Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Pashinian Confirms Armenia, Azerbaijan Negotiating Over Specific Document
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks in parliament. May 3, 2023.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has confirmed that there is a specific
document on the table in Washington where Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and
his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov are having marathon talks these days
in an attempt to hammer out a normalization agreement.
But speaking in parliament on Wednesday, the Armenian leader stressed that there
was nothing in that document that he did not speak about publicly.
“You won’t find in this document anything new, because I publicly talked about
this document from this very podium,” he said.
Pashinian added that he would not go into details now since “any positive or
negative interpretation will affect the course of the negotiations.”
Pashinian also publicly shared the instructions he gave to the Armenian
delegation conducting negotiations in Washington: “I said, remember, it is I who
will be signing the document around which you are negotiating. So, negotiate
freely, within the framework of our political course and within the framework of
our publicly expressed opinions.”
Speaking in parliament on April 18 Pashinian said that a peace treaty between
Armenia and Azerbaijan will become realistic “if the two countries recognize
clearly, without ambiguities and pitfalls, each other’s territorial integrity
and undertake not to ever submit territorial claims to each other.”
He also highlighted the importance of an internationally visible mechanism for a
dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert on the rights and security of the
Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also stressed on Wednesday the need for
Armenia to fully recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
“I recently said that they [Armenians] just need to say the last word. They said
A, and now they have to say B. They should say what I said, that Karabakh is
Azerbaijan. I am waiting for it. I hope that the time for that will come,” he
said, speaking at an international event in Shushi (Susa), a Karabakh town that
Azerbaijan gained control of during a 2020 war.
The Armenian premier again stressed the need for having mutually recognized
borders as he addressed parliament today. He said that having no territorial
claims to neighbors now and in the future was key to preserving Armenian
statehood.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that negotiations between the
Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers were scheduled to end on May 4.
Turkey Cites ‘Provocative’ Monument In Yerevan As Reason For Banning Overflights
From Armenia
• Lilit Harutiunian
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (file photo)
Turkey has closed its airspace for flights operated by Armenian airlines toward
third countries because of Armenia’s provocations, Turkish Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu said, speaking on Turkish television on Wednesday.
A Flyone Armenia plane operating a flight from Paris to Yerevan had to land in
Chisinau, Moldova, on April 29 after Turkey’s aviation authorities banned it
from entering the country’s airspace. Flyone Armenia, which has been flying into
and over Turkey since last year, said it had not been informed about the ban in
advance.
Speaking on NTV Channel, Cavusoglu said: “If necessary, we will allow planes
into our country, but we will not allow airplanes and private planes to fly
through our airspace while the provocations [of Armenia against Turkey and
Azerbaijan] continue. If they do not stop doing this, we will also take other
steps.”
The top Turkish diplomat, in particular, referred to the recent erection of a
monument in Yerevan to participants in Operation Nemesis, a 1920s program of
assassinations of Ottoman perpetrators of the 1915 Armenian genocide and
Azerbaijani figures responsible for 1918 massacres of Armenians in Baku.
Yerevan’s Deputy Mayor Tigran Avinian speaks at the unveiling ceremony for a
monument to Operation Nemesis participants, Yerevan, Armenia, April 25, 2023.
While Operation Nemesis participants are widely regarded by Armenians as
“avengers”, Turkey and Azerbaijan view them as terrorists.
In statements following the unveiling of the monument in the center in Yerevan
on April 25, one day after Armenians in Armenia and around the world marked the
108th anniversary of the Ottoman-era Genocide vehemently denied by Turkey, the
Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign ministries condemned the event that was also
attended by Yerevan’s deputy mayor.
Ankara also warned that the “shameful monument” in Yerevan only damages the
normalization process that Turkey and Armenia embarked upon in early 2022.
“Turkey is sincere in its desire to normalize relations with Armenia, but the
installation of the Nemesis monument in Armenia is unacceptable,” Cavusoglu said.
“I can’t accept it. Armenia’s statements on this issue are also insincere. We
closed the airspace as an adequate response. If necessary, we can also take
other steps,” he added, urging Armenia to “stop attempts to deceive Turkey.”
The Turkish minister’s remarks came as Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian
was heading to Turkey to attend a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Black Sea Economic Cooperation. Cavusoglu said that the Armenian official was
allowed to use Turkish airspace since he was arriving for an international event
held in Ankara.
