Author: Emil Lazarian

 18:09,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has met with the US Senior Adviser for Caucasus Negotiations, OSCE Minsk Group co-chair Louis Bono.

PM Pashinyan and Bono discussed the process of normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and emphasized the need for its continuity, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout.

“The sides exchanged views on the quadrilateral meeting between the Prime Minister of Armenia, the President of France, the Chancellor of Germany and the President of the European Council held in Granada. Issues related to the humanitarian situation and the steps to solve the challenges resulted by the forced displacement of more than 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan as a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing were discussed. Issues related to the Armenian-US relations were touched upon,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

 11:21,

GORIS, OCTOBER 12, ARMENPRESS. French Member of Parliament Anne-Laurence Petel has said that the crimes committed by the Azerbaijani authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh should be documented in order to have strong evidence. This would allow them to raise the issue and take effective measures.

“Of course, many French-Armenians have been presenting videos showing what they describe as crimes committed by the Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh against the peaceful population, but nevertheless it is highly important for these episodes to be documented, to mention where and when exactly these crimes were committed, in order to have a strong evidence basis to help us raise this and take effective countermeasures,” the MP said in Goris during a meeting with forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh.

She highlighted the fact that Armenia has joined the Rome Statute of the ICC. This will facilitate independent investigations into Azeri war crimes. “If all episodes are properly documented, the criminals will sooner or later be held to account and face justice,” she said.

The security of Armenia’s borders and protection of its territorial integrity is now a priority for France and many EU countries, thus French lawmakers are calling on their European partners to provide more support to Armenia, Anne-Laurence Petel said.

Speaking about the repatriation of Armenian POWs and the arbitrary arrests of the Nagorno-Karabakh leadership by Azerbaijan, Anne-Laurence Petel said that a discussion has taken place in the French parliament in this regard.

A meeting with the participation of the European Commission President has also taken place on this matter and the latter has asked the list of all arrested officials and POWs.

Wider Europe programme Director Marie Dumoulin, who also visited Goris as part of the European delegation, said that they seek to understand whether or not there’s an opportunity to start dialogue between Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijanis, and deploy international peacekeepers on the ground.

“It’s certainly too early to speak about peacekeepers, Armenia’s security is our primary concern. The international community is trying to do everything to ensure the security of Armenia and the Karabakhis who are now in Armenia, in order to be able to ensure the safe return of the displaced persons to Nagorno-Karabakh,” Dumoulin said.

 12:35,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Pope Francis on Wednesday called on militant Islamist group Hamas to release all hostages captured during its weekend attack on Israel, while expressing grave concerns about the "total" Israeli siege imposed on Gaza, Reuters reports.

"I pray for those families who saw a feast day turn into a day of mourning, and I ask that the hostages be immediately released," Reuters quoted Pope Francis as saying during his weekly audience.

Referring to Israel's response to Hamas, Francis said: "It is the right of those who are attacked to defend themselves, but I am very worried by the total siege in which Palestinians in Gaza live, where there have also been many innocent victims."

 14:02,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. , Tourism Committee Head Sisian Boghossian has said. The number constitutes a 25% growth compared to the same period of 2019.

Most of the tourists (51%) came from Russia, followed by Georgia (10%) and Iran (6%).

Active tourism visits from France, Germany and the UAE are also seen.

260,000 tourists visited Armenia in September 2023. The September figures in 2022 and 2019 stood at 198,000 and 221,000 respectively.

Speaking at a press conference, Boghossian said that Armenia has a variety of tourism products to offer.

“We are actively working in various platforms to present Armenia. We were in Italy last week to participate in a tourism expo. Italy is a new direction for us, you know that there are direct flights from various Italian cities to Yerevan, and we are now carrying out targeted work in the Italian market to promote Armenia. We also visited France together with twelve tour operators. We see significant interest towards Armenia in France. We will travel to London in November for an international tourism expo,” she said.

 14:12,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted Armenia’s economic growth in 2023 to comprise 7% instead of its previous projection of 5,5% made in April this year.

The 7% growth projection is the highest forecast among all regional countries. The IMF predicts Georgia to have 6,2% growth in 2023 and 4,8% growth in 2024, and Azerbaijan only 2,5% this year. The IMF’s growth projections for Turkey and Iran for 2023 are 4% and 3%, and 3% and 2,5% for 2024.

The new report issued by the IMF forecasts 5,5% growth in Armenia in 2024.

The Armenian Central Bank’s latest projection said the country’s economic growth would comprise 7,2% in 2023.

 14:43, 9 October 2023

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani narrative that it has enclaves inside Armenia is void of any legal grounds, cartographer Ruben Galichyan has said.

Azerbaijan itself has stated in its independence declaration that it is the successor of the 1918-1920 Azerbaijan, and back then no enclaves existed.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has again falsely claimed that eight enclaves are “under Armenian occupation” which must be “liberated”.

