Author: Elizabeth Jabejian

Iran International
By Maryam Sinaee
10/22/2021
Iran is in no position to "target Azerbaijan" for relations with
Israel for fear of its own Azari population, Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has said.
Referring to a reporter’s question on whether recent Iranian military
maneuvers would “escalate into a hot crisis” in the Caucasus, Erdogan
said he had "no such expectation," according to a government
English-language news release.
Because of Baku’s relations with Israel, “Iran will not be hostile to
Azerbaijan or put Azerbaijan on the target list” because its own
Azaris were “noticeable,” the president said.
During the 2020 conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, some among
Iran’s Azaris, around a quarter of the 80 million population,
expressed sympathy for Baku’s cause.
But Erdogan, speaking to reporters on a plane returning from an
African tour also played down tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan,
which relaxed this week with Thursday’s release of two Iranian truck
drivers arrested on a transit route to Armenia now under Azerbaijani
control.
"It is not that simple,” the president said. “What has been done thus
far [by Iran] is inappropriate, and I believe that Iran's new
administration will not repeat this misstep.”
The first to fall in
Iranian authorities have not commented on Erdogan’s remarks, the first
from a senior Turkish figure on Iran's military drills near the
Turkish border and the recent standoff between Tehran and Baku. Iran's
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on October 3 highlighted a reported
Israeli military presence in Azerbaijan and appeared to refer to
Turkey's role in warning that "the person who digs a well [to trap]
for his brothers is the first one to fall into it."
Iran is also concerned at the reported presence of jihadist fighters
from Syria in Azerbaijani territory allegedly recruited by Turkey to
help Baku in its war against ethnic Armenians in and around
Nagorno-Karabakh during last year's conflict. Turkey and Azerbaijan
have denied the allegation.
The Turkish president's comments came as tensions between Tehran and
Baku appeared to ease since last week’s phone-call between the Iranian
and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. In a meeting with lawmakers from
East and West Azarbaijan provinces Thursday, President Ebrahim Raisi
(Raeesi) stressed that good relations with neighboring countries was a
government priority, and that Iran would not allow Israel to sabotage
them.
In a December 2020 speech to a victory parade in Baku after the
Azerbaijan-Armenia war,
Erdogan recited a folk poem, popular both in both Azerbaijan and the
Iranian Azari provinces, lamenting the division of the ethnic Azari by
the river Aras separating Azerbaijan and Armenia from Iran.
Sultan of illusion
Iran's foreign ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador, while foreign
minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reacted with uncharacteristic vigor.
Much of the Iranian media dubbed the Turkish president the 'Sultan of
illusion.'
Erdogan also in the speech referred to "one nation, two states,"
citing Turkey and Azerbaijan’s shared linguistic heritage. "One
nation" is often used by pan-Turks to express the unity of speakers of
all Turkic languages, across central Asia and including Azerbaijan and
Iran’s north-west Azari-populated northwest.
Pan-Turkism has been on the rise among Azari (Torki) speakers of Iran
in the past two decades. Separatist groups call Iran’s northwestern
regions ‘South Azerbaijan.’ The Turkic languages spoken in Iran's
northwest and some other parts of Iran have fed a movement advocating
unification of speakers in Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, whose
territory was part of Iran until the early nineteenth century when
ceded to the Russian empire.
 

                                        Thursday, 
Armenian Defense Chief Chides NATO Over Turkey’s Role In Karabakh War
        • Emil Danielyan
Armenia - Armenian Defense Minister Arshak Karapetian at a meeting with a 
visiting NATO envoy, Yerevan, .
NATO member Turkey’s active involvement in last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh 
undermined Armenia’s trust in the U.S.-led alliance, Defense Minister Arshak 
Karapetian told a visiting NATO envoy on Thursday.
Javier Colomina Piriz, the NATO secretary general’s new special representative 
for the South Caucasus and Central Asia, held separate talks with Karapetian and 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during his first visit to Yerevan.
Official Armenian sources said the talks focused on the future of Armenia’s 
relations with NATO as well as regional security and the current situation in 
the Karabakh conflict zone in particular.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said Karapetian spoke about “NATO member Turkey’s 
role in the 44-day war unleashed against Artsakh.” He said that it “reduced 
confidence towards NATO in the task of maintaining peace and stability in the 
region,” the ministry added in a statement.
