Author: Emil Lazarian

 20:25, 3 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, together with his wife Anna Hakobyan, will leave for the Czech Republic on May 4-5, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

During the visit, the Prime Minister of Armenia will have a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala. First, a private conversation between the Prime Ministers of the two countries will take place, and then the negotiations will continue in an expanded format. At the end of the meeting, Nikol Pashinyan and Peter Fiala will make statements for the media.

Next, the Prime Minister of Armenia will have meetings with the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, and the President of the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil.

Nikol Pashinyan will visit the Center for Transatlantic Relations in Prague.

 00:13, 5 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov held negotiations on May 1-4 in Arlington, VA, ARMENPRESS was informed from MFA Armenia.

The Ministers were hosted in George Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center. While in Washington they met with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

The Ministers shared their views on the current situation and stated their positions on existing issues related to normalization of relations.

The Ministers and their teams advanced mutual understanding on some articles of the draft bilateral Agreement on Peace and Establishment of Interstate Relations, meanwhile acknowledging that the positions on some key issues remain divergent.

Both Ministers expressed their appreciation to the US side for hosting negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The parties agreed to continue the discussions.

 13:44, 5 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. Plans to hold a meeting between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are being discussed as the Armenian leader is to visit Moscow next week, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said.

“Let’s not get ahead, some plans are being discussed,” Peskov told reporters when asked whether Pashinyan and Putin could hold talks next week. “We will issue a corresponding statement depending on how the discussions will end. It’s still early [to tell],” Peskov said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced his upcoming Russia visit on May 4 in Prague.

I visited the area of the checkpoint the next day, looking down on it from a nearby mountain. Azerbaijan shows no intention of shutting it down, even though it would be easy to do so: it is a glorified tent that was erected in a few hours, and could be dismantled even quicker. Armenians rightly point out that repeated declarations of “deep concern” are meaningless; they can actually do harm if Aliyev concludes—as he apparently has done—that he faces no more than finger wagging and can ignore Blinken at will. Such attitudes makes peace less likely: Armenians recognize that Azerbaijani agreements are meaningless while Azerbaijanis see a lack of consequence as a reason to become even more aggressive.

Indeed, I traveled along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border close enough to see Azerbaijani forces and pick up Azerbaijani cell phone service. While the State Department waives—and will again this year—Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act in order to provide military assistance to Azerbaijan, I saw newly fortified Azerbaijani positions with advanced radar, missile launchers, and helicopter landing pads. Not far away, Azerbaijan is building airfields in areas with no civilian need. In essence, the U.S. government today finances an Azerbaijani military build-up aimed at eradicating the region’s oldest Christian community.

Perhaps it is time for Blinken to take a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook in order to restore faith in American diplomacy and fortitude. In July 1987, Reagan reflagged Kuwaiti tankers to reinforce freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf. After a US escort ship struck an Iranian mine the following April, Reagan decided to retaliate against an Iranian oil platform. As per procedure, the Navy first broadcast warnings to the Iranians to evacuate and gave them time to do so. When it became apparent that the Iranians instead sought to reinforce the platform, a battle ensued and Iran effectively lost its navy.

Azerbaijan is not Iran. If the U.S. were to leaflet the illegal checkpoint and demand Azeris abandon the post within ten minutes followed by a drone strike to eliminate the illegal checkpoint, it might be a shot of adrenalin to diplomacy and ironically facilitate efforts at peace. Aliyev continues to push until someone pushes back. Armenia has not. Russia cannot. Should the United States act, Blinken might find that, in an instant, the United States’ word in the South Caucasus would once again matter. 

 17:29, 5 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. There are key disagreements between Armenia and Azerbaijan on a number of issues, one of which concerns Nagorno Karabakh, ARMENPRESS reports, Prime Minister Pashinyan said, answering the following question of RFE/RL in Prague: What are the issues on which the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan remained in disagreement after the Washington negotiations?

“Although it was recorded in Prague and Sochi that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity, we are still unable to reach an agreement on the wording of the draft peace treaty that would give us confidence that Azerbaijan recognizes Armenia’s 29,800 square kilometers”, Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister emphasized that there are differences in addressing the rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and they are preserved.

“Next, any agreement, even the most unambiguously written ones, have interpretations, the way these interpretations should be resolved is a very important issue, and in the end, the issue of guaranteeing peace after the signing of the peace agreement is a very important issue. Both international and local mechanisms are taken into account, particularly in connection with the withdrawal of troops, should we not have a demilitarized zone? Regarding addressing the rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, there are misinterpretations, and they are preserved. Of course, there is a certain move, if before the difference between the positions of the parties was 1 km, now it is 990 meters, it is a move, but there is still a huge difference,” the Prime Minister noted.

 12:21, 5 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. The 6th session of the Armenian-Czech Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation was held on May 4 in Prague.

Czech Republic’s Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Edvard Kozusnik and Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Economy Narek Teryan co-chaired the meeting, the Ministry of Economy said in a press release.

The meeting focused on a broad circle of trade-economic issues, cooperation in industry and industrial cooperatives, high technologies, agriculture, transportation, scientific-technical and educational areas, culture, environment, tourism and other sectors, which will contribute to stronger economic ties between the two countries.

The sides signed a protocol based on the agreements reached during the session.

A number of meetings were organized for businessmen participating in the event.