Author: Eduard Nalbandian

                                        Monday, 
Woman Arrested For Throwing Umbrella At Pashinian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits Vayots Dzor province, April 10, 
2023.
Police in Armenia arrested a woman on Monday moments after she threw her 
umbrella at Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during his visit to southeastern 
Vayots Dzor province.
The incident happened as Pashinian visited the village of Malishka and spoke to 
local officials and ordinary residents.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said that the unidentified woman approached 
Pashinian and attacked him “in order to interfere with the legitimate official 
activities of the prime minister.” It said nothing about her motives.
In a statement, the law-enforcement agency added that “criminal proceedings” 
will likely be launched against her.
According to Armenian media outlets, the woman and her family are former 
residents of the town of Lachin which was handed back to Azerbaijan last summer 
following a change in the route of the land corridor connecting Armenia to 
Nagorno-Karabakh.
News.am quoted the Mailshka mayor, Garik Nazarian, as saying that the family 
rents a house in his village, one of the largest in the country.
The arrested woman’s husband told Aravot.am that the family’s housing issues is 
not what drove her to throw the umbrella at Pashinian. “I don’t have time to 
talk right now, but I’ll definitely talk later,” he said.
‘Azeri Soldier’ Detained In Armenia
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
        • Tigran Hovsepian
Armenia - A road sign at the entrance to the village of Bnunis, .
Armenian security forces on Monday detained one Azerbaijani man and hunted for 
another, who is also thought to have crossed into Armenia for unclear reasons.
The man was apprehended in Ashotavan, a village in Syunik province situated not 
far from Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. Local residents said that he wore 
civilian clothes and carried no firearms.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said the Azerbaijani claims to be a soldier. “In 
his words, there was another serviceman with him, the search for whom is 
continuing,” it said in a short statement.
The Azerbaijani military reported, meanwhile, that two of its soldiers serving 
in Nakhichevan have done missing due to heavy fog. It did not identify them.
The Azerbaijanis were reportedly first spotted overnight in Bnunis, another 
village just a few kilometers south of the Syunik town of Sisian. Several local 
residents told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they knocked on the door of fellow 
villager Shoghik Matevosian’s house.
“They didn’t talk,” said one of them. “They left when she shut the door.”
Matevosian and members of her family refused to comment.
Bnunis and Ashotavan are located about 20 kilometers from the nearest 
Azerbaijani army positions on Nakhichevan’s border with Syunik. It was not clear 
how they managed to cross the heavily militarized frontier and advance deep into 
Armenian territory undetected. Armenia’s Defense Ministry said nothing in this 
regard.
The incident left some local residents worried about their safety. They want the 
police or the military to patrol their streets.
“We now always lock our gate and entrance door,” said Khachik Manucharian, a 
70-year-old man living in Bnunis. “I don’t what could happen.”
Senior Armenian Official Visits Iran
        • Nane Sahakian
Iran - The secretary of Iran's Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, hosts his 
Armenian counterpart Armen Grigorian in Tehran, April 9, 2023.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, reportedly praised 
Iran’s policy towards the South Caucasus when he visited Tehran on Sunday amid 
escalating tensions between the Islamic Republic and Azerbaijan.
Grigorian’s office said that he discussed with his Iranian opposite number, Ali 
Shamkhani, the “security situation in the region” and Armenian-Iranian 
relations. It gave no details of their “working dinner.”
Iranian news agencies reported that Grigorian praised Iran for “promoting 
regional peace and stability” and said forging closer links with Tehran is a 
“top priority” for the Armenian government.
Shamkhani was reported to reaffirm Tehran’s opposition to any “geographic 
change” in the region.
Iranian leaders have repeatedly made such statements in response to Azerbaijan’s 
demands for an extraterritorial corridor to the Nakhichevan exclave that would 
pass through Syunik, the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. They have warned 
against attempts to strip the Islamic Republic of the common border and 
transport links with Armenia.
