Author: Emil Lazarian

 12:52, 22 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened gunfire at farmers in Nagorno Karabakh Wednesday morning.

The Nagorno Karabakh Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement that H. Hartyunyan, A. Ghahramanyan, M. Jivanyan, G. Ghukasyan, K. Davtyan, A. Adamyan and D. Davtyan, all farmers from the town of Tchartar, were carrying out agricultural work in the vineyards in Tchartar when they came under Azeri fire. The shooting happened around 09:30.

The farmers are unharmed.

The agricultural works were suspended due to the gunfire from various kinds of weapons by Azerbaijani military forces from an outpost adjacent to the vineyards.

The Nagorno Karabakh authorities said they notified the Russian peacekeepers on the Azerbaijani gunfire targeting civilians.

 16:57, 22 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan held a meeting with the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on Wednesday in Yerevan. 

Grigoryan and the Iranian Deputy FM “underscored the trend of stable development of cooperation in various areas between the two countries,” Grigoryan’s office said in a readout.

They also “attached importance to ensuring regional security, stability and peace.”

The Secretary of the Security Council presented the current situation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and around Nagorno Karabakh. Other security issues posing a threat in the region were also discussed.

 17:15, 22 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will soon respond to Azerbaijan’s peace treaty proposals with its own proposals, FM Mirzoyan said Wednesday.

The Foreign Minister was asked in parliament to comment on the recent threats by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

“What you are talking about isn’t a new thing. On one hand we have the negotiations process like the ongoing process around a peace treaty, and on the other hand we see the worsening rhetoric by Azerbaijan, its threats and aggressive actions on the ground. We witnessed it on 13 September, when Azerbaijan invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia. We witnessed it with the closure of the Lachin Corridor on 12 December. And regrettably this phenomenon continues. Furthermore, recently both the promotion of Armenophobia and direct threats have become worse. You recall that the Azerbaijani president even said that there won’t be any peace treaty, that they won’t live calmly in Armenia on their 29,000 square kilometers if they don’t accept Azerbaijan’s terms. This stance of ultimatums and rhetoric exists. At the same time, the negotiations over a peace treaty are ongoing. We’ve again received Azerbaijani proposals, we are working on it and our proposals and response will naturally soon take place. Certainly, needless to say the abovementioned rhetoric and aggressive stance not only don’t contribute to the peace process but also create new obstructions on the path of this process,” Mirzoyan said.

He added that Armenia is determined to its goal of establishing peace in the region and will continue to negotiate for establishing lasting and sustainable peace.

 17:39, 22 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan does not rule out that a trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan will take place in the near future, ARMENPRESS reports, Mirzoyan said during the parliament-Cabinet Q&A session, answering the question of Lilit Minasyan, MP from the "Civil Contract" faction, whether the issue of holding a trilateral meeting was discussed in Moscow.

"Naturally, that topic was discussed. Last year on December 23, such a trilateral meeting was planned between me, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Russia, the meeting was supposed to take place in Moscow, but the Armenian side did not participate, we postponed our participation in that meeting because the Lachin Corridor was illegally closed by Azerbaijan. In Nagorno-Karabakh, there was a very acute need for food, medicine, and other basic necessities. It is clear that the negotiations are going on remotely at the moment, because we are exchanging our proposals, our ideas regarding the peace treaty, but it can be assumed that at some point the physical meetings and discussions should also be resumed. Yes, that topic was discussed in Moscow, and there is a possibility of such a meeting in the near future," said Mirzoyan.

 17:50, 22 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. Armenia does not negotiate on the issue of installing a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor, ARMENPRESS reports, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan said during parliament-Cabinet Q&A session.

"Armenia considers that the negotiations on the Lachin Corridor and its regime have long been completed and the regulations were included in the document signed by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on November 9, 2020. It says that the Lachin Corridor remains under the control of Russian peacekeepers and Azerbaijan ensures unhindered two-way traffic," Mirzoyan noted.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, it is a recorded agreement, and Armenia should already have doubts about the expediency of further negotiations.

"In other words, what is the point of reaching agreements on other issues if they will definitely be violated by Azerbaijan after some time? No, we are not negotiating on establishing an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor," Mirzoyan stated.

 19:00, 22 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. In a declassified information note, the co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Armenia, Kimmo Kiljunen (Finland, SOC) and Boriana Åberg (Sweden, EPP/CD), today shared their findings with the PACE Monitoring Committee following their visit to Armenia on 17-19 February, ARMENPRESS was informed from the PACE website.

The purpose of their visit was to assess the situation on the border with Azerbaijan and at the entrance of the Lachin Corridor. During their stay, they visited the cities of Jermuk, Goris, and Vardenis, their surroundings, and met with local officials and Nagorno-Karabakh residents, blocked in Goris due to the ongoing obstruction of the Lachin Corridor.

Based on their observations, movement along the corridor is “severely obstructed”, making the transport of some essential supplies impossible. This situation could soon result in a humanitarian crisis.

Referring to the Trilateral Statement signed in November 2020, the rapporteurs called on Azerbaijan to allow an independent assessment of the situation. “We urge the Azerbaijani authorities to authorise an independent fact-finding visit and to allow independent journalists to operate freely in the whole area,”

 12:22, 23 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reacted on March 23 to the fake narrative generated by Azerbaijan claiming that there are no minorities in Armenia and that Armenia is a monoethnic country.

“First of all, such wordings are a gross interference into Armenia’s domestic affairs, moreover, national minorities not only do exist in Armenia, but they are also represented, they have mandates in the Parliament of Armenia, and this is guaranteed under the Constitution. At this moment there are four Members of Parliament representing the national minorities. And if such narratives don’t constitute interference into a country’s domestic affairs, then let’s say for the record that the persecutions against not only the press, the opposition, but also the national minorities are of systematic nature in Azerbaijan. The international press is full of articles about the murders and imprisonments of the leading activists protecting the interests of national minorities in Azerbaijan. Furthermore, many of these cases are revealed by eyewitnesses, the activists who survived torture and persecutions, or the families of the killed activists. Perhaps Azerbaijan ought to display goodwill and define seat quotas in its parliament for national minorities and guarantee it under its constitution. Perhaps this would be the first step in correcting the situation,” PM Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

In conclusion, Pashinyan added that a peace treaty will be achieved on the basis of the written documents that have been reached on the highest levels so far.

He said that Armenia will not deviate even for a moment from the path of developing Armenia and strengthening its democracy.

 14:16, 23 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS. Nagorno Karabakh announced Thursday that a direct negotiations process with Azerbaijan would be possible only in an international format and in conditions of guarantees for implementation of obligations.

Nagorno Karabakh Foreign Minister Sergey Ghazaryan said at a press conference that Russia-mediated meetings have taken place between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan pertaining to various humanitarian and technical issues. Ghazaryan underscored that Azerbaijan attempted to distort the agenda of the latest meeting.

The goal of that meeting was to discuss issues relating to the disruptions of the electricity and gas supplies, he said. “The attempts by Azerbaijan to distort the agenda of the meeting are unacceptable. But at the same time, we stand ready to have meetings in the same format, with the mediation of Russian peacekeepers, for the solution of the abovementioned issues,” Ghazaryan said when asked in which case the meetings could become negotiations.

Speaking about a full negotiations process, the FM said: “We’ve numerously said that such meetings can only take place in an international format. The substantiations are rather clear.”

Ghazaryan noted that if Azerbaijan even violated the agreements reached in the OSCE Minsk Group talks, then it would definitely violate bilateral agreements as well.

“Only under an international format, and guarantees of implementation of obligations must be the most important component of such a process,” Ghazaryan added.