20:33,
YEREVAN, 27 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. NATO’s confronting political course against Russia forces Moscow to strictly put forward the issue of legally binding security guarantees, which will exclude any further movement of the NATO to the East, ARMENPRESS reports Deputy Minister of Defense of Russian Federation Alexander Fominsaid.
He reminded that the draft agreement on security measures of Russia and the NATO member states was transferred to the American side on December 15, 2021.
The position of these authorities on the Artsakh issue is clear to everyone. Now it’s worth trying to neutralize that danger and go another way or not. Or should we just go into the current and say, this is what these people want us to go and do. The second president of Armenia, leader of the opposition “Armenia” Bloc Robert Kocharyan stated this during his year-end press conference Monday—and when asked whether he has at least an approximate solution to the situation of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) if we imagine for a moment that the current Armenian authorities will no longer miraculously rule the country.
“The dilemma is in this. On the one hand, it is already clear what they [i.e., the incumbent Armenian authorities] want and where they want to take us. On the other hand, we say that there are other forces that will try to change this dangerous path. Should we now do [it] or not? It’s me, it’s not me, it’s someone else. It does not matter anymore. That should be our starting point. Whether we allow do to it or not. Yes, I see an opportunity to save something in this situation thanks to active diplomatic work, I see that path. These authorities will not even try to do that because these people have thought all their conscious lives the way they do today. Expectations from them are zero. Now let’s change my proposal, give a chance to those people who have shown all their lives that they think differently. Yes, I see that path. It will be very difficult, we will not get what opportunity we missed without losing. But yes, in some domains we are able to correct something about the status of Artsakh, too,” Kocharyan said.
Also, the second president made a historical reference to the settlement of the Artsakh issue.
“If we compare what we got [when Kocharyan to power in Armenia] in 1998 with the legacy of negotiations and what we had [when Kocharyan ended his presidential tenure] in 2008, we will see that we had achieved serious success thanks to our consistent work during that time. Same thing now; I realize what needs to be done. I cannot say one hundred percent that yes, I will achieve this; but I see a sequence of steps whereby something can be saved. These authorities will not even try because that’s how they think; this is their conviction. Apart from their conviction, whose interests they serve. I assume there is certainly a task of serving certain interests. I’m just convinced,” Kocharyan said.
The tension between Russia and the West has led us to a point where there is a markedly narrow opportunity for complementarism, and it almost doesn’t exist. The second president of Armenia, leader of the opposition “Armenia” Bloc Robert Kocharyan stated about this during his year-end press conference Monday.
“During my presidency, we declared a policy of complementarism, but at the time, with regard to Russia-NATO relations, Russia had more plans with NATO than Armenia did. There was a special NATO-Russia Council. This means Armenia should orientate in a more comprehensible manner and state what it wants.
To this day, I haven’t understood the logic and course of Armenia’s foreign policy. For instance, the U.S> hosts a so-called democracy summit, and it’s clear that this is an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese project. What is Armenia doing there? This is an attempt to revitalize a trend that was rather powerful after the collapse of the USSR. At the time, the idea was that we were going to have a more predictable and safer world by democratizing the whole world, but then there were color revolutions with devastating consequences. The world has changed, and we can’t do things like this,” Kocharyan declared.
Kocharyan emphasized that if the West-Russia relations escalate further and there are extreme manifestations, this may harm Armenia, if it doesn’t have a strong army and powerful security system. According to him, the aim of the West is to remove Russia from this region or at least reduce its influence in this region essentially.
“For a rather long time, Russia would keep a distance from Armenia and Azerbaijan, and this was in Russia’s interests. However, the situation has changed in the South Caucasus after the war. I am certain that we are in a process that we can describe as geopolitical transformation in the South Caucasus. When Turkey entered the process and the Turkey-Azerbaijan tandem became totally different, it is hard to maintain equal distancing between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said. According to him, Armenia has lost the status of a country with the most combat-ready army and now it constantly needs protection.
