17:04,
YEREVAN, 14 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 14 December, USD exchange rate up by 0.46 drams to 404.58 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 6.04 drams to 441.56 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.02 drams to 4.51 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 6.40 drams to 512.20 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 50.75 drams to 25787.46 drams. Silver price down by 2.65 drams to 295.60 drams.
IM Artur Davtyan of Armenia took the 1st place in the Chessengland.com GM Festival FIDE Blitz tournament held in England on December 9.
Artur scored 13 points out of 14 and improved his blitz rating by 37 points, the Armenian Chess Federation reported.
Details can be found here.
https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2023/12/14/Artur-Davtyan/2939527
Whenever the topic of diaspora relations with Armenia is reviewed, we should always preface by acknowledging that Armenians in the United States are very generous and committed to the homeland. This is not meant to suggest that we “Americahyes” do not need to improve our performance, but rather that since the devastating earthquake in 1988, Armenians in the U.S. have backed their rhetoric with a variety of support mechanisms, primarily in the financial domain but also with an impressive number of nonprofits. Yet Armenia needs a stronger presence from the diaspora, which goes beyond the transfer of funds. Times of tragedy are an opportunity to learn from our shortcomings, but only if we have the vision to take advantage of it. This requires a healthy dose of humility, as solutions require the admission of a problem. Historically, self-assessment is not our strongest suit, but there are signs of improvement.
Many Armenians in the U.S. feel that organizational and individual donations to Armenia should entitle diaspora influence in Armenia. Beyond the impact of those investment relationships, it does not. Our romantic notion of a global Armenian nation should be balanced with the fact that Armenia is a sovereign country with a Constitution to govern itself. I absolutely believe we should encourage all Armenians to contribute to the homeland and build an identity based on this relationship, but this must be done in accordance with the laws of the nation. Identity is best built by adding value, not by seeking influence. There is an open door for greater diaspora participation. It starts with a curiosity that goes beyond sending money to a website or address.
I would like to share what our family has learned in this regard that has afforded us such a rewarding experience. The first time we visited Armenia as a family several years ago, we were what I would describe as fairly typical of U.S.-born Armenians. Our relationship with the homeland was through our family tree in western Armenia and through our exposure to the current Republic of Armenia. The Armenian communities in the diaspora have done an admirable job of establishing patriotic values through knowledge of our history and tragedies such as the Genocide. Despite our involvement in the Armenian community in the U.S., we had the same questions many of you likely have had at some point—would we understand the eastern dialect? Would we be familiar with the food? Would we feel a connection? During that first trip, we felt like more than tourists yet less than contributors to the homeland. After all, which Armenian is truly a tourist in their homeland? The difference lies in the deeply rooted emotions in our hearts that are released when we face Ararat, pray at Etchmiadzin and experience our culture. I remember waking up one morning for our inaugural participation in a very touristy tour. Upon opening our hotel window, I was face to face with a crystal clear Mt. Ararat that seemed to say, “Welcome, it’s about time.” We arrived in Armenia not knowing a soul in the country but feeling as if we were home. We left drained by the emotions we expended but feeling incomplete. It was not enough to see the sites and enjoy the ambiance. We needed to know the people and become a part of a country that was far away in miles but close to our hearts. We needed to directly contribute to its development.
Stepan and his family pictured on a small hill overlooking the village of Paruyr Sevak. The plaque was in dedication to his parents and grandparents. In yellow is Mayor Edik. In the background on the right is the Azeri border.
On our visits over the next few years, we focused on societal issues through visits to remarkable institutions such as Mer Doon, Orran and the Women’s Support Center. Our family discovered the true essence of building a sustainable bond with the homeland. These nonprofits and many others were started by diaspora Armenians who had a desire to become part of the nation building process and a vision to implement their dream. We learned about what was happening on the ground far below the radar of politics. We also spent more time in the villages, particularly the border villages in the eastern and southern areas of Armenia. It was there that we discovered what I consider the soul of Armenia. These people truly understand the purpose of life in terms of happiness, simplicity and giving. Our interests gravitated quickly towards the survival of border communities that are national security risks for Armenia. Whether in Isahakian on the Turkish border, Chambarak in Tavush on the Azerbaijani border or in eastern Syunik, the people are warm, generous and free of constraining complexity. Our identity journey was getting closer to the answer.