Lingering tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan have flared up in recent weeks 
partly due to Baku's deepening ties with Tehran's archenemy Israel, highlighted 
by the opening of an Azerbaijani embassy in Tel Aviv.
Meeting with his visiting Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov late last 
month, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen reportedly declared that the two 
nations will form a “united front” against Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry 
challenged Baku to explain implications of that statement.
Last week, Azerbaijani authorities expelled four Iranian Embassy employees and 
arrested six men who they said are linked to Iran's secret services. They also 
alleged Iranian involvement in an assassination attempt on an anti-Tehran 
Azerbaijani lawmaker.
Bayramov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed the 
rising tensions in a phone call on Saturday.
Amir-Abdollahian’s deputy, Ali Bagheri Kani, visited Yerevan late last month for 
what the Armenian Foreign Ministry described as “regular political 
consultations” between the two neighboring states. Kani spoke out against the 
presence of “external forces” in the South Caucasus.
Hakob Badalian, an Armenian political analyst, suggested on Monday that Yerevan 
has intensified diplomatic contacts with Tehran and other foreign partners 
lately to try to reduce heightened risks to regional security.
“I regard the interaction with Iran as one of the most important directions in 
this [endeavor,]” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Russian Envoy Downplays Rift With Armenia
        • Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Russian Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin (right) poses for a photograph with 
Russian border guards on the Armenian-Turkish border, August 12, 2022.
Russia and Armenia will remain close allies despite unprecedented friction 
between, the Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Sergei Kopyrkin, said on Monday.
“There can be differences of opinion and evaluation between us, that’s normal,” 
Kopyrkin told reporters. “The volume of our relations is such that there may 
arise practical issues on which the parties have differing positions. But on the 
whole, I am confident that what unites us remains and will be reinforced. Our 
relations were, are and will be allied.”
Those relations have deteriorated in the last several months mainly because of 
what Yerevan sees as Moscow’s lack of support for its main South Caucasus ally 
in the conflict with Azerbaijan.
The rift between the two nations deepened further late last month after 
Armenia’s Constitutional Court gave the green light for parliamentary 
ratification of the International Criminal Court’s founding treaty. The ruling 
followed an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for Russian President Vladimir 
Putin over war crimes allegedly committed by Russia in Ukraine.
Moscow warned on March 27 that recognition of The Hague tribunal’s jurisdiction 
would have “extremely negative” consequences for Russian-Armenian relations. 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government has since given no indications that 
it will press ahead with sending the treaty to the Armenian parliament for 
ratification.
Pashinian and Putin spoke by phone on Friday for the fourth time in two months. 
According to the Armenian readout of the call, they discussed regional security, 
bilateral ties and “other developments taking place in them.”
Pashinian phoned Putin three days after meeting in Yerevan with Alexei Overchuk, 
a Russian deputy prime minister mediating negotiations on restoring transport 
links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In Kopyrkin’s words, Pashinian and Overchuk held “constructive” talks on the 
“entire complex of issues related to the region and their settlement.” The 
diplomat did not elaborate.
Prosecutors Move To Indict Armenian Opposition Lawmaker
Armenia - Parliament deputies Vladimir Vardanian (left) and Mher Sahakian.
Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian on Monday asked the Armenian parliament for 
permission to indict one of its opposition members who punched a pro-government 
colleague in disputed circumstances.
The violence occurred during an ill-tempered meeting of the parliament committee 
on legal affairs held on March 31. It reportedly followed a shouting match 
between Vladimir Vartanian, the committee chairman, and Mher Sahakian of the 
main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Sahakian was detained by police but set free three days later. He said he hit 
Vartanian because the latter spoke disrespectfully and then stood up and walked 
menacingly towards him. Vartanian, who represents Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, denied that, saying the assault was unprovoked.
