Author: Emil Lazarian

                                        Wednesday, 
Armenia Tests Passenger Flight To Syunik
Armenia - An L-410 aircraft operating a test flight successfully lands at Syunik 
Airport in Kapan, .
The first passenger flight in decades from the Armenian capital of Yerevan to 
the town of Kapan in the country’s southern Syunik province was operated on 
Wednesday, Armenia’s civil aviation authorities said.
The Civil Aviation Committee said an Armenia-registered L-410 passenger plane 
(made in the Czech Republic) successfully landed at Kapan’s Syunik Airport at 
10:58 am local time after a 48-minute flight from Yerevan’s International 
Zvartnots Airport.
The flight on the plane designed for 19 passengers took place in a test mode, it 
added.
“This is a truly historic flight – the first passenger flight to the Kapan 
airport since the 1990s, barring one private flight made in 2017,” the Civil 
Aviation Committee said.
The body did not say when regular commercial passenger flights between Yerevan 
and Kapan will become available.
Kapan’s Syunik Airport has been renovated in accordance with international 
standards and certified by the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia in 2020.
Kapan is situated some 190 kilometers to the southeast of capital Yerevan not 
far from the border with Azerbaijan. The runway of its airport stretches along 
the border and at one point is situated less than a hundred meters from it.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for 
decades. Tensions along their restive border have persisted despite a 
Russia-brokered ceasefire that stopped a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani 
war in 2020.
Pashinian, Putin Discuss Situation In Nagorno-Karabakh
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, December 27, 2022.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed the situation in 
Nagorno-Karabakh in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin reported 
by his office on Wednesday.
The phone call came three days after Azerbaijan installed a checkpoint at the 
entrance to the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia with 
Nagorno-Karabakh, thus tightening an effective blockade around the mostly 
Armenian-populated region where Russia deployed its peacekeepers after brokering 
a ceasefire in a 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
According to an official statement released by the Armenian prime minister’s 
office, issues “related to the Lachin corridor and the humanitarian situation in 
Nagorno-Karabakh” were discussed during the phone call.
The Kremlin also reported the phone call, saying that the two leaders discussed 
“the developments around Nagorno-Karabakh with an emphasis on solving practical 
tasks to ensure stability and security in the region.”
“In the context of the current tensions in the Lachin corridor, the importance 
of strict compliance with the entire range of fundamental agreements between the 
leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan was reaffirmed,” the Russian 
president’s office said, adding that the two leaders agreed that 
Russian-Armenian contacts would continue “at various levels.”
The phone call between Pashinian and Putin came amid reports about the 
replacement by Moscow of the commander of the Russian peacekeeping force in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to sources in Stepanakert, Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, who has 
served as an advisor to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, had already 
arrived in the region to replace Major-General Andrey Volkov as the commander of 
the peacekeeping contingent.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the appointment of Lentsov later on 
Wednesday.
Representatives of ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh do not 
conceal in their public remarks that they expect Russia to take more active 
steps in unblocking the road to relieve the humanitarian situation in the region 
that has already seen restricted supplies since December when a group of 
Azerbaijanis calling themselves environmental activists blocked the road at a 
junction not far from Stepanakert.
According to Stepanakert, Russian peacekeepers managed to bring some 
humanitarian goods to the region late on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 
three days of a complete blockade.
Yerevan and Stepanakert insist that the installation by Azerbaijan of a 
checkpoint on the Lachin corridor contradicts the terms of the Moscow-brokered 
ceasefire agreement that designates the five-kilometer-wide strip of land 
connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia as an area of Russian peacekeepers’ 
responsibility and control.
Official Moscow has also described “unilateral steps” in the Lachin corridor as 
“unacceptable.”
The United States and France, which along with Russia have spearheaded 
decades-long efforts to broker a solution to the protracted conflict over 
Nagorno-Karabakh, have voiced their concerns about the developments in the 
Lachin corridor, saying that an Azerbaijani checkpoint there undermines efforts 
to establish confidence and damages the peace process between Baku and Yerevan.