In 2018, through our good fortune visiting the Armenia Tree Project and Jason Sohigian, we crossed paths with the Paruyr Sevak village in the Ararat Marz on the border of Azerbaijan’s exclave Nakhichevan. Our lives changed forever. Sohigian asked us a simple question: “Where would you like the trees planted that were donated?” Our equally simple response was in a border village, in the hope that we could one day build a relationship. It was God’s plan for us to make that visit in June 2018 with our cousins the Hamparians from Chicago. In matters of faith, there are no coincidences. I have written about our uplifting experience over the last five and a half years, which has resulted in many projects with our partner the Paros Foundation and expanded our extended family to include the people of this village.
Fortunately, our family story is not unique. My friend John Mangassarian and his wife June are leading a similar adoption effort with another village. I met a young couple, Stephen Haroian and Astrid Mkhitaryan from New York, who have forged important relationships in the border villages of Syunik through their Little Bird Armenian Development group. A wonderful young woman from Boston, Nairi Krafian, started a nonprofit Oknooshoon in 2017 in Armenia to develop programs for the therapy benefits of human-canine relationships. Tim Straight, an American with Norwegian background, has lived in Armenia for over 20 years and runs the Homeland Development Initiative Foundation, which has employed Armenians from villages while distributing their crafts internationally. This is one way that any person can make a real difference for our brethren and ourselves. The personal satisfaction of working with these residents is beyond gratifying. It represents the fulfillment of establishing a special relationship with the homeland.
There is a significant difference between providing long distance financial support and following your commitment to Armenia. Find your niche and follow the path to the homeland. Providing funding is important and noble and must continue. Going to Armenia and picking a place to make a difference can lead you into another realm of satisfaction.
The more Armenian Americans who take this step, the closer we come to building a pan-Armenian, one nation mentality. Armenian unity cannot be legislated or announced. It is the result of face-to-face relationships, knowledge and trust. Youth exchange programs and professional internships hold critical importance and open the door for diaspora professionals to work in Armenia and build a service mentality. Whether we work with a large nonprofit or participate individually, our quest begins with a desire to make an impact.
My family’s experience, and that of many people I have met, suggests that focus is a critical attribute. Many of us with good intentions spread ourselves too thin. If we each pick one area of focus, our impact will be greater. Projects that connect us with others will have an adjacency impact and satisfy the need to avoid forming silos. Through our work in Paruyr Sevak over the last five years, we have had the honor of meeting other groups on a mission of providing hope. Hoops For Haiastan, a U.S.-based nonprofit that advocates for basketball and sports in Armenia, built a basketball and soccer court in the village. Focus on Children Now is a wonderful group that provided furniture and playground equipment for the new pre-school. The Ohanyan school in Yerevan, a private K-12 school attached to Eurasia University, is establishing a working exchange relationship with the village school that will bolster the quality of education. The contact was made here in the U.S. as the Ohanyan family’s daughter, Anna Ohanyan, is a renowned scholar at Stonehill College. Once you find an area of focus, the relationships you will establish will bring such joy to your life. Imagine if 100 Armenian-American families established working relationships with 100 rural villages or you personally followed your contribution with an on-site commitment. Consider yourself an ambassador for the vast Armenian communities in America. Sometimes it starts with a simple, “How can we help?”
Remember the original premise that our community is incredibly generous. It is generally assumed that this generosity requires only two prerequisites—integrity and visibility. Our people rightfully want to know that their kindness is properly accounted for and has visible results. Sadly, we have witnessed either credibility issues or a lack of visible results. Each person can play a critical role in solving that challenge. When we raise money for Paruyr Sevak, our family’s credibility is on the line. John and June Mangassarian represent a trustworthy bridge between Armenian Americans and their village partners. Your commitment can provide an important level of sustainable trust. It is extremely important to close the loop by presenting tangible results to our benefactors. Recently, our parish donated funds for three new bathrooms at the secondary school. Pictures of the new construction were greatly appreciated and led to further generosity. Personal participation in these projects can make them real for our communities in the U.S. and release the constraint of reluctance. If we truly believe that Armenia is our homeland, taking this next step with a high level of participation will provide incremental identity for the diaspora and measurable results for Armenia. In this time of crisis in our history, we should be finding new avenues of investing in Armenia. This starts with us as individuals. Find your zone and build a sustainable relationship.
After months of speculation and waiting, Armenia’s growing defence partnership with France finally became tangible this month.