Asked if this means that Armenia’s foreign vector needs to be geared only towards Russia, Kocharyan said the following: “Why is Armenia participating in anti-Russian and anti-Chinese events? There are several other formats in which there is no anti-Russianism. Of course, the balance needs to be maintained, but do the people who need to maintain that balance understand what that balance is?”
Kocharyan also surprisingly asked why Armenia is serving Turkey’s interests in the region.
Azerbaijan will file two more claims against Armenia in international arbitration, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said.
“In 2021, interstate lawsuits between Azerbaijan and Armenia took place for the first time. Work in this direction has already begun, during this year Azerbaijan filed a lawsuit against Armenia to the European Court of Human Rights, at the same time, within the framework of the 1965 Convention on the Elimination of Any Forms of Racial Discrimination – to the UN International Court of Justice,” Bayramov said.
Does anyone doubt that the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) continue and will continue their struggle for the Armenian future of Artsakh, international recognition of independence of Artsakh and, eventually, unification with Mother Armenia. This is what Minister of State of Artsakh Artak Beglaryan wrote on his Facebook page, adding the following:
“The will and aspirations of the Armenians of Artsakh need to be inviolable and serve as a basis for supporting the homeland for every Armenian. There need to be specific goals, principles and red lines established on the basis of national interests, above any type of narrow and short-run interests, including the political situation in the country, and this concerns the political forces and figures in Artsakh, Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora, starting from me.
EVERY ARMENIAN WHO BELIEVES ARTSAKH NEEDS TO REMAIN ARMENIAN, HAS SOMETHING TO DO, AND HE OR SHE MUST FIRST AND FOREMOST NOT HARM, AND MUST THEN SUPPORT.”
Monday, December 20, 2021
Regulators Signal Rise In Electricity Prices
December 20, 2021
Armenia - A newly constructed electrical substation, October 24, 2019.
Utility regulators signaled on Monday plans to raise electricity prices in
Armenia by an average of 10 percent.
The Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) warned that the Armenian energy
sector will operate at an annual combined loss of 23.8 billion drams ($49
million) if the existing prices are not revised upwards.
In a statement, the PSRC cited the need to repay $270 million in loans used for
the recently completed modernization of the Metsamor nuclear plant. It also
pointed to Armenia’s contractual obligation to enable Russia’s Gazprom energy
giant to recoup investments made in a large thermal-power plant located in the
central town of Hrazdan.
The statement revealed that the Armenian and Russian governments have reached an
agreement that commits Yerevan to providing the Hrazdan plant with $31.8 million
annually for the next ten years. It said in that in exchange for this subsidy
Gazprom could keep the wholesale price of its natural gas for Armenia unchanged
at $165 per thousand cubic meters, which is well below the current international
levels.
The PSRC said the electricity tariffs should therefore rise by 4.7 drams (about
1 U.S. cent) per kilowatt/hour on average. The daytime price paid by most
Armenian households currently stands at almost 45 drams (9 cents) per
kilowatt/hour.
The regulatory body said the tariff would remain unchanged for low-income
families making up 11 percent of the population. They already pay significantly
less for electricity than other individual consumers.
The latter could see their electricity bills rise by between 3 and 7 percent
depending on the monthly amount of energy use, the PSRC statement said, adding
that the steepest price rise should be set for businesses.
The PSRC also indicated that the higher tariffs will likely come into force on
February 1. It said it will publicly discuss them with representatives of
Armenia’s key power plants and electricity distribution network as well as
consumer rights groups on Thursday.
The new energy tariffs and their knock-on effects could further push up the cost
of living in the country. According to government data, consumer price inflation
there rose to 9.6 percent in November, the highest rate in many years.
Pashinian Encouraged By Talks With Aliyev
December 20, 2021
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a meeting with senior
officials from the National Security Service, Yerevan, December 20, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian appeared satisfied on Monday with the results of
his most recent talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev mediated by Russia
and the European Union.
Aliyev and Pashinian held a trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir
Putin in Sochi on November 26 before meeting twice in Brussels last week. The
Brussels talks were organized by European Council President Charles Michel and
French President Emmanuel Macron.