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep 
Borrell also assessed Azerbaijan’s installation of a checkpoint in the Lachin 
corridor as an act “contrary to the EU’s call to reduce tensions.”
Incidentally, Prime Minister Pashinian on Wednesday also held a phone call with 
President of the European Council Charles Michel.
His office said that “the sides exchanged thoughts on the military-political and 
humanitarian situation in the region.”
Pashinian reportedly charged that Azerbaijan’s steps in the Lachin corridor are 
aimed “at the consistent implementation of its policy of ethnic cleansing in 
Nagorno-Karabakh and complete eviction of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.”
An official statement by the Armenian premier’s office said that “the sides also 
exchanged thoughts on the Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiation process” and 
“highlighted the importance of consistent efforts aimed at ensuring stability 
and peace in the region.”
Azerbaijan brushes aside accusations from the Armenian side, insisting that when 
installing the border checkpoint, it acted on its sovereign territory. Baku has 
also pledged that “necessary conditions” would be created for “a transparent and 
orderly passage of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of 
Azerbaijan” in both directions.
Karabakh Expects ‘Active Steps’ From Russia Over Azeri Checkpoint
        • Lusine Musayelian
Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov is said to have been appointed new commander 
of the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh (file photo).
De facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh expect Russia to take “active steps” in 
settling the latest tensions with Azerbaijan over its checkpoint in the Lachin 
corridor amid Moscow’s plans to replace the commander of its peacekeeping force 
deployed in the mostly Armenian-populated region.
Citing sources in the Russian Defense Ministry, media in Armenia and Russia 
suggested on April 25 that Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, an advisor to 
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, is a new replacement for Major-General Andrey 
Volkov, who had reportedly left his post in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto Foreign Minister Sergey Ghazarian did not deny the 
reports when he talked to Armenia’s public television on Tuesday evening.
The reported change is taking place amid increased tensions along the only road 
linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, known as the Lachin corridor, after 
Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint at its entrance on the border with Armenia.
The move tightened the already existing effective Azerbaijani blockade of the 
region where Russia deployed its peacekeepers after brokering a ceasefire to 
stop a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November 2020.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s official would not speculate on whether the replacement of 
Volkov, who was appointed to the position just over a year ago, was due to the 
situation in the Lachin corridor, but instead laid out Stepanakert’s 
expectations from the Russian side.
“I still don’t know whether the new appointment is official or not, but the 
Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh - ed.] side expects active steps from the Russian 
side,” Ghazarian said.
He said that Stepanakert first of all wanted to find out what were the “red 
lines” of the Russian side in its relations with Baku.
So far, the Russian peacekeeping force has not given any official explanations 
as to why it did not prevent Azerbaijan from deploying military vehicles and 
construction machinery to close the Hakari river bridge, which is considered to 
be a zone of Russian peacekeepers’ control under the terms of the 2020 ceasefire.
“We see that the Azerbaijani side is pushing the so-called red lines [in its 
relations] with the Russian peacekeepers. At the same time, representatives of 
various circles on the Russian side say that their attention is focused on 
another direction [Ukraine], and the Azerbaijani side is taking advantage of it. 
Now we want to understand if there is any boundary to, let’s say, the Russian 
side’s patience in this regard,” Nagorno-Karabakh’s diplomat said.
Ghazarian stressed that ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh during the 
44-day war in 2020 returned to the region after seeing the deployment of Russian 
peacekeepers there. “But now they have found themselves in the status of a 
hostage,” he said.
If appointed, Colonel-General Lentsov, who served as deputy commander-in-chief 
of Russia’s Ground Forces until 2020 and has an experience of participating in 
Russia’s military operation in Syria, will become the fourth commander of the 
Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh appointed in the last two and a 
half years.
Samvel Babayan, a former Karabakh army commander, confirmed to RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service that Lentsov was already in the region. He said the 66-year-old general 
was expected to start negotiations over the Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin 
corridor later on Wednesday.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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