On November 12, reports emerged from Azerbaijani sources allegedly showing French-made Bastion armoured personnel carriers arriving in Georgia, at the Black Sea port town of Poti. The vehicles were reportedly destined for Armenia, as part of the first known shipment of French military hardware to the South Caucasian country in its history. Georgia’s foreign minister then confirmed that the shipment of 20-odd Bastions was indeed destined for Armenia.
For Armenia, this was a significant milestone. After its army was battered in the 2020 Second Karabakh War, and with its traditional supplier, Russia, both unable and unwilling to send arms shipments, Yerevan has been desperately seeking other procurement partners. Now, having already established a working defence procurement relationship with India, Armenia is hoping that the current French shipment is only the first step of a long partnership.
The arrival of the armoured vehicles came after long negotiations.
“It’s a result of at least year-long negotiations, if not more,” says Leonid Nersisyan, a defence analyst and research fellow at the Yerevan-based Applied Policy Research Institute. “I think the process actively started after the 2020 war. Relations between France and Armenia were always at a pretty high level, and now with better Armenia-EU and Armenia-US relations, these kinds of deals became realistic,” Nersisyan said.
The first official announcement of French arms sales to Armenia came on October 23, when the two countries’ defence ministers met in Paris. That deal included the transfer of three Thales-made Ground Master 200 air detection radars, along with a memorandum on the future sale of Mistral anti-aircraft missile systems. There have also been other reports that France has shipped, or will soon ship, 50 units of the VAB MK3 infantry combat vehicle to Armenia.
“France is the sole Western actor that has been adequately assessing the situation on the ground in the South Caucasus,” said Tigran Grigoryan, head of the Yerevan-based Regional Center and Democracy. “In Paris, there is an understanding that Azerbaijan poses a serious threat to Armenia's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the only viable approach to mitigate the risk of a new escalation is to assist Armenia in restoring its military capabilities,” Grigoryan said.
The 44-day war with Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 resulted in heavy losses for the Armenian side. After losing control of the skies in the war’s opening days, Armenian forces were devastated by Azerbaijan’s high-tech, precision weaponry, most notably the TB-2 Bayraktar drone. The open source blog Oryx, which tracks and confirms losses based on public imagery, counts 1,676 pieces of Armenian military equipment lost during the war, including 255 tanks, 250 towed artillery pieces, and 39 surface-to-air missile systems.
There has been little breathing room in the three years since that war’s end, too. Azerbaijan has maintained a belligerent posture, launching assaults on either Nagorno-Karabakh or Armenia proper every year since then. In May 2021, barely six months after the 2020 ceasefire, Azerbaijani troops occupied heights in two border areas inside Armenia proper, followed by an assault into southern Armenia that November.
September 2022 saw a full-scale Azerbaijani offensive into Armenia itself, capturing dozens of square kilometres of territory in fighting that saw hundreds of casualties. Finally, just two months ago, a 24-hour assault by Azerbaijan on besieged Nagorno-Karabakh resulted in the effective destruction of the enclave and the forced displacement of its 120,000 inhabitants to Armenia.
Now, there are real fears that Azerbaijan will again attack Armenia itself. In this fraught environment, bolstering the country’s military has become a matter of crucial importance.
Replacing, not to mention upgrading, these capabilities will be an enormous undertaking. Alongside French systems, Armenia has been establishing a relationship with another up-and-coming player in the arms industry: India.
Following numerous reports of contracts signed in late 2022, a number of Indian systems arrived in Armenia in summer 2023, including the Pinaka rocket artillery platform and the 155mm Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (of which 90 units have reportedly been purchased). Numerous contracts for small arms from Indian manufacturers have also been signed, while Armenia will reportedly also purchase anti-drone systems from India’s Zen Technologies.
The capabilities of hardware from each country, as well as the relative prices, dovetail in a way that makes it particularly attractive for Armenia as it addresses its many defence needs, analysts say.
“Indian equipment is important because it could be too expensive for Armenia to rearm only on French equipment,” Nersisyan said. “Armenia needs hundreds of pieces of artillery, not 20 French CAESAR [self-propelled 155mm artillery pieces] that could be the same price. But talking about domains like command and control or air defence – these are the areas where you will definitely see the advantages of top Western technologies. So both [France and India] have a role to play for Armenia,” Nersisyan said.
