Member States and the European Parliament. This represents an important milestone for EU-Armenia relations.

This Agreement provides a framework for the EU and Armenia to work together in a wide range of areas: strengthening democracy, the rule of law and human rights; creating more jobs and business opportunities, improving legislation, public safety, a cleaner environment, as well as better education and opportunities for research. This bilateral agenda also contributes to overall aim of the EU to deepen and strengthen its relations with the countries of its Eastern neighborhood through the Eastern Partnership framework.

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, said: “The entry into force of our Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement comes at a moment when Armenia faces significant challenges. It sends a strong signal that the EU and Armenia are committed to democratic principles and the rule of law, as well as to a wider reform agenda. Across political, economic, trade, and other sectoral areas, our Agreement aims to bring positive change to people’s lives, to overcome challenges to Armenia’s reforms agenda.”

Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, underlined that: “While these are trying times for Armenia, the European Union continues to stand by the Armenian people. The entry into force of the bilateral EU-Armenia agreement on 1 March will allow us to strengthen our work on the economy, connectivity, digitization and the green transformation as priority areas. These will have concrete benefits for the people and are key for socio-economic recovery and the longer-term resilience of the country. In the current turbulent days, maintaining calm and respect for democracy and constitutional order are key.”

The Agreement was signed in November 2017 and substantial parts of have been provisionally applied since 1 June 2018. Since then, the breadth and depth of the bilateral cooperation between Armenia and the European Union have advanced steadily. At the 3rd EU-Armenia Partnership Council held on 17 December 2020, the European Union and Armenia reiterated their full commitment to implementing the CEPA.

The Agreement plays an important role for the modernization of Armenia, in particular through legislative approximation to EU norms in many sectors. This includes reforms in the rule of law and respect of human rights, particularly an independent, efficient and accountable justice system, as well as reforms aimed at enhancing the responsiveness and effectiveness of public institutions and at favoring the conditions for sustainable and inclusive development.

From the entry into force of the Agreement on 1 March, cooperation will be strengthened in those areas which to date were not subject to the provisional application of the Agreement. The European Union stands ready and looks forward to working even more closely with Armenia on the full and effective implementation of the Agreement, in our mutual interest and to the benefit of our societies and citizens.