17:28,
YEREVAN, 17 NOVEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 17 November, USD exchange rate down by 0.31 drams to 402.41 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.75 drams to 437.50 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.01 drams to 4.52 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.71 drams to 500.28 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 263.82 drams to 25618.10 drams. Silver price up by 3.13 drams to 306.24 drams.
Russian border guards at a checkpoint in Meghri, Armenia
Yerevan Reacts, Saying Armenia will Monitor its Own Routes
Russia on Thursday reiterated that it should monitor any future transport route linking Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan, insisting that this matter has been enshrined in the documents signed by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.
“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that according to the tripartite agreements, the monitoring of transport communication between Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan will be carried out by the agencies of the Border Guard Service of the FSB [Federal Security Service] of Russia,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova during a briefing on Thursday.
Yerevan was quick to respond by saying that in the event of opening regional routes, Armenia will carry out border and customs checks on its territory through its state institutions.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan said that this principle is one of the main aspects of the Armenian government’s “Crossroads of Peace” project.
“The Republic of Armenia has never, in any document, agreed to any limitation of its sovereignty, and the control of a third country cannot be established over any part of its sovereign territory,” Badalyan stressed.
The Armenian foreign ministry spokesperson added that a special unit was recently created as part of Armenia’s National Security Service, whose task is to ensure the safety of these roads as well as the passage of goods, cargo, vehicles and people in the event of the opening of regional routes.
Zakharova also said that Russia is guided by the task of lifting the blockade of Armenia, including when it supported the resumption of dialogue between Armenia and Turkey. Zakharova reminded that the first meeting of the respective special representatives of the two countries was held on January 14, 2021 in Moscow.
“Russia also considers the 3+3 format another good platform for cooperation between the countries. In 2024, during the next session of the platform in Turkey, the topic of transport will also be considered. Within the framework of that format, Yerevan’s constructive proposal will be in demand, I am convinced,” Zakharova said.
During the three years since the signing of the so-called “tripartite” agreements, both Russia and Azerbaijan overtly have violated the provisions of the documents, with the most recent case being the non-responsive approach by Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh when Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack in September forcing the displacement of more than 100,000 Artsakh residents, which many rights advocated are calling a deliberate ethnic cleansing campaign.
Zakharova said that initiatives taken by Armenia have been consistent with the decisions of the working group, comprised of the deputy prime ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, to tackle the unblocking of transport routes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said that Russia is convinced that unblocking process plays an important role in the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and contributes to stability as well as the opening of transit-logistics potential in the South Caucasus.
Zakharova lamented that disagreements between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to delay the process as envisioned by Russia. She emphasized that Russia has expressed its political will and will continue to support the process, but “one side’s political will is not enough,” she said.
Zakharova also announced that Russia will send 40 tons of humanitarian aid to Armenia in the coming days in response to the humanitarian crisis arising from the exodus of more than 100,000 displaced Artsakh residents.
“We [Russia] are assisting Armenia and the Armenians of Karabakh in the humanitarian sphere. Specifically, the government of the Russia Federation, taking into consideration the needs of the Armenian side, has prepared 40 tons of humanitarian aid. The humanitarian cargo includes a mobile power station that can supply energy to dozens of homes. The prepared humanitarian action complements the steps already taken to help the displaced people of Karabakh,” Zakharova explained.
She recalled that the Russian Humanitarian Mission project has already sent six tons of aid to Armenia that included 500 food kits, and 500 packages of personal hygiene products and household chemicals.
Zakharova added that on October 20 Russia sent 1.5 tons of humanitarian aid to various cities in Armenia, adding that forcibly displaced Artsakh residents who have settled in Armenia’s Syunik Province on a permanent basis have been receiving assistance from the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Company and a number of other Russian-affiliated institutions.
15:33, 3 November 2023
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Baerbock has arrived in Armenia.
She was welcomed by Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan in Zvartnots airport.
Baerbock will meet with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan during the trip. She will also visit the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) and a reception center of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh.