A major hurdle in the sale of Western military equipment to Armenia had always been the country’s close relationship with Russia. As both a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and a signatory to several bilateral defence treaties with Russia, Yerevan had traditionally relied almost exclusively on Moscow for its defence needs.
But Armenia’s sharp turn away from Russia in the past year or two has reshaped geopolitical realities in the region, analysts say.
“Armenia's attempt to diversify its foreign policy [away from Russia] undoubtedly played a role in facilitating such transactions,” Grigoryan said.
It is meanwhile Russia’s failure to fulfill its arms contracts with Armenia that has led the latter to seek alternate suppliers. Whether due to unwillingness or inability, particularly following its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia has not fulfilled an arms order from Armenia reportedly worth up to $400 million signed in 2021. Yerevan is reportedly attempting to make Moscow return the funds for the already-paid contract, which Russia has so far refused to do.
Many are now wondering if Russia’s time as an active arms supplier to Armenia is over for good.
“It’s a good question,” Nersisyan said on whether Russia may be finished as a supplier for Armenia. “With Armenia’s current foreign policy shifts, that could definitely happen. The several hundred million dollars of supplies [from 2021] have not arrived, for both political reasons and practical causes, namely Russia’s war on Ukraine. Nowadays, Russia is only supplying the countries which are politically very important for them, like India, [and Armenia] is not one of these,” Nersisyan said.
The recent French-Armenian announcements go beyond arms supplies, as well. French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu declared during the October press conference with his Armenian counterpart that France would also “help Armenia train ground defence forces and support the country's efforts to reform and modernise its military.” Paris will also be deploying a military attache to its embassy in Yerevan to aid in coordinating trainings and identifying future areas for defence purchases.
“I think that’s probably even more important than the [air defence] radars,” said Nersisyan, of the French training mission. “The French minister mentioned that [France] will help with both training [Armenian] ground forces and with doing some kind of audit of our air defence capacities, helping to understand how to modernise it. So I think that’s a very high value thing, and hopefully the Armenian side will be open to such advise and consultations and will be ready to accept the necessary [reforms],” he said.
While these are important steps, Armenia’s efforts in rebuilding and upgrading its armed forces are still in their infancy. Far more needs to be done to achieve some sort of parity, or at least credible deterrent, with their adversary, Azerbaijan. Change is happening, but its pace leaves questions.
“Changes [in the military] are happening, but slower than they should, I suppose,” said Nersisyan. “There is a serious need to speed that up, because [Armenia] is under serious pressure now and doesn’t have a lot of time. But I expect more deliveries from France in the near future, and from India as well. Procurement is historically the easy part [of upgrading a military], but reforms in command and control – those are more difficult.”
https://www.bne.eu/armenia-marks-new-era-with-french-military-purchases-303180/?source=armenia
Bruce Gil
nearly $26 million for allegedly discriminating against Armenian credit card applicants.
A lawsuit filed Friday in a California federal court seeks class-action status for applicants and customers of the bank who may have been affected.
The suit alleges that Citibank illegally denied or revoked certain credit cards for eight years because of an unfounded suspicion that people of Armenian descent were more likely to commit fraud. According to the suit, the bank even tried to hide the fact that it was assuming people with last names ending in -ian or -yan in or around Glendale, California — an area known as Little Armenia — were Armenian.
"Redlining is a disgusting form of racial and ethnic discrimination by banks that the law has prohibited for decades, yet we find it is still being practiced by Citibank, one of the largest financial institutions in America," Ara Jabagchourian, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. "Labelling credit applicants as 'bad guys' on the basis of having Armenian last names is reprehensible, immoral and illegal."
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined Citibank last Wednesday, saying it was discriminating against Armenians who had applied for store credit cards. The regulator said from at least 2015 to 2021 the bank “treated Armenian Americans as criminals who were likely to commit fraud" and referred to them internally as the “Southern California Armenian Mafia” or "Armenian bad guys."
Marine Grigorian, the lead plaintiff in the case, is of Armenian descent. She alleges that in March, the bank denied her request to raise her credit limit on a Costco-branded credit card, giving her no legitimate reason. Grigorian only made the connection with her ethnicity once she read press reports about the CFPB’s investigation and fine, according to the suit.
A Citibank spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Messenger, but last week responded to the CFPB allegations. The bank apologized to applicants who were unfairly evaluated “by the small number of employees who circumvented our fraud detection protocols," the spokesperson wrote in an email at the time.