Official Yerevan did not immediately comment on Turkey’s condemnation of the
Operation Nemesis monument inauguration in the Armenian capital and its ban on
overflights for Armenian airlines.
In remarks in parliament on Wednesday Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
acknowledged that the closure of Turkish airspace for Armenian planes was a
problem. “But whose problem is it? It is our problem. Those who block our roads
have no problems at all,” he said.
Pashinian said that when the issue of opening the monument was being discussed
in 2020-2021, months after the end of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the decision
was made to have it erected in order to “avoid being labeled traitors.”
“Being always guided by the logic of doing so as not to be called traitors we
actually keep betraying the state and national interests of our country,” he
said.
New Poll Reflects Armenia’s Souring Relations With Russia
Armenia - A view of capital Yerevan against the background of Mount Ararat (file
photo)
A new international survey in Armenia shows a continuing trend of
“deteriorating” relations with Russia since the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, with most Armenians placing Tehran and Paris higher than
Moscow as their main security partners.
The public opinion polls conducted on behalf of the International Republican
Institute (IRI) in Armenia among over 1,500 permanent residents of the country
aged above 18 in January-March 2023 reveal that while as many as 93 percent of
Armenians in 2019 considered relations with Russia to be “good” and only 6
percent viewed them as “bad”, that ratio has changed to 50 and 49 percent,
respectively, this year.
The trend of the perception of “deteriorating relations” with Russia began after
the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh in which, according to observers, Armenians
largely felt Russia should have provided more support to Armenia, its strategic
political and military ally in the region. The IRI poll shows that it continued
in 2022, the year when Russia invaded Ukraine, as Armenians began to look more
to other countries as their main security partners.
According to the latest survey, while 54 and 52 percent of Armenians,
respectively, consider Iran and France as their “most important security
partners”, only half of them now view Russia as such.
France, Iran and the United States are also viewed as the top three “most
important political partners for Armenia” by 75, 67 and 52 percent of
respondents, accordingly, while Russia is only fourth in the list with 50
percent.
Interestingly, while Azerbaijan and Turkey, with which Armenia has had bad
relations for decades because of Nagorno-Karabakh wars and other historical
feuds, are still viewed as the “greatest political threat” to Armenia by most
Armenians (93 and 89 percent, respectively), as many as 24 percent of Armenians
said they also consider Russia, a formal ally, as such a threat.
In contrast, according to the poll, only 3 and 2 percent of Armenians called the
United States and the European Union, respectively, as the “greatest political
threat” to their country, while 7 percent said that Ukraine posed such a threat.
While 5 percent of Armenians viewed relations with Turkey as “good” and 91
percent viewed them as “bad” in December 2021, a month before Yerevan and Ankara
formally embarked on their latest attempt to normalize relations, the current
ratio, according to the IRI poll, stands at 23 to 75 percent, respectively.
Generally, 52 percent of respondents in the poll said that they believed Armenia
is heading in the “wrong direction,” while 36 percent said the country was on
the right track.
A total of 60 percent of respondents in the poll named “national security” and
“border issues” as the main problems Armenia is currently facing. Economy and
unemployment was mentioned by only 27 percent of the respondents.
The survey also shows that the level of support for Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian and his ruling Civil Contract party remains almost as strong as a year
ago.
A total of 14 percent of respondents named Pashinian as the most trusted
politician in Armenia, with only 2 percent naming ex-President Robert Kocharian,
Pashinian’s top rival in the 2021 early parliamentary elections, as such.
A total of 21 percent of respondents, compared to 25 percent in June 2022, said
that they would vote for Civil Contract if national parliamentary elections were
held next Sunday. The number of those ready to vote for Kocharian’s Hayastan
(Armenia) Alliance has dropped from 8 percent last year to 5 percent today.
According to respondents of the poll, the biggest successes of the Pashinian
government during the last six months were “development of diplomatic relations”
and “improvement of roads”, while the biggest failures in the same period were
the closure by Azerbaijan of the Lachin Corridor that links Nagorno-Karabakh
with Armenia and the “foiling of the Karabakh issue.”
Washington Asks Baku, Yerevan ‘To Consider How Best To Protect Rights And
Security’ Of Karabakh People
• Siranuysh Gevorgian
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (in the center) hosting
Armenian-Azerbaijani talks in Washington, May 1, 2023.