18:43,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Brussels intends to continue its mediation in the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel said at a briefing with journalists.
''We have discussed the situation in the South Caucasus. We are committed to promoting EU mediation efforts to achieve the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the basis of mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty,'' said Michel.
European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar announced earlier the meeting planned for late October between the President of the European Council Charles Michel, the Armenain Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will not take place.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have fled from Nagorno-Karabakh ever since the territory surrendered to Azerbaijan on September 20. This conflict has evolved into a matter encompassing civil rights, human rights, and various other concerns.
Across the globe, ethnic Armenians are fervently advocating for the preservation of their ancestral lands, which are gradually being encroached upon by Azerbaijan.
Alexis Ohanian, who has Armenian roots from his father, Chris' side, recently took to social media to express his deep dismay after witnessing a person disrespecting and trampling upon the flag of the Republic of Artsakh.
Ohanian voiced his fears that Azerbaijan may continue its aggressive expansion into Armenian territories in the upcoming months if the international community doesn't stand up against this injustice and provide assistance to the Armenians during this challenging period.
"They're not even trying to be diplomatic about it. Watch Azerbaijan press on to conquer even more Armenian land in the coming months. When will the world push back?" Ohanian posted on X (formerly Twitter).
12:44,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 14, ARMENPRESS. A Reuters video journalist was killed and six other journalists injured in southern Lebanon on Friday when missiles fired from the direction of Israel struck them, according to a Reuters videographer who was at the scene.
The group of journalists, including from Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse, were working near Alma al-Shaab, close to the Israel border, where the Israeli military and Lebanese militia Hezbollah have been trading fire in border clashes, Reuters reports.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and a Hezbollah lawmaker blamed the incident on Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Israel’s U.N. envoy, Gilad Erdan, said in a briefing on Friday: "Obviously, we would never want to hit or kill or shoot any journalist that is doing its job. But you know, we're in a state of war, things might happen." He added that the country would investigate.
Reuters said in a statement that Issam Abdallah had been killed while providing a live video signal for broadcasters. The camera was pointed at a hillside when a loud explosion shook the camera, filling the air with smoke, and screams were heard.
"We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer, Issam Abdallah, has been killed," Reuters said.
"We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region, and supporting Issam’s family and colleagues."
Two other Reuters journalists, Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, were wounded in the incident and released from a hospital after receiving medical care, Reuters said.
Nazeh said Reuters and the two other news organizations were filming missile fire coming from the direction of Israel when one struck Abdallah as he was sitting on a low stone wall near the rest of the group. Seconds later, another missile hit the car being used by the group, setting it aflame.
While other news outlets, including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, said the shells were Israeli, Reuters could not establish whether the missiles had actually been fired by Israel.
Agence France-Presse said two of its journalists were wounded.
Qatari funded broadcaster Al Jazeera said two of its journalists were also wounded in the incident and had been clearly distinguishable as press. It blamed Israel for the incident, saying all those behind "this criminal act" should be held accountable.
PACE has called on Azerbaijan to “create a climate of trust and the material conditions” for Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh to be able to return to their homeland – including active steps to encourage and reassure them to do so.
In a resolution based on a report by Domagoj Hajduković (Croatia, SOC) following an urgent debate, the Assembly regretted the “long-standing and continuing failure on the part of the authorities of Azerbaijan to reassure the Armenian population of the region of their safety and the full respect of their rights”.
Almost the entire Armenian population of the region had left their ancestral homeland and fled to Armenia “out of a genuine threat of physical extinction, a long-standing policy of hatred in Azerbaijan towards Armenians, and a lack of trust in their future treatment”, the parliamentarians pointed out.
“It is not too late for Azerbaijan to redress the situation and prove its goodwill,” they said, noting Azerbaijan’s promises that the rights and freedoms of Armenian residents will be ensured, and its plans with respect to the reintegration of Armenian residents.
The Assembly also said the massive exodus of almost the entire Armenian population from the region had led to “allegations and reasonable suspicion that this can amount to ethnic cleansing”. Noting Azerbaijan’s strong statements refuting such allegations and suspicions, it called on the authorities to “spare no efforts in proving in deeds and words that this is not the case”.