“Regrettably, in trying to thwart a well-documented Armenian fraud ring operating in certain parts of California, a few employees took impermissible actions,” the spokesperson said last week. “While we prioritize protecting our bank and our customers from fraud, it is unacceptable to base credit decisions on national origin.”
The bank also said it had taken action against those directly involved and put preventive measures in place following an internal investigation.
https://themessenger.com/business/citibank-is-sued-days-after-armenian-mafia-discrimination-allegations-surface
14:40, 7 November 2023
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. The Europe Region assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (OIF) has adopted a resolution expressing unconditional support to Armenia and particularly the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Member of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie, MP Arman Yeghoyan said in a statement on Tuesday that the resolution stresses the need for respect of the rights of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and strongly condemns all forms of ethnic cleansing and the destruction of religious and cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Over 100,000 forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh found shelter in Armenia after the September 19 Azeri attack.
15:24, 2 November 2023
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on Russia's withdrawal from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which the country signed in 1996 and ratified in 2000, TASS news agency reports.
The document was supposed to become the main international legal instrument for stopping any kind of nuclear testing. To date, however, the treaty has not entered into force because it has not been ratified by 8 of the 44 "Annex 2 states" – states that participated in the CTBT's negotiations between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power reactors or research reactors at that time.
Russia’s withdrawal is designed to restore parity in nuclear arms control commitments, according to TASS. It is specified that the document creates a legal basis for Russia to withdraw its instrument of ratification, but does not imply the country's withdrawal from the CTBT.
The Kremlin said earlier that the withdrawal of ratification of the treaty equalizes the situation in the field of nuclear testing for Moscow and Washington, which never ratified the document. The Kremlin said that the withdrawal of the CTBT ratification does not mean that Russia plans to conduct nuclear tests.
Azerbaijan’s Armenian ‘Corridor’ Is a
Revisionist autocracies are coordinating greater control of the Eurasian continent.
By Anna Ohanyan, the Richard B. Finnegan distinguished professor of political science and international relations at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, and a nonresident senior scholar in the Russia/Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Nonetheless, the Politico report surprised few in Armenia. Azerbaijan’s use of deadly force and coercive diplomacy against Armenia is hardly breaking news, at least since Baku’s 2020 military successes in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. From December 2022, Azerbaijan imposed a nearly yearlong humanitarian siege of the Armenian minority in the enclave—a blockade deemed illegal by U.N. courts. Facing no accountability or international pushback, an emboldened Baku broke the 2020 armistice and militarily conquered the region this September, choosing to expel its 120,000 indigenous Armenian inhabitants rather than pursue a European Union-backed deal guaranteeing that group’s civil rights within Azerbaijan.
The next stage of this conflict is imminent. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev may now have his sights set on seizing an extraterritorial corridor through Armenia’s southernmost Syunik province, which he has branded as the so-called Zangezur corridor. This extraterritorial corridor would link mainland Azerbaijan with the small Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, to Armenia’s west, which borders Turkey and Iran.
An extraterritorial corridor cutting through Armenian territory would, by definition, be militarized: The Armenian government continues to object to the plan as breaching its territorial sovereignty. It also fears the corridor becoming a haven for illicit activity and trade.
The Armenian government has instead offered a vision of broader regional connectivity: opening de jure borders and rebuilding Soviet-era cross-border roads and railways, all operating within the framework of established international law and respecting the full sovereignty of the countries through which they pass. Indeed, opening borders would yield immediate economic dividends to all countries in the South Caucasus.
Such a vision could, of course, only be realized with a peace treaty, which Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reaffirmed his government’s commitment to signing during his address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Oct. 17. This would require acknowledgment of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both states. Speaking at the fourth Silk Road Forum few days later, held in Tbilisi, Georgia, Pashinyan unveiled the so-called Crossroads for Peace initiative, which detailed Armenia’s advocacy for rules-based regional connectivity.
The problem for Armenia is thus not the corridor itself, but the coercion surrounding its implementation.
“We will implement the Zangezur corridor, whether Armenia wants it or not,” Aliyev threatened as early as 2021. Increasingly irredentist and expansionist, Baku has already created the physical infrastructure inside Armenia to pull this off. Since 2021, Azerbaijani troops have advanced across Armenia’s eastern sovereign border, a strategy that researchers describe as “creeping annexation.”
