Saturday,
Putin, Pashinian Again Discuss Karabakh In Phone Call
• Heghine Buniatian
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
meet in the Kremlin, Moscow, October 12, 2021.
In a second telephone conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
this week Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday again discussed agreements
on Nagorno-Karabakh and the situation in the South Caucasus, the Kremlin said.
In a terse statement the Russian president’s press service said that
“discussions continued on the situation in the region and measures aimed at
stabilizing the situation in the context of the agreements reached on
Nagorno-Karabakh on November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021.”
“Nikol Pashinian expressed his gratitude for Russia’s active mediation efforts,”
the Kremlin said.
The first telephone conversation between the leaders of Russia and Armenia this
week that was held upon the initiative of Pashinian was on November 16. It took
place amid a fresh escalation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in which at
least 13 troops were killed.
The skirmishes along the border turned out to be the worst Armenian-Azerbaijani
fighting since last year’s 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh that was stopped due
to a Russia-brokered ceasefire.
After that telephone conversation a ceasefire was established along the
un-demarcated border with the mediation of the Russian side.
Two days later, Pashinian announced that the Russian Defense Ministry had
submitted proposals “on the preparatory stage for the demarcation and
delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border”, which he said were acceptable
to Yerevan. Baku has not yet officially responded to those proposals.
Earlier, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigorian said that
Yerevan intended to apply to Russia in writing for military assistance in
defending its territorial integrity. Official sources, however, do not specify
yet whether such an application has been filed. There is no mention of this in
the Kremlin’s statement today. It is only mentioned that “an agreement has been
reached on further contacts.”
During a news briefing on Friday Eduard Aghajanian, a pro-government lawmaker
who heads the Armenian parliament’s foreign-relations committee, said that after
Armenia’s application to Russia assistance in restoring its territorial
integrity “the problem is expected to be solved as a result of the proposed
demarcation and delimitation process.”
In early November Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that a trilateral
meeting of the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia was being prepared in
Moscow. Russian state television Rossia-1 even reported that the meeting could
take place on the first anniversary of the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire on
November 9. Shortly after that announcement Armenia’s prime minister denied that
there was any agreement about such a meeting.
Meanwhile, the European Union said on Friday that during phone talks with
Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, earlier this week
Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to meet on the sidelines
of the EU’s Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on December 15.
“During the phone calls, the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders have also agreed
to establish a direct communication line, at the level of respective Ministers
of Defense, to serve as an incident prevention mechanism,” the EU said.
Both Yerevan and Baku have confirmed the upcoming meeting in Brussels.
Armenian FM Says Turkey Sets New Conditions For Normalization
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan being interviewed by a reporter
Turkey sets new conditions for normalizing its relations with Armenia, Foreign
Minister Ararat Mirozyan said in a recent interview with the French Le Figaro
daily that was published this week.
Talking to the newspaper during his recent visit to Paris on November 11,
Mirzoyan stressed that Armenia has always supported normalization of relations
with Turkey without preconditions and is ready for that now despite the “huge
Turkish support” for Azerbaijan in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We have received positive signals from Turkey to reopen the dialogue, but it
remains complicated. Ankara sets new conditions. Among them is a “corridor”
connecting Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan,” the top Armenian diplomat said in the
interview the transcript of which the Armenian Foreign Ministry released on
November 20.
Unblocking all transport links in the region is part of a Russia-brokered
ceasefire that stopped the 44-day fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh last year. This
includes Azerbaijan’s access to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenian territory.
In the post-war talks Baku appears to have insisted on the exterritorial status
of the future road that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev calls the Zangezur
corridor.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has rejected what he calls “corridor
logic” for unblocking transport routes in the region.
Foreign Minister Mirzoyan also told the French daily that the demand for what
Azerbaijan seeks as an exterritorial corridor cannot be a subject of discussion.
“States must allow transit while maintaining sovereignty over their territory.
All transport links in the region must be reopened,” Mirzoyan added.
Turkey has long been a key regional ally of Azerbaijan and has kept its border
with Armenia closed for nearly three decades, due to what it said was Armenia’s
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts, an issue that was
resolved by the cease-fire deal.
The Armenian foreign minister also said that the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh
remained tense.
“Over the past year Azerbaijan has committed about 30 serious violations of the
ceasefire, as a result of which there have been casualties on the Armenian side.
Civilians have also been killed. Nevertheless, Armenia is making every effort to
establish lasting peace in the region. However, in order for this process to be
effective, these efforts must be bilateral,” Mirzoyan said.
Mirzoyan stressed that Armenia is ready to hand over to Azerbaijan all the maps
of minefields in the region that it has its disposal. However, he said,
Azerbaijan, “despite having an obligation, does not release Armenian prisoners
of war.”
“While we talk about peace, Azerbaijan multiplies xenophobic statements. This is
evidenced by the speeches of the president of Azerbaijan, the “Trophy Park” that
was opened in Baku last spring, where Armenians are presented in a humiliated
and ridiculed way,” the Armenian foreign minister said.
Mirzoyan also stressed the need for resuming talks under the auspices of the
OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. “Certainly, the issue of the final settlement of the
conflict remains on the agenda. But at this stage we have agreed to go forward
by taking small steps, such as to secure the release of prisoners of war and
access of international organizations, including UNESCO, to Nagorno-Karabakh for
humanitarian purposes,” Mirzoyan said.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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