Ashot Pashinyan, son of acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, was campaigning in Yerevan today.
“By voting for Nikol Pashinyan and his Civil Contract Party, by giving him a ‘steel mandate’, you will turn over the page of the criminal-oligarchic and criminal elements in Armenia once and for all,” Ashot Pashinyan stated while campaigning.
The Zangezur corridor will strengthen Azerbaijan’s ties with Turkey, President Ilham Aliyev said Sunday.
Aliyev told Turkey’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu in Baku that the opening of the corridor will further strengthen relations between Turkic nations.
He said transportation’s significance has especially become evident after the 44-day Nagorno-Karabakh war, which ended after a Russia-brokered cease-fire in November. “Here is an important part of the East-West corridor … the volume of cargo passing through this route has increased over the years.”
Aliyev said Armenia first objected to the corridor but later gave up realizing its importance.
The formation of the corridor, expected to be operational in 2 1/2 years, was negotiated by the deputy prime ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in a trilateral working group, he added.
Relations between the ex-Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Fresh clashes erupted on Sept. 27, and the Armenian Army continued its attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces for 44 days, even violating two humanitarian cease-fire agreements.
Baku liberated several cities and nearly 300 of its settlements and villages from the Armenian occupation during this time.
On Nov. 10, the two countries signed a Russia-brokered deal to end fighting and work toward a comprehensive solution.
Russia deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers for at least five years to monitor the peace deal and to facilitate the return of refugees. Under the agreement, which leaves Karabakh’s future political status in limbo, Armenia lost control of parts of the enclave as well as the seven adjacent districts that it seized during the 1990s war.
Turkey and Azerbaijan enjoy strong relations, as the two countries embrace the “one nation, two states” motto.
During his 4 1/2 years duty term, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Azerbaijan more than 20 times, he said adding that the delegation visits reached more than 100.
YEREVAN, June 2. /TASS/. Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a meeting with President of the European Council Charles Michel on Wednesday in Brussels and underlined the vital nature of the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from Armenia, Pashinyan’s press service reported.
“The acting prime minister provided a detailed account about the situation in the Southern Caucasus after the 44-day-long Artsakh war (hostilities in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic — TASS) and on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in particular. Pashinyan underlined the need to withdraw the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from the sovereign territory of Armenia and provided information about diplomatic and negotiating actions in this area,” the statement reads.
Pashinyan also underlined the necessity for “an appropriate reaction from the international community to Azerbaijan’s provocative actions and actions to ensure the return of Armenian prisoners of war.” “The president of the European Council welcomed the position of the Armenian side on a peaceful and political resolution of the problem on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and expressed readiness of the European Union to facilitate this process,” the statement adds.
Following the end of military action in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone last fall, when seven regions adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh fell under Azerbaijan’s control, the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan moved to the immediate vicinity of the Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces. The situation there exacerbated on May 12. Then, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces attempted to carry out “certain operations” in the Syunik Province in a bid to “redefine the border.” The Azerbaijani forces ceased their activities after the Armenian Armed Forces took measures in response.
However, both parties regularly report new incidents. On May 27, Azerbaijan announced that it had captured six Armenian servicemen during an attempt to cross the border. The Armenian side confirmed that the servicemen were captured yet emphasized that at the time they were involved in engineering works in the border area of Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province. Later, Yerevan said that it had turned to the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) with regards to the escalation of the situation on the Armenian-Azeri border. In their turn, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh put forward their de-escalation plan, which involves the parties withdrawing troops and beginning the process of demarcating and delimiting the state border with the assistance of the Minsk Group.
The first task after the change of power in Armenia should be the change of the country’s government structure,” Armenia]s ex-president Serzh Sargsyan said at the meeting wit supporters of “The Salute of Honour and Respect” pre-election bloc.
In Sargsyan’s words, at least three ministries – the ministry of culture, agriculture and diaspora – should be re-established as standalone entities.
As to the security challenges Armenia faces, Sargsyan said: “First, we must replace the people who are in charge of security issues – the defense minister, the Chief of the General Staff. From one hand we should bring back the people who are specialists and understand the role of the Army and then gradually implement reforms, form trust with our allies, since without the military-technical assistance from them we may not be able to restore and have a combat-ready army,” Sargsyan said.