Vardapetian backed the pro-government parliamentarian’s version of events in her 
letter asking the National Assembly to allow prosecutors to charge Sahakian with 
two counts of “hooliganism.” The chief prosecutor, who worked as an aide to 
Pashinian until last summer, stopped short of requesting a separate permission 
to arrest the opposition deputy pending investigation.
The parliament controlled by Civil Contract is expected to discuss and vote on 
lifting Sahakian’s immunity from prosecution on Tuesday.
Reacting to the development, Sahakian’s lawyer, Ruben Melikian, insisted that 
his client threw a punch “for the purpose of necessary self-defense” and did not 
commit any hooligan acts.
Another Hayastan parliamentarian, Kristine Vartanian, sarcastically “thanked” 
the authorities for seeking to prosecute Sahakian.
“This will, no doubt, be a good opportunity to discuss what happened in the 
National Assembly, present the truth to the public, expose the government's lies 
… and burst another bubble of the ruling force,” she wrote on Facebook.
Sahakian’s swift arrest and likely prosecution sharply contrast with the 
law-enforcement authorities’ response to ugly incidents involving lawmakers 
affiliated with the ruling party.
One of those pro-government lawmakers, Vahagn Aleksanian, kicked Hayastan’s Vahe 
Hakobian as the latter gave a speech on the parliament floor in August 2021. 
Hakobian and five other opposition deputies were hit by a larger number of Civil 
Contract lawmakers in an ensuing melee witnessed by Pashinian. Nobody was 
prosecuted in connection with that violence.
As recently as last week, the authorities faced calls to launch criminal 
investigation into parliament speaker Alen Simonian, who spat at an opposition 
heckler, and other pro-government deputies, who shouted verbal abuse and threats 
at an opposition candidate for the vacant post of Armenia’s human rights 
defender. One of those deputies publicly pledged to “cut the tongues and ears of 
anyone” who would make disparaging comments about the 2018 “velvet revolution” 
that brought Pashinian to power.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General has not ordered criminal investigations 
into either incident.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
 

                                        Tuesday, 
Armenia Sees High Risk Of ‘Escalation’ In Karabakh
        • Astghik Bedevian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Azerbaijani servicemen stand guard at a checkpoint next to 
the Lachin corridor, December 26, 2022.
Armenia continued to accuse Azerbaijan on Tuesday of planning to provoke fresh 
fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh or along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“I consider the possibility of escalation to be high,” Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian told a news conference.
Pashinian pointed to Azerbaijan’s “increasingly aggressive rhetoric” and “some 
other information” which he refused to disclose.
In recent days, the Azerbaijani military has repeatedly accused Armenia of 
transporting military personnel and weapons to Karabakh and threatened to take 
“resolute” actions to stop the alleged shipments. Yerevan has strongly denied 
the allegations, saying that Baku may be preparing the ground for launching 
offensive military operations.
There has also been an increase in ceasefire violations reported by the 
conflicting sides.
Pashinian said a key task of the Armenian side now is to prove that “we are not 
the authors of that escalation.” He said the recent deployment of European Union 
monitors on the Armenian side of the border will serve that purpose. He 
expressed hope that Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh will also deter Baku.
Opposition lawmakers scoffed at Pashinian’s remarks. They said the heightened 
risk of another military escalation in the conflict underscores his 
administration’s failure to rebuild Armenia’s armed forces after the 2020 war in 
Karabakh.
“Our public has seen three attacks on Armenia since the 44-day war,” said Tigran 
Abrahamian of the Pativ Unem bloc. “In all three cases, with a few exceptions, 
it saw a state of disarray, the loss of hundreds of lives and hundreds of 
hectares of [Armenian] territory. That is to say that a deterrent, preventive 
mechanism, which Armenia was able to create, has not been created.”
Gegham Manukian of the Hayastan alliance similarly claimed that Pashinian has 
been busy trying to cement his hold on power instead of strengthening the 
country’s defense and security system.