It did not specify whether Karapetian, who has frequently visited Russia since 
being appointed defense minister in July, signaled Yerevan’s plans to reconsider 
its relationship with the alliance because of that.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with NATO envoy Javier Colomina 
Piriz, Yerevan, .
A separate statement released by the Armenian government’s press office, said 
Pashinian “attached importance, in the political sense, to cooperation with 
NATO.” It was not clear whether he too complained about the Turkish involvement 
in the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November.
Turkey provided decisive military assistance, including sophisticated weapons 
and personnel, to Azerbaijan during the hostilities. Armenia maintains that 
Ankara also sent Islamist mercenaries from Syria to fight in Karabakh on the 
Azerbaijani side. The Turkish and Azerbaijani governments deny that.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Karabakh war, President Emmanuel Macron of 
France, another key NATO member state, also accused the Turks of recruiting 
“Syrian fighters from jihadist groups” for Azerbaijan.
U.K. -- French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the press on arrival at the 
NATO summit at the Grove hotel in Watford, northeast of London, December 4, 2019
"A red line has been crossed, which is unacceptable," Macron said on October 1, 
2020. "I urge all NATO partners to face up to the behavior of a NATO member.”
Armenian President Armen President Armen Sarkissian brought up the matter with 
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg when they met in Brussels later that 
month. At a joint news conference with Stoltenberg, Sarkissian charged that 
Turkey is also obstructing international efforts to broker an 
Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire.
Belgium -- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (R) and Armenian President 
Armen Sarkissian hold a news conference after talks in Brussels, October 21, 
2020.
Stoltenberg expressed serious concern about the hostilities but stopped short of 
criticizing Ankara. He said that NATO is “not part of this conflict.”
According to Pashinian’s press office, Piriz said NATO stands ready to use its 
ties with regional states to contribute to peace and stability in the South 
Caucasus.
Successive Armenian governments have sought to deepen ties with NATO while 
keeping Armenia allied to Russia politically and militarily. Armenian troops 
participated in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, and dozens of them remain 
deployed in Kosovo as part of a multinational peacekeeping operation also led by 
the alliance.
Yerevan Silent On ‘Positive Messages’ To Baku
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia/Iran - A view of the Arax river separating Armenia and Iran.
Armenia’s political leadership on Thursday pointedly declined to comment on what 
Azerbaijani officials have described as “positive messages” sent by it to Baku 
of late.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov spoke of such signals coming from 
Yerevan ahead of Wednesday’s session of a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task 
force working on the restoration of transport links between Armenia and 
Azerbaijan. He expressed hope that they will translate into “concrete results” 
soon but did not go into details.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s office and the Armenian Foreign Ministry had no 
comment on Bayramov’s remarks. Pro-government lawmakers also declined to say 
what signals, if any, were sent to Baku.
Earlier this week, Azerbaijan released and repatriated five more Armenian 
soldiers taken prisoner during or shortly after last year’s war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.
“I think that ‘velvet’ messages sent by the Armenian authorities are clearly 
pleasing the Turks and the Azerbaijanis,” said Tatul Hakobian, a veteran 
political analyst. “They are therefore trying not to use very tough rhetoric 
[against Armenia,] even if their actions suggest that they are sticking to their 
tough positions.”
“It’s hard to tell what understandings have been reached,” Hakobian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But it is obvious that there is a certain process 
which is leading to some understandings.”
The Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group co-headed by deputy prime 
ministers of the three states did not announce any agreements in a statement on 
its latest meeting in Moscow issued late on Wednesday. It said the three parties 
agreed to meet again soon.
RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin (C), Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian (R) and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev deliver a joint statement 
following their talks in Moscow, January 11, 2021.
The trilateral group has been discussing practical modalities of opening the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border for commercial traffic in line with the 
Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the Karabakh war last November.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the deal 
envisages a permanent land “corridor” that will connect the Nakhichevan exclave 
to the rest of Azerbaijan via Armenia’s Syunik province also bordering Iran. He 
has threatened to forcibly open such a corridor if the Armenian side continues 
to oppose its creation.