In September 2022, when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia’s southeast and targeted civilians inside the country, it was testing the limits of what the world would countenance. In response, the EU deployed unarmed civilian monitors to the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan in order to document, if not deter, further attacks.
Outside of Armenian sovereign control, a Zangezur corridor would comprise a much-sought final missing link in a sanctions-proof, extraterritorial nexus connecting Iran and Turkey to Russia via Azerbaijan. Unsurprisingly, Armenia’s rules-based proposal for broad regional connectivity is supported by the EU and the United States, while Azerbaijan’s demands are backed by Russia and Turkey. Iran, for its part, has been looking to leverage all available transport routes that would help it in deepening its commercial and military ties with Russia. Ground has been broken for both rail and road projects that would directly connect Tehran to Moscow through Azerbaijan—while avoiding Western sanctions monitors.
The Zangezur corridor, if realized, would entail a shift in strategic geography in the Eurasian continent, cementing the revanchist policies between two neo-imperial actors, Turkey and Russia. The stakes are high for the region and beyond—this corridor may be as incendiary for Western interests as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposed Zaporizhzhia corridor project to link mainland Russia with its illegally annexed positions in Crimea through Ukraine.
Economic sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine are reshaping the geopolitics of connectivity, trade, and transit between China and Europe. Russian transcontinental rail has largely been replaced by seaborne alternatives, but a so-called Middle Corridor concept has been promoted by some, including Russia’s allies and partners to its south. This multimodal patchwork of routes would ostensibly form an overland connection between China and Europe via Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, with spurs to Russia and Iran, bypassing Armenia.
To Chinese audiences, Aliyev touts the purported importance of the Zangezur corridor as a component of the Middle Corridor. This is belied by the existence of parallel railways in neighboring Georgia, which are owned by Azerbaijan. The more pressing imperatives for Aliyev, as a dynastic post-Soviet ruler of an undiversified petrostate—and one that is entering its 15th consecutive year of declining oil exports—are domestic. The World Bank and others forecast a coming socioeconomic decline that will test the limits of Azerbaijan’s autocracy, making nationalist and militarized projects, such as the Zangezur corridor and additional threats of conquest against alleged “historic Azerbaijani territory” in Armenia, into important levers for regime legitimacy and survival.
Turkey lends extensive political, military, and operational support to Azerbaijan’s preferences in the region, including the Zangezur corridor plan. Already a beneficiary of the current incarnation of the Middle Corridor that uses Georgia to access Russian markets, extralegal and sanctions-proof transit through territory in Armenia’s south would enhance Ankara’s strategic autonomy and provide long-coveted unhindered access to Turkic Central Asia via Azerbaijan.
Turkey’s desire for this connection was cemented in its 2021 Shusha Declaration with Azerbaijan. The declaration elevated the already deep alliance between the two, which now covers wide-ranging issues, including a defense pact and coordination in their state-controlled media platforms, with a specific mention of the Zangezur corridor.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regularly calls for an “uninterrupted” rail and road corridor “as soon as possible,” through Armenia. He has done it from the highest global podium, that of the United Nations General Assembly this fall, as well as in the Azerbaijani Parliament in 2021 and in his cabinet meetings.
The desire for an uninterrupted corridor also stems from Turkey’s aspirations to become a regional energy hub, thereby increasing its bargaining position relative to the West. Gas coming from Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia would turn Turkey into a central node of regional geopolitical patronage in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
Indeed, neo-imperial logic behind the push for the Zangezur corridor was articulated plainly by Erdogan himself when he stated that the post-Ottoman periphery, the South Caucasus in this case, “is not a romantic neo-Ottomanism. It is a real policy based on a new vision of global order.”
For Russia, the dividends of such a corridor extend beyond evading Western sanctions. The diplomatic fig leaf on which Azerbaijan’s Aliyev has relied in demanding the extraterritorial corridor is the 2020 trilateral Nagorno-Karabakh cease-fire agreement, brokered by Russia, between Azerbaijan and Armenia. That agreement envisioned opening transport links and enshrined the security of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population and the return of Armenian refugees through a Russian peacekeeping mission; it also guaranteed unhindered access between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia, in turn, committed to reopening and guaranteeing the security of vehicles and cargo traveling through sovereign Armenian territory between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, with an oversight role for Russian border services. After failing to prevent the 2023 military assault and the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, that agreement is now functionally and legally inoperative.