In Manukian’s words, the deployment of 100 or so European monitors could on the 
contrary add to security threats facing Armenia because it was strongly opposed 
by Russia.
“[Pashinian] has argued that he invited the Europeans so that they monitor the 
actions of Armenia and the Russian [military] contingent and assure Azerbaijan 
that Armenia and Russia plan no military actions against Azerbaijan,” Manukian 
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Former NATO Chief Urges EU Pressure On Azerbaijan
        • Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stands at an 
Armenian border checkpoint leading to the Lachin corridor, .
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged the European Union to 
pressure Azerbaijan to end its “inhuman” blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh during a 
visit to Armenia on Tuesday.
He met with the country’s leaders before visiting an Armenian border checkpoint 
at the entrance to the Lachin corridor that has been blocked by Azerbaijani 
government-backed protesters for the last three months.
Rasmussen also toured the Armenian resort town of Jermuk which was shelled by 
Azerbaijani troops during last September’s heavy fighting on the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. He told reporters that he wanted to “watch with my 
own eyes the impact of Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia.”
Rasmussen, who headed NATO from 2009-2014, went on to condemn the Azerbaijani 
blockade of the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia.
“The blockade … means there is a lack of food and life-saving medicine in 
Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said. “We are faced with a humanitarian crisis that could 
develop into a humanitarian catastrophe.”
“That is why I send a very clear message today to President [Ilham] Aliyev of 
Azerbaijan: dissolve the blockade today immediately,” added Rasmussen.
The EU, he said, must put “maximum pressure” on Baku for that purpose.
“The European Union has made an energy deal with Azerbaijan, and that could be 
used as a platform for critical dialogue with the government of Azerbaijan,” he 
said. “It may be that President Aliyev is an autocrat like [Russian] President 
Putin, but I believe that President Aliyev would not like to be put into the 
same position to become an international pariah like President Putin.”
Armenia - Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks to 
journalists in Jermuk, .
Like the United States and Russia, the EU has repeatedly called for the 
reopening of Karabakh’s land link with Armenia. The Azerbaijani government has 
dismissed such calls, saying that the protesters are right to demand that it be 
allowed to inspect “illegal” mining in Karabakh.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, made clear in late January that the 
27-nation bloc is not considering imposing sanctions on Baku despite the 
continuing blockade.
The head of the EU’s executive body, Ursula von der Leyen, described Azerbaijan 
as a “key partner in our efforts to move away from Russian fossil fuels” when 
she signed the energy deal mentioned by Rasmussen last July. The EU is to double 
imports of Azerbaijani natural gas by 2027.
Rasmussen, who had also served as Denmark’s prime minister from 2001-2009, 
visited Armenia in his capacity as the founder of Rasmussen Global (RG), a 
European political consultancy advising governments and corporations. It is not 
clear whether the Armenian government is now among its clients.
The former NATO chief met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Defense Minister 
Suren Papikian and the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, 
on Monday. He said he arrived in the South Caucasus at the invitation of its 
government to help boost its ties with the West.
“It’s our intention to have very strong cooperation with the government of 
Armenia,” Rasmussen said, adding that RG will specifically seek to enhance 
Yerevan’s “political dialogue” with the EU.
Armenia’s Car Imports Booming Due To Sanctions On Russia
        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - Car carrier trailers line up near a customs terminal outside Gyumri, 
Armenia’ national customs service is struggling to cope with rapidly growing 
imports of cars that appear to be mostly re-exported to Russia as a result of 
Western sanctions against Moscow.
Western automakers pulled out of the Russian market following the start of the 
war in Ukraine, pushing up the prices of new cars and forcing many Russians to 
switch to cheaper used models. Car traders from other nations, including 
Armenia, rushed to take advantage of the market opportunity.
According to the State Revenue Committee (SRC), the number of cars imported to 
Armenia jumped nearly six-fold to almost 45,300 last year. The sharp increase is 
continuing unabated as evidenced by long lines of mainly second-hand cars formed 
outside the country’s main customs terminal processing imported vehicles.
