Wednesday,
Armenian Citizenship Of Karabakh Refugees Called Into Question
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - Refugees from Nagorno Karabakh wait at a Karabakh office in Yerevan,
October 18, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian indicated on Wednesday that his government does
not regard refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh’s as Armenian citizens despite the
fact that virtually all of them hold Armenian passports.
Pashinian said that the government will therefore grant the more than 100,000
Karabakh Armenians, who fled their homeland after last month’s Azerbaijani
military offensive, “temporary protection” formalizing their status of refugees.
This, he said, will increase “the possibilities of protecting their rights in
the local and international arenas.”
“Right after that decision, our sisters and brothers from Nagorno-Karabakh will
have an opportunity to apply for Armenian citizenship and we will solve that
issue in the fastest possible way,” he added during the government’s
question-and-answer session in the parliament.
An Armenian law on refugees stipulates that only foreign nationals and stateless
persons are eligible for the “temporary protection status.”
Many of some 20,000 other Karabakh residents who took refuge in Armenia prior to
the September mass exodus have sought such a status for almost three years in
hopes of receiving regular government aid. They say government officials in
Yerevan have repeatedly told them that they do qualify because of being citizens
of Armenia.
“If they have Armenian passports, it means they are citizens of Armenia,” the
head of the government’s Migration Service insisted recently.
Ara Ghazarian, an international law expert, made the same point when he spoke to
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service hours before Pashinian’s announcement. Ghazarian said
that under the law in question, the displaced Karabakh Armenians are formally
not refugees.
Pashinian’s government sparked controversy earlier this month when it refused to
pay Karabakh’s public sector salaries, pensions and other benefits. The decision
caused discontent among civil servants, teachers, military and security
personnel, pensioners and other socially vulnerable people who made up a large
part of Karabakh’s population. They will not be even paid for September.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatrian said on Monday that these and other
refugees will instead receive 50,000 drams ($125) each in November and December
in addition to 100,000 drams given to them this month.
“I had a monthly salary of 150,000 drams, plus my pension,” complained Seda
Sargsian, who worked as an accountant in Karabakh’s northern Martakert district
before fleeing to Armenia with her family.
“We don’t want alms,” said another Karabakh woman. “My family has lost a member
during each war [with Azerbaijan.]”
Canada Opens Embassy In Armenia
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly inaugurates the Canadian
Embassy in Yerevan, .
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly reaffirmed Canada’s support for Armenia’s
territorial integrity when she visited Yerevan and inaugurated the Canadian
Embassy there on Wednesday.
Joly hoisted a Canadian flag outside an office building in the Armenian capital
that will house the embassy. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan also
attended the ceremony.
The Canadian government announced its decision to open the embassy in June 2022.
It said it wants to deepen Canadian-Armenia relations in view of a “profound
geopolitical shift” in the world resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It said the diplomatic presence in Armenia as well as four Eastern European
states will help Ottawa “counter Russia’s destabilizing activities.” Russia
denounced that explanation, saying that it is indicative of the West’s “arrogant
attitude towards other countries and peoples.”
Mirzoyan as well as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian welcomed the opening of the
Canadian mission during their talks with Joly. Pashinian described it as a
“remarkable event for our bilateral relations.
“I must note with satisfaction that the relationship between Armenia and Canada
is based on common values such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law,”
Mirzoyan said, for his part.
The Armenian leaders also praised the Canadian government’s recent decision to
join a monitoring mission launched by the European Union along Armenia’s border
with Azerbaijan in February. Ottawa said in July that two Canadian experts will
be sent to the South Caucasus country in the coming months to act as a
“third-party contributor to the mission.”
Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Canadian counterpart Melanie
Joly meet in Yerevan, .
“Canada calls for the full respect of the territorial integrity of Armenia and
reaffirms the importance of strict adherence to the principle of non-use of
force or threat of it,” Joly told a joint news conference with Mirzoyan earlier
on Wednesday.
Joly alluded to the risk of an Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia which Armenian
officials as well as some analysts believe increased after Azerbaijan’s
September 19-20 military offensive in Karabakh. She did not rule out the
possibility of Canadian sanctions against Baku in the event of the invasion.
“When it comes to sanctions … I have said that everything is on the table,”
stressed the top Canadian diplomat.
Joly also reiterated Canada’s condemnation of the Azerbaijani offensive which
forced Karabakh’s virtually entire Armenian population to flee to Armenia. Baku
must respect “the right to return of the recently displaced Armenians from
Nagorno-Karabakh,” she said, adding that Ottawa has approved additional
humanitarian aid to those refugees.
Just days after the outbreak of the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Karabakh,
Canada suspended the export of drone technology to Turkey. It banned such
exports altogether in 2021 after investigating and confirming reports that
Turkish-manufactured Bayraktar TB2 combat drones, heavily used by the
Azerbaijani army, are equipped with imaging and targeting systems made by a
Canada-based firm. Ankara criticized the embargo and urged the Canadian
government to reconsider it.
Fresh Armenian-Azeri Summit ‘Delayed’ Again
• Anush Mkrtchian
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel hosts talks between the
leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Brussels, May 14, 2023.
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will not meet in Brussels before the end
of this month for fresh talks that were due to be hosted by the European Union’s
top official, it was confirmed on Wednesday.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
had been scheduled to meet, together with European Council President Charles
Michel and the leaders of Germany and France, on the fringes of the EU’s October
5 summit in Granada, Spain. However, Aliyev withdrew from the talks at the last
minute, citing pro-Armenian statements made by French officials. Michel said
afterwards that the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders will likely hold a
trilateral meeting with him in Brussels later in October.
“We will not have a meeting by the end of October,” Toivo Klaar, the EU’s
special envoy to the South Caucasus, told a conference in Yerevan.
Speaking via video link from Brussels, Klaar suggested that this is a “slight
delay, rather than anything else.” There was not have enough time to organize
the summit, he said, adding that the trilateral meeting should take place soon.
But he gave no possible dates.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said, meanwhile, that the two leaders
will not meet in the coming days because Aliyev “did not find the time” to fly
to Brussels.
“I hope that the problem was indeed to do with concrete dates and that a new
date for the meeting will be agreed upon soon,” he said. “Armenia is ready to
participate in that meeting. We remain committed to our peace agenda.”
“We have received no new proposals yet regarding [meeting] dates,” Mirzoyan
added during a news conference.
Spain - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and
French President Emmanuel Macron in Granada, October 5, 2023.
Despite last month’s Azerbaijani military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and
Baku’s resulting takeover of the region, Pashinian hoped to sign a framework
peace deal with Aliyev at Granada. The document would lay out the key parameters
of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty discussed since the beginning of last
year. One of the main sticking points in those talks has been a mechanism for
delimiting the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
In a joint statement with Pashinian issued in Granada, Michel, French President
Emmanuel and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz effectively backed the idea of using
a 1975 Soviet military map for the border delimitation, which is advanced by
Armenia. Azerbaijan continues to oppose it.
Klaar said that although the conflicting sides are “moving slowly” towards a
peace accord, they will likely sign it in the near future.
Russia has been very critical of the EU mediation, saying that it is part of the
West’s efforts to drive Moscow out of the South Caucasus. Yerevan appears to
prefer Western peace efforts now amid a continuing deterioration of
Russian-Armenian relations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks with his Azerbaijani
counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov but not Mirzoyan on the sidelines of a multilateral
meeting of the top diplomats of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkey
held in Tehran on Monday. Lavrov also phoned Bayramov the following day.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the two men “reaffirmed the need to
step up efforts to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan” on the
basis of agreements brokered by Moscow.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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