Armenian leaders have denounced Aliyev’s threats as territorial claims, saying 
that the truce accord only calls for transport links between the two South 
Caucasus states.
“I repeat that the issue of providing corridors is not discussed,” Deputy Prime 
Minister Mher Grigorian told journalists before flying to Moscow on Tuesday.
Aliyev claimed, meanwhile, that Azerbaijan is succeeding in securing the 
“Zangezur corridor.”
IRAN - A handout photo shows an explosion during a military exercise by the 
Iranian Army in the northwest of Iran, close to the border with Azerbaijan, 
October 1, 2021.
His stance and rhetoric have also prompted concern from Iran. Earlier this 
month, a senior Iranian parliamentarian accused Aliyev of trying to “cut Iran’s 
access to Armenia” with the help of Turkey and Israel.
In an October 11 editorial, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said that the 
idea of the “Zangezur corridor” is part of a “hidden plan to change the borders” 
of Armenia and Iran.
“This would result in the elimination of Iran's land border with Armenia and 
Iran’s exclusion from this important route for international transport in the 
northwest,” it wrote, adding that a recent Iranian military exercise was a 
warning to “adventurers from inside and outside the region trying to diminish 
the Islamic Republic’s geopolitical role.”
Armenian Hospitals Again Overwhelmed With COVID-19 Patients
        • Robert Zargarian
        • Susan Badalian
Armenia -- A COVID-19 patient at the intensive care unit of Surp Grigor 
Lusavorich hospital, Yerevan, May 10, 2020. (A photo by the Armenian Mnistry of 
Health)
Armenia reported a record 2,603 coronavirus cases and hundreds of its 
unvaccinated citizens awaited hospitalization on Thursday as health authorities 
struggled to cope with a new wave of infections in the country of about 3 
million.
The Armenian Ministry of Health also said in the morning that 32 more people 
have died from COVID-19 in the past day, raising to 5,902 the official death 
toll from the disease. The figure does not include the deaths of 1,243 other 
citizens which the ministry also links to the coronavirus.
The daily number of new officially confirmed cases has been growing steadily 
since June amid a continuing lax enforcement of sanitary rules and a very slow 
pace of coronavirus vaccination.
Yerevan’s ambulance service said its medics are working nonstop to respond to 
hundreds of phone calls from people infected with COVID-19.
“People call us during the day and they call us at night,” one ambulance doctor 
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “People are suffocating in their homes. Only we 
can help them.”
ARMENIA -- A doctor wearing a face mask and protective gear gives a call as she 
stands next to an ambulance at the Grigor Lusavorich Medical Centre in Yerevan, 
June 1, 2020
The Ministry of Health said late last week that Armenian hospitals have run out 
of vacant beds for COVID-19 patients, resulting in a waiting list of more than 
400 infected people in need of urgent care.
The coronavirus section of the largest of those hospitals, the Surb Grigor 
Lusavorich Medical Center, has over 500 regular and 114 intensive-care beds. All 
of them were occupied when an RFE/RL correspondent visited the facility on 
Tuesday.
“It can be said that we are now at the peak [of the new coronavirus wave,]” said 
Petros Manukian, the Yerevan-based hospital’s deputy director.
Zarik Hakobian was one of the patients treated there. The 70-year-old woman was 
taken to Surb Grigor Lusavorich two months ago and was still not discharged from 
its intensive-care unit.
“I’m very tired and want to feel well, but I can’t,” said Hakobian.
Another patient, Siranuysh Nalbandian, was five months pregnant. She was 
connected to oxygen equipment and had to use hand gestures to communicate with 
the journalist. Nalbandian, 41, smiled and pointed to a picture of her elder son 
Hayk who was killed during last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Only one of the more than 100 patients in intensive care was fully vaccinated 
against COVID-19, according to the hospital administration.
Armenia - Passengers on a commuter bus in Yerevan, March 12, 2021.
Vaccine hesitancy remains widespread in Armenia despite the soaring coronavirus 
cases and deaths caused by them. Nor do the vast majority of Armenians wear 
mandatory masks indoors, including in overcrowded public buses. Authorities 
essentially stopped fining them more than a year ago.