“I want to point out that after the meetings in Sochi and Brussels I see an
opportunity for us to move step by step along the path of opening an era of
peaceful development for our country and the region,” said Pashinian.
“At least the government of Armenia will do everything in its power to achieve
progress in this direction,” he told senior officials of the country’s National
Security Service (NSS).
Pashinian did not go into details of the talks. He said the NSS will have to
cope with more serious challenges “in this new environment” but did not
elaborate.
The first Aliyev-Pashinian meeting in Brussels lasted for than four hours.
Michel said afterwards that the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders pledged to
de-escalate tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and restore rail links
between the two South Caucasus. But he admitted that they failed to patch up
their differences on the status of a highway that would connect Azerbaijan to
its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province.
Speaking just a few hours before the December 14 meeting, Aliyev said people and
cargo passing through that “Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian
border controls. Pashinian swiftly rejected the demand, saying that it runs
counter to Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings reached with Russian mediation.
Aliyev described the talks as “productive” before meeting with Pashinian again
on December 15.
Yerevan Mayor Rounds On Ruling Party
December 20, 2021
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia - Mayor Hayk Marutian inspects new buses purchased for Yerevan's public
transport system, February 5, 2021.
A spokesman for Yerevan’s embattled Mayor Hayk Marutian has hit out at Armenia’s
ruling Civil Contract party, saying that it wants to oust him because of his
popularity.
The party headed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian officially announced on
Friday its decision to replace Marutian by one of his deputies. It controls at
least 54 seats in Yerevan’s 65-member municipal council empowered to appoint and
dismiss mayors.
The council is scheduled to vote on Wednesday on a motion of no confidence
proposed by its pro-government majority.
In a statement issued after a meeting with Pashinian held on Friday, the
majority leaders said that Marutian quit Civil Contract in December 2020 and is
not running the Armenian capital “with sufficient efficiency.”
Marutian’s spokesman, Hakob Karapetian, dismissed on Sunday the official
rationale for the bid to impeach him.
“Thanks to his three-year work Mayor Hayk Marutian has a quite high approval
ratings, and I think that one must look for reasons for this whole process
behind this fact,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Karapetian also accused council members loyal to Pashinian of sabotaging his
efforts to improve public transport. He said that they attempted last February
to block the purchase of hundreds of news buses for the city.
Some council members affiliated with the My Step bloc have openly disagreed with
the move to remove Marutian. Two of them, Grigor Yeritsian and Gayane Vartanian,
have resigned from the city council in protest.
Yeritsian said on Monday that the mayor’s relationship with Armenia’s political
leadership was “in tatters” even before the September 2020 outbreak of the war
in Nagorno-Karabakh. He said that following Armenia’s defeat in the war Marutian
did not publicize his decision to leave the ruling party at the request of
Pashinian’s entourage.
Marutian, 45, is a former TV comedian who actively participated in the “velvet
revolution” that brought Pashinian to power in May 2018. He was handpicked by
Pashinian to lead My Step’s list of candidates in the last municipal elections
held in September 2018 and won by the pro-government bloc.
More Armenian POWs Freed
December 20, 2021
Armenia - Toivo Klaar, the EU's special envoy to the South Caucasus, accompanies
Armenian soldiers flown from Baku to Yerevan,December19, 2021
Azerbaijan freed and repatriated at the weekend ten more Armenian soldiers
captured during deadly fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border that broke
out last month.
The soldiers were flown to Yerevan by a plane chartered by the European Union.
Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special representative to the South Caucasus, was also on
board.
The EU said their release was the result of an agreement reached by Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at their
December 14 meeting in Brussels hosted by European Council President Charles
Michel.
“An important humanitarian gesture follows the efforts by EU to work with both
countries to build on mutual trust,” it added in a statement.
Michel said after the Brussels talks that Aliyev and Pashinian pledged to
de-escalate tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and restore rail links
between the two South Caucasus states. Aliyev described the talks as
“productive.”