By claiming a lack of border delimitation, Russia tacitly endorses Baku’s attacks on Armenia’s internationally recognized borders. Baku’s forceful conquest of an extraterritorial corridor would create a sustained security risk for the Armenian state. This would provide the Kremlin with significant leverage to continue its pressure on Armenia’s nascent democracy. Russia-Azerbaijan’s strategic alliance was formalized in the Declaration of Allied Interaction between the two countries, signed on Feb. 22, 2022, two days before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine.
In terms of the depth and scope of issues covered, that declaration is similar to the Shushi Declaration that Azerbaijan signed with Turkey in 2021. The alliance formed with Russia, like the one with Turkey, also covers deep cooperation and coordination, impacting military, mass media, and the energy sector. The latter agreement, and subsequent gas deals with Russia, translated into laundering Russian gas, via Azerbaijan, for European markets.
By contrast, the rules-based path toward regional connectivity in the South Caucasus that is advocated by Armenia, with support from the EU and the United States, would further loosen Russian control over the region.
Importantly, a regionally integrated South Caucasus would complement the newly unveiled India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), Washington’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The Hamas-Israel war has been a tragic reminder that unresolved conflicts can derail the best-laid infrastructure plans. A stable and rules-based regional connectivity in the South Caucasus offers an important path for India-Europe connection. Armenia’s southern Syunik region, and the potential for broad-based regional connectivity that it holds, is especially important for Washington, Brussels, and New Delhi as geopolitical rivalries of the Eurasian continent continue to grow unabated.
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A military attack to carve out the Zangezur corridor in Armenia would spark a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan and could produce a partial or full occupation by Baku of Armenia’s southern Syunik region. It would also create a legal black hole, as the Western world would largely not recognize the conquest.
But it would be seen as a strategic win for Russia, Iran, China, and Turkey. An invasion of Armenia would embolden and bind together—through a web of opaque, sanctions-proof territorial corridors and entities—what many analysts have warned is a rising bloc of militaristic and revisionist Eurasian autocracies.
Indeed, some observers have recognized the interlocking authoritarian networks and their coordination on the Eurasian continent as a so-called Fortress Eurasia, referring to the emergence of interdependent strategic partnerships across the Eurasian landmass. Azerbaijan’s comprehensive strategic partnerships both with Russia and Turkey have made Baku the intermediary and conduit of the expansion of the Fortress Eurasia. The durability of Armenia’s southern Syunik region is thus a litmus test for the global rules-based order.
Extraterritorial corridors—whether they are Aliyev’s Zangezur corridor or Putin’s Zaporizhzhia corridor—weaken a century-long global norm against conquest and erode territorial sovereignty. Limited military operations and partial annexations are on the rise worldwide, creating conditions for escalation into full-blown wars.
Such conditions are present today in the nexus of interests knotted in Armenia’s south, and the outcome will have global implications for the shape of Eurasia for decades to come. But the opportunity for regional, rules-based integration in the South Caucasus is also real, and it, too, can be realized, if Armenia’s Syunik region is protected. Connectivity on Western terms in Eurasia is now contingent on Armenia’s territorial integrity.
13:20, 3 November 2023
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Armenia wants the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) to get enhanced and have a stronger mandate, Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan has said.
He said that there’ve been positive reactions in this regard from the EU.
Hovhannisyan was speaking at a parliamentary committee hearing on the 2024 state budget. MP Arman Yeghoyan asked him whether there is an agenda of political integration with the EU.
The Deputy FM cited PM Nikol Pashinyan’s speech in the European Parliament that Armenia is ready to be closer to the EU, as close as the EU would consider it possible. This has always been Armenia’s position, Hovhannisyan said.
“The cooperation has gotten stronger politically. Moreover, the launch of the first ever Armenia-EU Political and Security Affairs Dialogue took place this year. The next phase is to take place in November in Brussels, the first one took place in Yerevan in January. Of course, the enhancement of the monitoring mission and strengthening of its mandate are also in our agenda, and there’ve been positive reactions from the EU and its member states,” Hovhannisyan said.
The Deputy FM said that the level of political visits is unprecedented.
16:42, 3 November 2023
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Baerbock visited Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide shortly after arriving in Yerevan on Friday.
The German FM placed a wreath at the Memorial and laid flowers at the Eternal Flame honoring the victims of the Armenian Genocide.