Ministry of Health data shows that just over 403,000 people received at least 
one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and only about 185,000 of them were fully 
vaccinated as of October 17. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
ordered relevant authorities to use their “administrative levers” to speed up 
the vaccination process.
The authorities had already obligated all public and private sector employees to 
get inoculated or take coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense, a 
requirement effective from October 1. Health Minister Anahit Avanesian said on 
October 11 that they could also introduce a mandatory coronavirus health pass 
for entry to cultural and leisure venues.
Russian Schools ‘Not On Armenian Government Agenda’
        • Nane Sahakian
Armenia - First-graders have a class at a village school in Gegharkunik 
province, September 1, 2021.
Education Minister Vahram Dumanian insisted on Thursday that his government is 
not considering asking Russia to open Russian schools for Armenian children in 
Armenia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said late last week that Moscow is now 
setting up in Tajikistan five Russian-language schools that will have “curricula 
created on the basis of our methodology.” He claimed that the Armenian 
government “recently showed an interest in having the same program drawn up for 
Armenia.”
“There is no such issue on our agenda,” Dumanian told journalists. “At the 
moment no discussions are taking placing on opening Russian schools in Armenia 
or Armenian schools in Russia.”
He suggested that Lavrov may have only referred to Russian-backed educational 
programs in schools in former Soviet republics.
“Any such program deserves attention so that one can understand what it is all 
about. Let’s familiarize ourselves and understand,” added the minister.
Dumanian also stressed the importance of improving the teaching of Russian and 
other foreign languages in Armenian schools. The Russian language is a mandatory 
subject there. Schoolchildren study it for ten years.
Armenian has been the country’s sole official language ever since the break-up 
of the Soviet Union. A law enacted in 1991 also made it the principal language 
of instruction for Armenian children enrolled in both public and private schools.
Several public schools have Russian-language sections for Russian citizens as 
well as those Armenian children who lived in Russia and only recently returned 
to Armenia. The latter are allowed to study there only temporarily.
Armenia also has five schools financed and run by the Russian government. Most 
of their students are children of Russian military personnel serving in the 
South Caucasus state.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
 

                                        Wednesday, 
Armenian, Azeri Officials Hold More Talks In Moscow
        • Aza Babayan
Russia -- A Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group on cross-border transport 
issues meets in Moscow, January 30, 2021.
Senior government officials from Armenia and Azerbaijan began on Wednesday a new 
round of Russian-mediated negotiations on restoring economic links between their 
countries.
They met for the latest two-day session of a trilateral working group set up by 
the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian governments in January. It has been 
discussing practical modalities of opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border for 
commercial traffic in line with the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 
war in Nagorno-Karabakh last November.
A source privy to the talks told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Yerevan and Baku 
have still not reached an agreement on the key issues on the agenda of the task 
force co-headed by deputy prime ministers of the three states. Their discussions 
are focused on legal aspects of opening Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links, 
said the source.
Speaking to reporters in Yerevan on Tuesday, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher 
Grigorian said the two sides have made progress towards restoring their 
Soviet-era rail links. But he did not elaborate.
The ceasefire agreement specifically commits Armenia to opening rail and road 
links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave. Armenia should be able, 
for its part, to use Azerbaijani territory as a transit route for cargo 
shipments to and from Russia and Iran.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the deal 
envisages a permanent land “corridor” that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest 
of Azerbaijan via Armenia’s Syunik province. He has threatened to forcibly open 
such a corridor if Yerevan continues to oppose its creation.
Armenian leaders have denounced Aliyev’s threats as territorial claims, saying 
that the truce accord only calls for transport links between the two South 
Caucasus states.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk insisted last month that the 
trilateral group has not discussed possible transport corridors.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov spoke on Wednesday of 
“positive messages” coming from Yerevan of late. Bayramov did not specify those 
messages. He said only that Baku hopes that they will translate into “concrete 
results” soon.
Armenian Government To Hold Fugitive Ex-Minister’s Funeral
        • Astghik Bedevian
        • Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Former Interior Minster Vano Siradeghian.
The government said on Wednesday that it will form an ad hoc commission to 
organize the funeral of Vano Siradeghian, a prominent politician and former 
interior minister who died late last week more than two decades after fleeing 
Armenia.
