Monday,
Top Aide To Iran’s Khamenei Visits Armenia
Armenia - Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, meets Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan, January 29,
2024.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian praised Iran for supporting Armenia’s position on
transport links with Azerbaijan when he met with a senior adviser to Iranian
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Yerevan on Monday.
The official, Kamal Kharrazi, also heads Iran’s Strategic Council for Foreign
Relations reportedly linked to Khamenei’s office. He had served as Iranian
foreign minister from 1997-2005.
The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict was high on the agenda of Kharrazi’s separate
talks with Pashinian and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
“Minister Mirzoyan presented Armenia’s approaches in detail, emphasizing the
imperative of unconditional respect for Armenia’s territorial integrity,
inviolability of borders and sovereignty,” said the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
Both Pashinian and Mirzoyan were reported to stress the importance of Tehran’s
“positive” reaction to Yerevan’s “Crossroads of Peace” project which they view
as a blueprint for opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to travel and
commerce.
The project says that Armenia and Azerbaijan should have full control of
transport infrastructure inside each other’s territory. Iran’s Foreign Minister
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian praised it during a December visit to Yerevan.
Azerbaijan afterwards renewed its demands for an extraterritorial corridor that
would connect it to its Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik, the only Armenian
region bordering Iran. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said people and cargo
should be allowed to move through that corridor “without any checks.” Yerevan
continues to reject those demands.
Iran has repeatedly warned against attempts to strip it of the common border and
transport links with Armenia. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reportedly told a
visiting Azerbaijani official in October 2023 that the corridor sought by Baku
is “resolutely opposed by Iran.” Khamenei likewise made this clear to Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when they met in Tehran in 2022.
Armenia’s position on the issue has been criticized by not only Azerbaijan and
Turkey but also Russia, its longtime ally. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov complained on January 18 that Yerevan opposes Russian control of a Syunik
road and railway leading to Nakhichevan. Lavrov claimed that a Russian-brokered
agreement that stopped the 2020 war in Karabakh calls for “neutral border and
customs control” there. Armenian leaders deny this.
CSTO Decisions Still Not Signed By Armenia
Belarus - Russia's President Vladimir Putin poses for a photo with other leaders
of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation during a meeting in the
Belarusian capital Minsk, November 23, 2023.
Armenia has still not signed up to agreements reached by the other members of
the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) during a November
summit boycotted by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, a senior official said on
Monday.
“The issue is under discussion,” Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian told
reporters. He gave no reason for the delay.
The decisions made by the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan at the November 23 meeting in Minsk included the creation of CSTO
member states’ new joint air-defense system. The secretary general of the
military alliance, Imangali Tasmagambetov, submitted their copies to the
Armenian government for consideration during a December visit to Yerevan.
Tasmagambetov was only received by Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
Pashinian’s boycott of the Minsk summit highlighted Armenia’s growing
estrangement from the CSTO, which is calling into question its continued
membership in the bloc.
Armenia officially requested military aid from its CSTO allies after
Azerbaijan’s offensive military operations launched along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border in September 2022. It has since repeatedly accused
them of ignoring the request in breach of the CSTO’s statutes and declared
mission.
Yerevan has not only shunned various-level CSTO meetings but also cancelled a
CSTO exercise in Armenia slated for 2023, refused to name an Armenian deputy
head of the organization and recalled the Armenian representative to its Moscow
headquarters in September.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in December that Armenia is not
planning to leave the CSTO and attributed Yerevan’s boycott of the organization
to internal “processes” taking place in the country. By contrast, the Russian
Foreign Ministry earlier accused Pashinian of systematically “destroying”
Russian-Armenian relations.
Pashinian Proposes Nonaggression Pact With Azerbaijan (UPDATED)
• Shoghik Galstian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during an Army Day celebation in
Yerevan, .
Armenia is ready to sign a nonaggression pact with Azerbaijan and give other
“guarantees” to Baku, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Sunday.
The Azerbaijani government dismissed the proposals on Monday.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev demanded safeguards against Armenian
“revanchism” in December, saying that an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty would
not be enough to preclude another war between the two countries. Pashinian
expressed on January 20 readiness to meet this demand if Azerbaijan recognizes
Armenia’s territorial integrity through that treaty “without any reservations.”
“We are ready to give such long-term and irreversible guarantees but expect the
same guarantees from others,” he reiterated during an official event to mark the
32nd anniversary of the official establishment of Armenia’s armed forces.
In that context, Pashinian pointed to a mutual withdrawal of Armenian and
Azerbaijani troops from the border between the two countries which has been
proposed by Yerevan and categorically rejected by Baku.
“We have also proposed to Armenia a demilitarization of the border and also a
mutual mechanism for arms control and the also signing of a nonaggression
agreement if it turns out that the signing of a peace treaty takes longer than
expected,” he said.
Pashinian tried hard to negotiate the peace treaty after explicitly recognizing
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh about a year ago. He kept pressing
for such an accord even after Azerbaijan recaptured Karabakh and forced its
entire population to flee to Armenia last September.
“The Republic of Armenia should identify itself with the territory on which it
was recognized by the international community … We must state clearly and
unequivocally that we do not and will not have any claims to any other
territory, and this should become the strategic basis for ensuring Armenia's
external security,” Pashinian said on Sunday.
The premier signaled on January 18 plans to try to enact a new Armenian
constitution for that purpose, prompting scorn from opposition groups.
Commenting on Pashinian’s latest statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
claimed that the current Armenian constitution contains “encroachments on the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.” Instead of taking concrete
steps to eliminate them, the Armenian government is voicing “proposals that make
no practical sense,” a ministry spokesman said, adding that Yerevan is not
serious about normalizing Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
Azerbaijan remains reluctant to formally recognize Armenia’s current borders. In
early January, Aliyev renewed his demands for Armenia to open an
extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. He also demanded
Armenian withdrawal from “eight Azerbaijani villages” and again dismissed
Yerevan’s insistence on using the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Pashinian rejected those demands, saying that they amount to territorial claims
to Armenia. His foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan again spoke last week of
“significant regression” in Baku’s position on the peace deal with Yerevan.
Armenian opposition leaders insisted, for their part, that Pashinian cannot
prevent another Azerbaijani attack on Armenia with what they see as additional
concessions offered to Aliyev.
Lilit Galstian, a parliament deputy from the main opposition Hayastan alliance,
said on Monday that the latest Armenian proposals to Baku revealed by Pashinian
are further proof of the failure of his declared “peace agenda.”
“Nikol Pashinian … constantly throws out thoughts, new ideas which once again
subject our society to further stress,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Not
only has the peace process failed but we keep hearing aggressive rhetoric by
Azerbaijan.”
Pashinian’s government is engaged in “inadequate behavior” in the face of
Azerbaijani war preparations, she said.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2024 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.