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has posited preconditions on the matter of normalization of his country’s relations with Armenia.
Erdogan stated that Turkey is ready to develop relations with Armenia step by step if Armenia opens the "Zangezur corridor" and fulfills the other promises, according to Anadolu Agency reported.
https://news.am/eng/news/785889.html
European Council President Charles Michel says dialogue and diplomacy needed to resolve crisis.
The European Union has invited the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to resume peace talks following Azerbaijan’s lightning military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh last month, which triggered the flight of tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians.
In a meeting of European leaders in the Spanish city of Granada on Thursday, European Council President Charles Michel said he invited Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to meet in Brussels this month.
“We believe in diplomacy. We believe in political dialogue,” Michel told reporters at the summit of the European Political Community, a forum including more than 40 countries.
Aliyev declined to attend the summit in Granada, where European leaders had hoped that Armenia and Azerbaijan could work to resolve tensions and reach an agreement over Nagorno-Karabakh.
At the summit, leaders also pledged support for Armenia as it grapples with the fallout of the Azerbaijani military operation last month to seize control of the enclave, mainly populated by ethnic Armenians.
Many EU leaders have condemned the Azerbaijani operation and some governments have called for the bloc to consider tough measures against Baku, which has insisted it took legitimate action to regain control of a part of its sovereign territory.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenian residents have fled Nagorno-Karabakh to neighbouring Armenia since Armenian separatists were forced into a ceasefire on September 20 after a 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.
The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday accusing Baku of “ethnic cleansing”.
Many European leaders have expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, and Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared their “unwavering support” for Armenia’s territorial integrity on Thursday after meeting with Pashinyan.
However, there does not appear to be consensus among European leaders over potential sanctions for Azerbaijan, an important source of oil and natural gas for the EU and an ally of the United States. France’s Macron said that while Azerbaijan seemed to have “a problem with international law”, steps such as sanctions would not be productive.
Leaders at the summit agreed to step up aid to Armenia, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying that the EU will provide $5.53m in emergency aid on top of a similar amount previously announced.
The president of the self-declared “Republic of Artsakh”, Samvel Shahramanyan, has dissolved all institutions of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh and almost all Karabakh Armenians are now thought to fled the enclave being reintegrated into Azerbaijan. What lessons can be drawn from the tragic epilogue of this three decades-long secessionist conflict in Europe?
The images of long queues of cars escaping mountainous Karabakh to neighbouring Armenia bring back dark memories of ethnic cleansing that Europe thought had been relegated to its past. Just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with its imperial follies, trenches and wanton destruction, catapulted Europe back into the harrowing days of the world wars, the flight of ethnic Armenians rewinds us to the Balkans of the 1990s – or even further back, to the end of the Ottoman empire during the first world war.
To be clear: there is no question that Nagorno-Karabakh lies within the officially recognised borders of Azerbaijan. Europe and the international community have never questioned this, and the war in Ukraine has highlighted once again the significance of sovereignty and territorial integrity as the linchpins of international law. As such, there are no legally sound reasons to oppose the reintegration of Karabakh into Azerbaijan. It is also important to underline that the Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, has not ordered the 120,000 local Armenians to leave, let alone pointed a gun at their heads. Baku has offered to extend citizenship to all Karabakh Armenians who lay down their weapons and the political struggle for independence.
Yet beyond form there’s content, which points dramatically towards yet another case of ethnic cleansing in Europe. Aliyev may be willing to reintegrate Karabakh Armenians, but Azerbaijan is not a democracy. Being reintegrated into a country in which individual human rights and fundamental freedoms are not protected – let along group rights, which are highly unlikely to be granted to Armenians – is hardly an attractive proposition.
