Author: Chatinian Lara

ArmInfo. The National Security Service of Artsakh revealed and neutralized the activities of the intelligence network formed in Artsakh by foreign special services,  which included five employees of various units of the Artsakh Defense  Army. An attempt to further recruit citizens of Artsakh was also  prevented. This was reported by the press service of the NSS.

According to the materials of the preliminary investigation, the  citizens of Artsakh, being employees of one of the military units  through social networks established a connection with the account of  a foreign intelligence officer registered under an Armenian nickname  , who was subsequently provided with information containing state and  official secrets, about the locations of combat positions, the number  of personnel who is on combat duty, the types and quantity of weapons  available at combat positions, as well as data on the commanding  staff. One of them received $200 by bank transfer, the other persons  never received the promised amounts.  Artsakh citizens A.A., M.A. and  A.B. were charged with high treason.  They were arrested, the  National Security Service of the Republic of Artsakh reports.

ArmInfo.The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) of Armenia will not bring to disciplinary  responsibility acting Council Chairman Gagik Jhangiryan. Press  secretary of the SJC Lilit Shaboyan wrote on her Facebook page.

According to the source, on June 30, a commission formed for  discussion with the participation of SJC members Grigor Bekmezyan,  David Khachaturyan, Mesrop Makyan, Ani Mkhitaryan and Sergey  Chichoyan decided to refuse to initiate proceedings to bring Gagik  Dzhangiryan to disciplinary responsibility.

The decision of the commission notes that it is impossible to  initiate proceedings to bring to disciplinary responsibility a judge  or a member of the Supreme Judicial Council on the basis of an edited  video recording.  The Commission stated that the requirement  regarding the one-year term for bringing to disciplinary  responsibility was also violated. The recording was made on February  20, 2021, but  former Chairman of the SJC Ruben Vardazaryan was made  it public only on June 20, 2022, i.e. one year and 4 months after the  alleged violation.  

It should be noted that on June 20, the temporarily dismissed  Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Ruben Vardazaryan presented  a scandalous recording of a conversation with Acting Chairman of the  Supreme Judicial Council Gagik Jhangiryan and a member of the Supreme  Judicial Council Stepan Mikayelyan, which took place on February 20,  2021. In this conversation, Jhangiryan persuades Vardazaryan to leave  his post, while asking him to do it “for good, quietly and  peacefully.” He advises to think about the future of children, family  and assures that if he leaves, then all criminal cases initiated  against him will be terminated. “I guarantee you this as long as I’m  alive,” according to the recording Jhangiryan said.  After the  recording was published, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced  that the recording of the conversation between Gagik Jhangiryan,  member of the SJC Stepan Mikayelyan, and Ruben Vardazaryan, had been  sent to the Investigative Committee for study.  On June 23, the  Supreme Judicial Council decided to terminate the powers of  chairman   of the SJC Ruben Vardazaryan. Vardazaryan’s powers as head of the   SJC were suspended in April 2021 on the basis of a criminal case  brought against him for interfering with the administration of  justice. 

ArmInfo. International agencies called for “lowering the bar” for Artsakh’s status back in 2016, Armenia’s Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated at an online new conference. 

According to him, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs made similar  proposals. 

“I have repeatedly presented the co-chairing countries’ proposals.  The proposals for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the  co-chairs made in 2016 is nothing but a call to lower the bar,” the  premier said. 

Mr Pashinyan recalled his speech in Armenia’s Parliament, when he  stated that in all the packages since 1998 the Armenian side has  recognized Nagorno-Karabakh part of Azerbaijan. 

“When Nagorno-Karabakh was excluded from negotiations in 1998 was it  anything else but lowering the bar? When in 1999 Armenia signed the  Charter for European Security at the Istanbul Summit, which did not  directly deal with security principles, was it not lowering the bar?”  Mr Pashinyan said, recalling the Lisbon Summit in 1996. 

“True, Armenia vetoed. But why did it veto? It vetoed the wording  that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be settled within  Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. After Armenia vetoes, the  chairman made a statement conveying the international community’s  position. Was it anything else but lowering the bar?” Mr Pashinyan  said. All the documents are available online, he added. 

Armenia’s premier also recalled the resolutions by the U.S. Security  Council. 

“What was their content? Does our society know about it? There was an  unwritten law not to mention the resolutions that were not in our  favor,” the premier said. The international community could not  forget that, he added. 

Speaking of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, Mr Pashinyan called  “strange” Russian FM Sergey Lavrov’s statements on termination of the  OSCE Minsk Group’s activities. 

“On one occasion I could comment on the Azerbaijani president’s  statement on the past. But I should say that the Russian foreign  minister’s statement – if accurately quoted by mass media – sounds,  to put it mildly, strange. Why so? It is so because the Russian  foreign minister is an official subordinate to the Russian president.  Why I am saying it? For the simple reason that on April 19, 2022, I  paid an official visit to Russia, and the Russian president and I  signed a joint statement. What did we write in Point 24? We must  cooperate in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and must use the  potential of the OSCE Minsk Group under the international mandate,”  Mr Pashinyan said. He added that it is Russia’s official position  committed to paper. I think this discrepancy should be clarified,  though there is nothing to clarify because a joint statement was  adopted,” Armenia’s premier said. 

He stressed that thee the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs re-affirmed  their commitment to the Nagorno- Karabakh peace process. 

“Russia stated that in the joint statement. France and the United  States have stated several times. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have  never stated their nonexistence,” Mr Pashinyan said.