Author: Greg Madatian

                                        Friday, November 5, 2021
Russian Official Reports Progress Towards Armenian-Azeri Transport Links
Armenia - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk at a meeting with 
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, November 5, 2021.
Armenian and Azerbaijani government officials have made major progress in 
Russian-mediated negotiations on establishing transports links between their 
countries, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said on Friday.
Overchuk visited Yerevan to talk to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian about “how 
and from what the unblocking of roads should start.”
“We would like to discuss that with you and think about how we can move 
forward,” he told Pashinian at the start of their meeting.
Overchuk co-heads, together with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts, a 
trilateral working group set up by the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian 
governments in January. The group has been discussing practical modalities of 
opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border for commercial traffic in line with the 
Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh last 
November.
Overchuk said that Russian road construction experts have closely examined 
transport infrastructures of the two South Caucasus states and presented their 
findings to the task force.
“So we now have a very good understanding of what really exists on the ground, 
the state of roads,” he said. “Based on that knowledge … it seems to us that we 
are getting close to concrete decisions, which are first and foremost based on 
the notion that the countries will retain sovereignty over roads passing through 
their territory.”
RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev deliver a joint statement 
following their talks in Moscow on January 11, 2021.
The ceasefire agreement commits Armenia to opening rail and road links between 
Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave. Armenia should be able, for its part, to 
use Azerbaijani territory as a transit route for cargo shipments to and from 
Russia and Iran.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the deal 
envisages a permanent land “corridor” that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest 
of Azerbaijan via Armenia’s Syunik province. Armenian leaders maintain, however, 
that the truce accord only calls for transport links between the nations.
“I have the impression that Azerbaijan is trying to impose its perceptions on 
the working group, and that is certainly unacceptable to us,” Pashinian said in 
his opening remarks at the meeting with Overchuk.
Pashinian also said Baku and Yerevan need to negotiate details of border 
controls for cargo transiting through each other’s territory. “We hope that 
concrete solutions will be found to these issues in the near future,” he said.
Overchuk arrived in Yerevan a week after Russian and Armenian media reports 
saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to host fresh talks between 
Aliyev and Pashinian. Aliqmedia.am claimed that the Armenian and Azerbaijani 
leaders will sign two documents on the demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani 
border and cross-border commercial traffic.
Azerbaijan Insists On Condition For ‘Peace Treaty’ With Armenia
        • Tatevik Sargsian
BELGIUM -- Azerbaijani Foreign minister Ceyhun Bayramov is seen at the start of 
a EU-Azerbaijan Cooperation Council at the European council building in 
Brussels, December 18, 2020
Azerbaijan insisted on Friday that Armenia must recognize its territorial 
integrity and sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh through a “peace treaty” 
proposed by Baku.
Senior Azerbaijani officials complained that Yerevan has still not accepted the 
proposal made after last year’s war in Karabakh.
“Our proposal is very clear: Armenia must respect neighbors’ sovereignty and 
territorial integrity. This would help it to get out of an economic and 
transport deadlock and become a thriving regional country,” Foreign Minister 
Jeyhun Bayramov said during an international conference held in the Azerbaijani 
capital.
In a clear reference to Karabakh, both Bayramov and Hikmet Hajiyev, Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev’s chief foreign policy aide, said the Armenian side must 
drop its “territorial claims” to Azerbaijan.
Hajiyev echoed Aliyev’s repeated assertions that Baku essentially ended the 
conflict with its victory in the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered 
ceasefire last November. “The Karabakh issue is no longer a foreign policy issue 
for Azerbaijan,” he said. “It’s an internal issue.”
Armenian leaders maintain that the conflict remains unresolved, citing joint 
statements made in recent months by the U.S., Russian and French mediators 
leading the OSCE Mink Group. They say Karabakh’s internationally recognized 
status has yet to be determined on the basis of the mediators’ peace proposals.
Some Russian and Armenian media outlets reported last week that that Russian 
President Vladimir Putin is set to host fresh talks between Aliyev and Armenian 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Aliqmedia.am claimed that Aliyev and Pashinian will sign two documents 
envisaging the demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the opening of 
transport links between the two South Caucasus states. It said one of those 
documents will also commit Baku and Yerevan to recognizing each other’s 
territorial integrity.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan did not rule out afterwards the possibility of 
an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit while saying that it is not planned yet.
Bayramov and Mirzoyan had separate phone calls with Russian Foreign Minister 
Sergei Lavrov earlier this week.
Armenian Government In No Rush To Raise Minimum Wage
        • Naira Nalbandian
        • Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a cabinet meeting in 
Yerevan, November 3, 2020.
The Armenian government has no plans to raise the national minimum wage before 
2023 despite higher-than-projected inflation in the country, a senior official 
said on Friday.
The government most recently raised it by 23 percent, to 68,000 drams per month, 
two years ago. Critics are increasingly calling for further increases in the 
minimum wage, pensions and public sector salaries, arguing that the prices of 
key goods have risen significantly this year.
The government’s Statistical Committee reported that consumer price inflation in 
Armenia reached 9.1 percent in October. It was primarily pushed up by a 16 
percent surge in food prices which hit low-income households particularly hard.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs 
Ruben Sargsian said the government is planning to gradually bring the minimum 
wage to 86,000 drams by 2026. But he said it will “take the first steps” in that 
direction in 2023.
According to the Statistical Committee, the country’s median monthly wage stood 
at almost 199,000 drams ($417) in September, up by 6.3 percent year on year.
The government’s draft state budget for next year calls for a 15 percent rise in 
public spending but does not envisage major pay rises for public sector 
employees. The government could only hike the wages of high-ranking state 
officials in 2022.
The Armenian Ministry of Justice proposed earlier this week that it nearly 
double the salaries of Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian and his deputies. They 
would make about 2 million drams ($4,200) and 1.5 million drams a month 
respectively as a result.
The ministry said the much higher wages would help to neutralize “pressures” 
that could be exerted on the top prosecutors during corruption investigations.
Zhanna Aleksanian, a human rights activist, brushed aside the explanation. “Who 
doesn’t know that the prosecutor’s office is a corrupt system?” she charged.
Aleksanian said that the proposed measure, which needs to be approved by Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian and his cabinet, is also unfair given the scale of 
poverty and other socioeconomic problems in the country.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.