Official Washington has asked Baku and Yerevan “to consider how best to protect
the rights and security” of people in Nagorno-Karabakh, a State Department
spokesperson told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, answering a question on whether
issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh are being discussed in the U.S.-hosted
Armenian-Azerbaijani talks.
Bilateral negotiations between Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his
Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov aimed at hammering out an agreement to
normalize relations between the two South Caucasus nations opened in Washington
on Monday after the two top diplomats met separately with U.S. Secretary of
State Antony Blinken and then had a meeting all together.
As Mirzoyan and Bayramov went into talks that officials in Washington said could
last “a few days” Blinken stressed the importance of dialogue for “reaching a
lasting peace in the South Caucasus region.”
In written comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on May 2 the State Department
spokesperson stressed that “the question of the rights and security of the
population of Nagorno-Karabakh is central to the conflict between Armenia and
Azerbaijan.”
“Ultimately ensuring that this population can feel secure in their homes and
have their rights protected is the only way to guarantee a lasting settlement to
a conflict that has lasted too long and cost too many lives,” the official said,
adding that the United States supports an agreement that is “durable,
sustainable, and lays the foundations for peace.”
At the same time, the State Department emphasized that “the scope and nature of
the agreement to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is between
the two parties.”
“We are honored to host the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan as they
work toward peace. The United States remains committed to promoting a peaceful
future for the South Caucasus region. Direct dialogue is key to resolving issues
and reaching a lasting peace,” the spokesperson said.
“The scope and nature of the agreement to normalize relations between Armenia
and Azerbaijan is between the two parties. Our goal is to provide a location
where there can be bilateral discussions and the parties can undertake the real
hard work together to make progress on lasting peace. Specifics on what is – and
is not – part of their agreement is a question for the parties,” the U.S.
official added.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that negotiations between Mirzoyan
and Bayramov continued today and were scheduled to end on May 4.
According to Azerbaijan’s Turan news agency, Blinken is expected to join the
Armenian and Azerbaijani ministers for final negotiations on Thursday.
A spokesperson at Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said that information on the U.S.
participation and other details will be reported tomorrow.
Armenia Explains Vote On ‘Anti-Russian’ Resolution At UN
• Nane Sahakian
A UN Assembly (file photo)
Official Yerevan has refuted reports in the media that Armenia supported an
“anti-Russian” paragraph when it voted in favor of a United Nations resolution
last week.
The vote on the resolution on cooperation between the UN and the Council of
Europe took place on April 26, with 122 nations, including Armenia, voting to
support it, 18 nations abstaining and only five voting against it.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry explained to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that “Armenia
did not support the controversial paragraph of the resolution, but voted in
favor of the resolution itself.”
A press release posted on the UN website confirms that while compromises were
reached on lots of issues, no consensus was reached on paragraph 9. This is
exactly the paragraph that speaks about “Russian aggression against Ukraine and
Georgia” and calls for “providing redress to victims and bringing to justice all
those responsible for the violations of international law.”
Eventually, it was decided to hold a separate vote on this paragraph, in which
Armenia abstained.
Thus, by its April 26 vote at the UN Armenia showed no change in its neutral
position on the Russian-Ukrainian war, again avoiding calling Moscow an
aggressor.
Against the background of media reports that several key partners of Russia,
including Armenia, Kazakhstan, China, India, Turkey and others voted in favor of
an “anti-Russian resolution”, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the
United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said that “we are talking about an ordinary
resolution of cooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe,
and many of Russia’s partners did not support the controversial paragraph.”
In the separate vote on paragraph 9, only 81 countries voted in favor of calling
Russia an aggressor, while 48 countries, including Armenia, abstained and 10
voted against it.
Sargis Khandanian, chairman of the Armenian National Assembly’s Foreign
Relations Committee, said that Armenia could not have voted otherwise on the
general resolution on strengthening cooperation between the UN and the Council
of Europe that talks about such key things as promotion of the rule of law and
democracy, freedom of speech and thought, fight against terrorism, trafficking,
etc.
“Armenia is a member of the Council of Europe, and a number of institutions that
operate within the Council of Europe are very important for Armenia in terms of
the protection of human rights, the development of democracy. And that
resolution also pursues such goals and has such emphasis. So it would be strange
if Armenia did not join the adoption of this resolution,” Khandanian said.
“As a matter of fact, Armenia joined the entire resolution, and one should
consider the resolution as a whole and not focus on one paragraph, which
contains different emphases,” the pro-government lawmaker concluded.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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