16:57, 1 June, 2021
YEREVAN, JUNE 1, ARMENPRESS. The group conducting observer mission of the CIS Executive Committee has already started its monitoring activities in connection with Armenia’s upcoming snap parliamentary elections, member of the group Yevgeny Kozyak told reporters today in Yerevan.
“We have just met with the President of the Central Electoral Commission Tigran Mukuchyan, and today our group has already started its observation work over the holding of the snap elections”, he said.
He informed that nearly 70 observers will be included in the CIS observer mission.
“We will conduct monitoring on the election day not only in the capital, but also in different provinces. And the next day of the elections we will hold a press conference where the head and members of the observer mission will present their conclusions”, he said.
Asked how they assess the organizational works of the snap elections, he said a major work has been done within a short of period of time.
Snap parliamentary elections in Armenia will take place on June 20.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
19:58,
YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. The ECHR has set a deadline for Azerbaijan until June 4 for providing information about the status of the 6 Armenian servicemen that were taken hostage by Azerbaijan in a bordering area in Gegharkunik Province on May 27, ARMENPRESS reports ‘’Lurer’’ news of Public TV informed, adding that the representatives of the Red Cross in Baku have not visited the detainees so far.
Zara Amatuni, head of communications programs at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Armenia told ‘’Lurer’’ news program that the representatives of the Red Cross in Baku have visited the other Armenian POWs and civilian hostages and delivered the video messages of their parents.
If Russian peacemakers are placed on Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the parties may drag Russia into a conflict to be used against each other, the Russian military analysts interviewed by the “Caucasian Knot” believe.
The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on May 27, Nikol Pashinyan, the Acting Prime Minister of Armenia, stated that Armenia and Azerbaijan should simultaneously withdraw their troops from the border and let international observers to come there. On May 28, the European Union (EU) supported Pashinyan’s idea of placing observers on the border with Azerbaijan.
In mid-May, the Armenian-Azerbaijani border conflict escalated. On May 13, Yerevan stated that Azerbaijani militaries entered the territory of the Syunik and Gegarkunik Regions of Armenia. In their turn, Azerbaijani authorities claim that the border guards only changed their deployment, staying within the Lachin and Kelbadjar Districts of Azerbaijan.
According to Shair Ramaldanov, an Azerbaijani military expert, the Armenia’s active objections to what is happening on the Azerbaijani border are born by the difficult post-war situation and the upcoming elections in the country.
The expert has added that in Armenia, the current situation on the border and a possible demarcation thereof are a subject of political speculations. “And each political grouping, which is striving for power, interprets this situation in its own way; and there is dragging, one might say, of ‘a blanket’ over itself – who will pull more,” the analyst has explained.
The opinion that the situation on the Azerbaijani border is being used by Armenia for political purposes was also expressed by Pavel Felgengauer, a Russian military analyst. “There is an obvious political problem, which has to do with the fact that Armenia, in general, is trying, if possible, to drag Russia into a confrontation with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan wants to occupy the territory that it considers to be its own, but at the same time it does not want to confront with Russia,” he told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
Therefore, there are attempts from the Armenian side to present the case that Azerbaijan is encroaching on Armenian territory, the analyst has added. Meanwhile, in his opinion, Russia absolutely does not need and does not want to get involved in this conflict.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on at 03:05 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Author: Rustam Djalilov; Source: CK correspondent
Source: ?fbclid=IwAR1yRhK5O6lDkhnZU064ToENMLGE42oUYv4guIR8SzJpiE_6vfRnTA3t_7A
© Caucasian Knot
Armenia’s Acting Minister of Defense Vagharshak Harutyunyan met today in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
During the meeting issues on the course of implementation of peacekeeping mission in Nagorno Karabakh, situation created in Armenia’s Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces as well as Armenian-Russian bilateral military cooperation and regional security were discussed.
Harutyunyan briefed to his Russian counterpart the details of the infiltration of Azerbaijani armed forces the territory of Armenia and the measures taken by the Armenian Armed Forces.
Armenia’s acting minister stressed that the Azeri provocations with the false “border adjustment” grounding are absolutely unacceptable and that the Azerbaijani sub-divisions must immediately leave the sovereign territory of Armenia.
The interlocutors considered possible ways of the resolution of the situation and agreed over necessary steps.