Author: Emil Lazarian

                                        Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Baku Accused Of Trying To Curb Red Cross Presence In Karabakh
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Nagorno Karabakh - Bertrand Lamon (right), head of the Stepanakert office of the 
International Committee of the Red Cross, meets with Karabakh officials, January 
22, 2021
Armenia criticized Azerbaijan on Wednesday for what it called attempts to 
restrict long-running activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross 
(ICRC) in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“They are forcing even the International Committee of the Red Cross, a purely 
humanitarian organization, to fit into a policy wanted by them,” Foreign 
Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told reporters.
“This is the only [international] organization that has been present in 
Nagorno-Karabakh during all these years, and Azerbaijan is now, in essence, 
restricting even that,” he said without elaborating on those restrictions.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was quick to dismiss the criticism. It said 
that “any international organization’s activities on our country’s sovereign 
territory is a bilateral issue concerning that international organization and 
Azerbaijan.”
The ICRC has had offices in Stepanakert as well as Baku and Yerevan since the 
early 1990s. They have dealt with humanitarian issues such as repatriation of 
prisoners and bodies of victims of the Karabakh conflict.
Baku is also understood to be blocking international mediators’ renewed visits 
to Karabakh.
The U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group had for decades 
travelled to the disputed territory and met with its ethnic Armenian leadership 
during regular tours of the conflict zone. The visits practically stopped with 
the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent outbreak of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
The mediators planned to resume their shuttle diplomacy after organizing talks 
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in New York in September. 
The trip has still not taken place, however.
Russian Officials Hold Fresh Talks On Armenian-Azeri Transport Links
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian meets with his Russian 
counterpart Alexei Overchuk and the head of Russian Railways network, Oleg 
Belozerov, Yerevan, February 2, 2022.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk visited Yerevan on Wednesday for 
further talks with Armenian officials on ongoing efforts to restore transport 
links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Overchuk arrived in the Armenian capital with Oleg Belozerov, the chief 
executive of the Russian Railways (RZD) state monopoly managing Armenia’s 
railway network. They met with Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian.
An Armenian government statement on the meeting said they discussed, among other 
things, issues on the agenda of a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group 
dealing with practical modalities of opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to 
passenger and cargo traffic. The statement gave no details.
The working group co-headed by Overchuk and his Armenian and Azerbaijani 
opposite numbers last met in Moscow on December 1. It had been expected to 
formalize relevant understandings reached by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan 
and Russia in Sochi on November 26.
The trilateral body announced no deals on the transport links, however. It 
emerged afterwards that Baku and Yerevan disagree on the status of a highway 
that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s 
Syunik province.
The two sides appear to be much closer to establishing a rail link between 
Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan, which would also pass through Syunik. 
The Armenian government set up last month a task force that will coordinate work 
on the 45-kilometer railway
Grigorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in December that its planned 
construction will likely cost $200 million and take about three years. Russian 
officials have not said publicly whether RZD is ready to invest or participate 
otherwise in the project.
Armenia -- A commuter train at Yerevan railway station, February 27, 2018
RZD runs the Armenian railway network, called South Caucasus Railway (SCR), in 
line with a 30-year management contract signed with the former Armenian 
government in 2008.
The statement on Grigorian’s talks with Overchuk and Belozerov said the two 
sides “emphasized the SRC’s important role in the Armenian economy” and 
discussed “further development” of the company’s cooperation with the current 
government.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in early January that 
Moscow is aiming for a quick “completion of the elaboration of the parameters of 
joint infrastructure initiatives” agreed with Yerevan and Baku.
Armenian FM Cautiously Upbeat On Talks With Turkey
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia – Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (right) and his Austrian 
counterpart Alexander Schallenberg hold a joint news conference in Yerevan, 
February 2, 2022.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday voiced cautious optimism over the 
success of negotiations on normalizing Armenia’s relations with Turkey.
Turkish and Armenian officials held the first round of the negotiations in 
Moscow on January 14. The foreign ministries of the two neighboring nations 
described the talks as “positive and constructive.”
They said special envoys representing the two sides agreed to continue the 
dialogue “without preconditions.” It is still not clear when they will meet 
again.
“I must say that the first meeting didn’t address many substantive issues, but 
there are some positive signs that the process will unfold successfully,” 
Mirzoyan said after holding talks in Yerevan with Austrian Foreign Minister 
Alexander Schallenberg.
“But again, these are issues which don’t depend only on the position of one 
side,” he told a joint news conference.
The minister insisted that just like its predecessors, the current Armenian 
government stands for normalizing bilateral ties “without preconditions.” “It is 
with these expectations that we embarked on this dialogue,” he stressed.
Mirzoyan complained as recently as in November that the Turks are setting “new 
preconditions” for establishing diplomatic relations and opening their border 
with Armenia. He alluded to their statements making the normalization of 
Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on Armenia agreeing to open a land 
corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave.
Turkish leaders have also cited Baku’s demands for a formal Armenian recognition 
of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian opposition leaders have accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of being 
ready to accept these demands. Pashinian’s political allies have denied that.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly made clear that Ankara 
will continue to coordinate its Armenian policy with Baku.
Cavusoglu announced two weeks ago that he has invited Mirzoyan to an 
international conference that will be held in Turkey in March. Pashinian 
signaled last week that Yerevan will likely accept the invitation.
Mirzoyan likewise said that he has “no problem” with attending the Antalya 
Diplomacy Forum organized by the Turkish government. But he also cautioned: “The 
Armenian Foreign Ministry has made no decision on this yet. The issue is being 
discussed.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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