The government’s press service did not say who will head the commission or where 
Siradeghian will be buried. It told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that details of 
the planned ceremonies will be made public after a date is set for his funeral.
Neither Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian nor any member of his government has 
issued so far statements of condolence to the family of a man who is still 
technically wanted by Armenian law-enforcement bodies for grave crimes allegedly 
committed by him in the 1990s.
The death of the 74-year-old Siradeghian was announced by his wife and son at 
the weekend. They did not specify its cause or reveal his last place of 
residence.
A former novelist, Siradeghian was one of the leaders of a popular movement for 
Armenia’s unification with Nagorno-Karabakh who came to power in 1990. He became 
one of the newly independent country’s most powerful men when serving as 
interior minister in the administration of its first President Levon 
Ter-Petrosian from 1992-1996.
Siradeghian was dogged by opposition allegations of corruption and police abuses 
during and after his tenure. He denied them.
One year after Ter-Petrosian resigned in 1998, Siradeghian was charged with 
ordering a string of contract killings. State prosecutors claimed that he set up 
in the early 1990s a death squad to terrorize opponents of the Ter-Petrosian 
administration.
In July 2000, two members of the alleged gang were sentenced to death while 
seven others got jail terms ranging from 4 to 11 years. One month later, eleven 
former officers of Armenian interior troops were given lengthy sentences after a 
Yerevan court convicted them of murdering two men in 1995.
Siradeghian strongly denied ordering those killings. The former interior 
minister and his supporters insisted that the charges were fabricated as part of 
then President Robert Kocharian’s efforts to neutralize his political foes.
Siradeghian fled Armenia in April 2000 ahead of the Armenian parliament’s 
decision to allow law-enforcement authorities to arrest him. Although the 
authorities had Siradeghian placed on Interpol’s wanted list, his whereabouts 
always remained unknown to the public.
Siradeghian lived abroad under a new and false name, according to Khachatur 
Sukiasian, a wealthy businessman and pro-Pashinian parliamentarian who has long 
been close to the ex-minister.
This is why, Sukiasian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday, repatriating 
his body is now fraught with some “difficulties.” “There are technical and legal 
issues,” he said.
The tycoon did not deny having kept in touch with Siradeghian for the past two 
decades. He too did not name the country where the latter lived.
Throughout his exile Siradeghian continued to enjoy the strong backing of 
Ter-Petrosian and members of the ex-president’s entourage. In a weekend 
statement, Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party praised 
Siradeghian’s literary and political legacy and deplored the “trumped-up” 
charges brought against him during Kocharian’s rule.
Armenian Regulators To Limit Water Price Hike
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - A sign outside the Yerevan headquarters of the Veolia Djur company, 
September 2, 2018.
A French company managing Armenia’s water distribution network should scale back 
a significant increase in the price of drinking water sought by it, the head of 
a state body regulating public utilities said on Wednesday.
The price has stood at 180 drams (37 U.S. cents) per cubic meter ever since the 
Veolia utility giant took over the network in 2017 after signing a 15-year 
management contract with the former Armenian government.
The company’s Armenian subsidiary, Veolia Djur, requested in August permission 
to raise it to almost 224 drams per cubic meter. It cited, among other things, 
higher-than-expected inflation and the increased cost of electricity in the 
country.
Garegin Baghramian, the chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission 
(PSRC), said the commission has looked into the application and believes that 
the water tariff must remain unchanged for low-income households and be set at 
200 drams for other consumers.
Baghramian told reporters that the PSRC will “propose” this solution at an 
upcoming meeting with Veolia Djur executives. It will make a final decision on 
the new tariff after that meeting, he said.
In his words, the regulators are also seeking a 10-year tariff agreement with 
the water operator. “That presupposes a certain increase in the price, which 
will remain, nonetheless, stable in the next 10 years,” added Baghramian.
Under Armenian law, the PSRC has to fully or partly approve the Veolia Djur 
application or reject it by December 1.
Veolia managed the water and sewerage network of Yerevan from 2007-2016, phasing 
out Soviet-era water rationing in the vast majority of city neighborhoods. The 
2016 contract commits it to investing 37.5 billion drams ($77 million) in 
Armenia’s aging and inefficient water distribution network.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.