Furthermore, hatred between Armenians and Azerbaijanis runs deep, far deeper than that between Georgians and Abkhazians or Ossetians, or Moldovans and Transnistrians. While distinct from their relationship with Azerbaijan, this hatred is tied to the even deeper wounds surrounding the 1915 Armenian genocide, unrecognised by Turkey, which has welcomed Azerbaijan’s move in the enclave. While incomparable in violence and magnitude, the exodus of Karabakh Armenians from Turkic-Azerbaijan will probably end up being woven into a larger and older story of Armenian victimhood and dispossession. Far from healing, Armenian wounds are bleeding again.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has seen a dramatic reversal of the tide. The 1988-94 war with Azerbaijan was squarely won by Armenia, with Russia’s support. This led not only to the establishment of the breakaway statelet of Nagorno-Karabakh, but also to the Armenian occupation of seven further regions of Azerbaijan, surrounding Karabakh, and the displacement of 1 million Azeris from their homes. For 30 years, Karabakh Armenians were intransigent, unwilling to move an inch on their demands for self-determination through independence. Armenia proper, up until the election of Nikol Pashinyan in 2018, was ruled by a Karabakh clan, in what appeared to be a clear case of the tail wagging the dog.
I recall during my first visit to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2001 being surprised to learn how little, if any, room for peace negotiations there was. Even then, before Azerbaijan’s oil boom, the profits of which were heavily invested in its defence industry, it seemed clear that Karabakh would never become an independent state. But rather than facing reality and using their temporary leverage to secure a victor’s peace, Armenians assumed they would enjoy the upper hand for ever. For decades, they didn’t budge on their demands for independence, and now tragically end up displaced and dispossessed.
It is a lesson that other conflict parties elsewhere should take note of. Even in conflicts where power is heavily skewed to one side, no one can know what the future holds. In the Middle East, Israelis have entrenched their land grab of the occupied Palestinian territories, exploiting their military might and unconditional US and European support. They now feel even stronger as Arab countries normalise relations with Israel, with the big prize of Saudi Arabia finally within reach. Yet global power balances are changing in ways that will profoundly affect the Middle East. This could further strengthen Israel, but it could weaken it too. Israelis would do well to learn the lessons of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Back to Nagorno-Karabakh, alongside Azerbaijan’s rearmament leading to the 2020 war – in which Baku retook control of the occupied regions around Karabakh – the 2023 epilogue has been triggered also by Russia’s abandonment of Armenia. Here too, Yerevan and Stepanakert, the breakaway capital, thought Moscow would never give up on Christian Armenians in favour of Muslim Azerbaijanis. They were wrong. Russia, whose “peacekeepers” were present in the region, did nothing over the 10 months of Baku’s blockade of the Lachin corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia, depriving Karabakh residents of food and medicine. It simply turned the other way as Azerbaijan made its final military move to retake total control of the enclave.
Vladimir Putin abandoned Karabakh Armenians to their fate partly because he has bigger fish to fry in his failing invasion of Ukraine, and partly out of spite towards Pashinyan, who has sought to move his country towards Europe and the west. In a well-rehearsed playbook, Moscow hopes to regain control over Armenia by triggering Pashinyan’s fall from power, paving the way to a more congenial government in Yerevan. What easier way to do this than stand back, allowing Armenia to be defeated, and hope this will trigger regime change there? Indeed, the last weeks have seen crowds of angry Armenians calling on Pashinyan to resign.
Yet at the same time, Armenians are clear-eyed and well aware that without Russia’s abandonment, things would not have turned out this way. Their sense of betrayal by Moscow is deep. Both Washington and Brussels are seeking to fill that void and show solidarity towards Armenians, with USAid chief Samantha Power’s recent trip to Yerevan being testimony to this. It will take more than words and cash to consolidate Armenia’s path to democracy. It will require a sustained commitment over the years, first and foremost by Europeans. As the EU reopens its enlargement file through the accession process towards Ukraine, Moldova and potentially Georgia, there’s no better way to do so – were Yerevan to signal its interest – than to offer the prospect of EU membership to Armenia as well.
Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian columnist. She is director of the Italian Institute of International Affairs and an honorary professor at the University of Tübingen