A total of three dozen Armenian soldiers were taken prisoner during the November
16 fighting on the border which left at least 13 troops from both sides dead.
Azerbaijan freed ten POWs on December 4.
A few days later, Armenian courts allowed the Investigative Committee to arrest
four of them on charges of violating “rules for performing military service.”
They will face between three and seven years in prison if convicted.
Armenian opposition figures and human rights lawyers criticized the arrests,
saying that Baku could exploit them to further delay the release of dozens of
other Armenian servicemen remaining in Azerbaijani captivity. Pashinian’s
political allies dismissed these warnings.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
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An Azerbaijani national flag flies next to the 13th century Khodaafarin Arch Bridge connecting the northern and southern banks of the Aras River located at the border of Azerbaijan and Iran, Jabrayil, Azerbaijan, Dec. 15, 2020. (Getty Images)
Turkey aims to cultivate stability and peace in the South Caucasus, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Monday.
Speaking at a joint news conference with his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah in the capital Ankara, Çavuşoğu touched upon the recent normalization efforts with Armenia.
Underlining the importance of cooperation in the region, he highlighted the significance of joint projects that connect the countries and contribute to their economies.
“Our desire is the development of stability and peace in the South Caucasus, also the realization of projects that contribute to the economy that connects countries, just like the Zangezur corridor,” he said.
Once part of Azerbaijan’s territory, Zangezur was later assigned by the Soviet Union to the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1920s. It is now set to be the site of a new passageway between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan in the wake of last year’s conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Azerbaijan has plans for many projects in the Zangezur corridor, including motorways and rail lines.
Reiterating that a special representative will be appointed and that the move was reciprocated by Yerevan, Çavuşoğlu also noted that airlines’ requests to operate flights will be answered.
Turkey and Armenia recently decided to appoint special envoys to discuss steps to normalize ties.
The international community, including the United States, has welcomed the initiative taken by Turkey and Armenia to mend long-broken relations.
The borders between the two countries have been closed for decades and diplomatic relations have been on hold.
Armenia and Turkey signed a landmark peace accord in 2009 to restore ties and open their shared border after decades, but the deal was never ratified and ties have remained tense.
Relations between Armenia and Turkey have historically been complicated. Turkey’s position on the events of 1915 is that Armenians lost their lives in eastern Anatolia after some sided with the invading Russians and revolted against the Ottoman forces. The subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties, with massacres by militaries and militia groups from both sides increasing the death toll.
Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as “genocide” but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.
Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission made up of historians from Turkey and Armenia and international experts to tackle the issue.
The relationship deteriorated more recently after Turkey supported Azerbaijan, which fought a brief war with Yerevan last year for control of the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region. However, countries in the region have recently been signaling a desire for further cooperation in the South Caucasus.
Ankara has made frequent calls for a six-nation platform comprising of Turkey, Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia for permanent peace, stability and cooperation in the region, saying it would be a win-win initiative for all regional actors in the Caucasus.
Turkey believes that permanent peace is possible through mutual security-based cooperation among the states and people of the South Caucasus region.
Soldiers from Armenia, Greece and Cyprus take part in joint drills
The Special Precision Sniper 2021 joint training, which took place from December 6 to 7 in Cyprus as part of the Tripartite Cooperation Program between Cyprus, Greece and Armenia, the Cyprus National Guard reported.
The purpose of the joint training, known as the ESEA, was to increase combat readiness in the organization, design and execution of ESEA missions.
The participants practiced shooting from medium and long distances, operational shots based on hypothetical scenarios.
In combination with the implementation of the Tripartite Cooperation Program between Greece, Cyprus and Armenia, the trainings reflect the excellent cooperation between the Armed Forces of the three countries, the Cyprus National Guard said.
20:32, 19 December, 2021
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. President of France Emmanuel Macron welcomed the release of 10 Armenian POWs from Azerbaijan.
“Ten Armenian soldiers were released. I want to salute the decisive action of the European Union, with which we will continue to promote this path of dialogue towards peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We are going forward,” Macron tweeted.