The owners and drivers of car carrier trailers lined up near the facility close 
to Gyumri complain that they spend days waiting to pay import duties and 
complete the customs clearance process.
“More than 200 customs clearances a day are carried out here right now,” Rustam 
Badasian, the head of the SRC, told reporters when he visited the Gyumri 
terminal at the weekend. “There is a huge influx [of imported cars] which we 
haven’t seen before.”
Badasian acknowledged that most of the vehicles brought to Armenia these are 
re-exported to Russia. Armenia’s membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic 
Union (EEU) means that they are exempt from import duties in Russia and other 
EEU member states.
Armenia - Newly imported cars at a customs facility outside Gyumri, March 13, 
2023.
One Armenian car trader, who did not want to be identified, said the import boom 
began “in the middle of last year.”
“My guess is that 70-80 percent of the cars are then exported to the Russian 
Federation,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Other goods manufactured in third countries are also re-exported from Armenia to 
Russia due to the Western sanctions. This explains why Armenian exports to 
Russia nearly tripled, to $2.4 billion, in 2022.
Official Armenian statistics also shows that individual cash remittances from 
Russia to Armenia quadrupled to almost $3.2 billion in January-November 2022. 
The soaring trade with and cash flows from Russia are the main reason why the 
Armenian economy grew by 12.6 percent last year.
“We are not violating any international obligations or legal norms,” Badasian 
said when asked about suggestions that Armenia is one of the countries that are 
helping the Russians evade the crippling sanctions.
Earlier this month, the U.S. departments of Justice, Treasury and Commerce 
issued a joint “compliance note” warning companies about the risk of violating 
U.S. sanctions on Moscow. The notice said that third-party intermediaries have 
commonly used China, Armenia, Turkey and Uzbekistan as “transshipment points” to 
Russia as well as Belarus.
Pashinian Noncommittal On Karabakh’s Self-Determination
        • Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a news conference in 
Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Tuesday pointedly declined to back 
Nagorno-Karabakh residents’ right to self-determination, highlighting a major 
change in Armenia’s traditional policy on the conflict with Azerbaijan.
Successive Armenian governments for decades championed that right in peace talks 
mediated by the United States, Russia and France.
A year ago, Pashinian and other senior Armenian officials stopped making 
references to the principle of self-determination it in their public statements. 
They have since spoken instead of the need to ensure “the rights and security of 
the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh,” fuelling opposition allegations that Yerevan 
is now ready to agree to Azerbaijani control over the Armenian-populated region.
Pashinian stuck to that line during news conference in Yerevan.
“We have said and keep saying that the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s 
rights and security is extremely important to us,” he said. “That is one of our 
key goals.”
“It’s up to the people and the government of Nagorno-Karabakh to decide the 
framework of the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s rights and security,” added Pashinian.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s office said on Monday that it is inviting 
“representatives of Karabakh’s Armenian community” to visit Baku for further 
talks on Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan. The authorities in 
Stepanakert rejected the offer, saying that the talks should take place at the 
Karabakh headquarters of Russian peacekeepers and focus on “humanitarian, 
technical and humanitarian issues.”
Karabakh’s five leading political groups issued late on Monday a joint statement 
demanding that Yerevan refrain from calling into question “the Artsakh people’s 
right to self-determination.” They said Pashinian’s administration must comply 
with a 1992 parliamentary act that bans Armenia’s government from signing any 
document that would recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
Pashinian did not clarify whether he could sign such a document. He again called 
for a direct dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert.
The prime minister charged at the same time that Baku is seeking a “mandate to 
perpetrate genocide or ethnic cleansing in Karabakh.”
Pashinian stated in January that the international community has always regarded 
Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan. The claim was denounced by the 
Armenian opposition and Karabakh’s leadership.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.