Speaking at a press conference, Galichyan showed a 1926 Soviet map verified by the then-ministry of interior, which doesn’t show any enclaves, neither in Armenian nor Azeri territories. Furthermore, territories with an area of 1,200 square kilometers of the Armenian SSR stipulated in this map were later handed over to the Azeri SSR. The Aghavno River was the only division line between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh by that map. More adjacent areas where then handed over to Azeri control.

Moreover, a 1932 map also shows no enclaves.

These enclaves first appeared in a 1940 map, two in Tavush, one in Ararat, and Artsvashen in Azerbaijan. Although these enclaves were drawn up, no documents pertaining to these areas exist, i.e., there’s no legal ground proving their stipulation.

And despite this, in 2014 Azerbaijan published an atlas, showing enclaves located in Armenian territory, but without any note of Artsvashen.

“Two years ago, the Azeri foreign ministry said that if Armenia claims the enclaves to be its territory it should present an official document. But basically, this is a contrary approach, because since these territories are within Armenia, thus they belong to Armenia. And if Azerbaijan has any aspirations for these territories, then it is the one that should present legal grounds, which, basically, do not exist. By the way, the total area of the three enclaves located in our territory is 45 square kilometers, whereas Artsvashen alone is 44 square kilometers. Two years ago, speaking about the topic of enclaves, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan spoke about exchanging them, which is the required path for resolving the issue,” the cartographer said.

If Azerbaijan intends to sign any treaty, it must first of all return to Armenia the territories that it captured since 2021, which include around 240 square kilometers, Galichyan said.

According to the USSR general staff, the representatives of the Armenian and Azeri SSRs ratified the maps in 1960-1970s, which was the basis for the 1991 Alma-Ata declaration. But now Azerbaijan is circulating fake maps.

The territories occupied by Azerbaijan are recognized as sovereign Armenian territory by Azerbaijan itself under the 1991 declaration.

“If the Azerbaijani side is not withdrawing from individual parts of our country’s sovereign territory, then how should we negotiate? The long-term goals of Azerbaijan are clear. If they were to have enclaves in Armenian territory, they would then demand a corridor to have land connection with the enclaves, which would have the same role as the so-called Zangezur corridor. On the other hand, it is clearly visible that the Azeri enclaves are on strategically significant highways, and if these were to be connected with Azerbaijan through [extraterritorial] corridors, Armenia would lose its direct connection with its southern provinces, and the Ijevan-Noyemberyan road would be cut off in the north,” the cartographer said.

And now Azerbaijan is hinting that it wants to take over these territories by force.

He warned that any concessions would simply make Azerbaijan want more.

 11:30,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Tigran Avinyan has been elected Mayor of Yerevan.

Avinyan, representing the ruling Civil Contract party, passed a confirmation vote unopposed on Tuesday during the new City Council’s first session.

37 city councilors participated in the voting. Avinyan received 32 votes in favor and 5 against.

Only 37 city councilors (24 from Civil Contract, 5 from Public Voice party and 8 from Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party) were in attendance at the session. The Public Voice and Hanrapetutyun did not nominate any candidate for mayor. 

The Mother Armenia bloc and National Progress party boycotted the session.

[see video]

 11:46,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. The Russian peacekeeping contingent is ready to contribute to the strengthening of trust in the South Caucasus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

“Now, when leaders in Yerevan and Baku have resolved the issue of mutual recognition of the sovereignty of the two countries, the time has come to establish peaceful life and strengthen trust,” Lavrov said in an article. “The Russian peacekeeping contingent is ready to maximally contribute to this,” he added.

The Russian FM accused the West of destabilizing the situation in the South Caucasus and imposing its mediation upon Armenia and Azerbaijan.

 00:58,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has commented on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s proposal to consider Georgia as a platform for negotiations.

In an interview with Public Television, Pashinyan said Aliyev’s offer could be interpreted as an attempt to nullify the already agreed upon principles by shifting to another platform, now when the issue of holding a meeting in Brussels is being discussed.

“A meeting took place in Granada, and the principles of normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, from our and the EU’s perspective, were recorded in the EU platform. Now it is clear that when we meet in Brussels the conversation should take place within the framework of these principles, which, I wouldn’t say is in line with Armenia’s interests alone. The Republic of Armenia has accepted this, and by the way Azerbaijan has also accepted. And now, when we are discussing the issue of meeting in Brussels, where basically there’s a circle to be underscored, and when Azerbaijan is attempting to propose another platform, this could be interpreted by us that by moving to another platform Azerbaijan wants to cancel the already agreed upon principles,” Pashinyan said.

He said that the principles must be stipulated, signed and announced, which would make the framework of discussions clear.

PM Pashinyan said that the concerns that Azerbaijan could actually be plotting a new escalation are getting stronger.

“We are not against any conversation, but we are against the logic that would push us out from the framework of already agreed upon principles,” the Armenian PM added.