19:51,
YEREVAN, 23 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed to the Verkhovna Rada to impose a 30-day state of emergency in the country starting from February 24, ARMENPRESS reports, citing TASS.
The relevant decree, which is subject to discussion in the parliament, was published on the website of the Rada of Ukraine on February 23.
Assemblymember Chris Holden resolution’s, ACR 105, providing for Sister state relationship with the Province of Syunik in Armenia has passed the Senate Floor.
Syunik is the southernmost province in Armenia and has historical and cultural significance for Armenia and the world. It is one of the original provinces of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia.
“Strengthening the relationship with Syunik comes at a critical time as regional powers like Azerbaijan and Turkey pose a threat to its existence and livelihood. This resolution reaffirms California’s solidarity with Armenia and our 1-million-strong community of California-Armenians,” said Assemblymember Holden said. “There is power in our solidarity and there is even more when we acknowledge the wrongs committed and urge for justice. We set precedent for the future with our action or inaction and today, we are creating long-lasting ties to thread forward a better tomorrow.”
It is also home to the Armenian Stonehenge which dates to the Bronze Age and has petroglyphs that are seven thousand years old. Syunik is described by Armenians as the backbone of Armenia, as it is essential to importing and exporting goods from the south.
ACR 105 would reinforce California’s solidarity with and support for the people of Syunik and will facilitate mutually beneficial educational, economic, and cultural exchanges between the two states. The resolution would also create a taskforce with representatives from the community of Syunik, government of Syunik, government of California and community partners of California.
“As an immigrant, this issue hits close to home for me. I and many of my constituents worry about the safety of loved ones residing in that region. So, I am deeply aware of the uncertainty inherent in living there and the privilege we have to live in California. By creating this sister-state relationship with the Syunik Province, we will do our part, albeit small, to share some of the benefits of living here through economic, educational, and cultural engagement,” said Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, co-author of ACR 105.
By DAVID AMIRYAN
YEREVAN/BERLIN, 17. FEB, 17:53
The 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) between Armenia and Azerbaijan that left thousands dead did not put an end to the longest conflict in region.
Active hostilities have largely stopped, given the presence of Russian peacekeepers in NK, following the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement brokered by Moscow.
However, the situation remains far from peaceful. We continue to witness numerous localized incidents, in addition to larger instances of armed clashes, such as the ones we saw on 16 November 2021 and 12 January 2022.
The 44-day war significantly altered the geopolitics of the South Caucasus.
First, Turkey’s active role in the conflict and support it gave to Azerbaijan, including through recruiting Syrian mercenaries, significantly increased its influence in the region.
Second, the institutional framework for settling the NK conflict – the OSCE Minsk Group – has been undermined. Emboldened by his victory, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev has been publicly stating that the conflict is over, refusing to engage further with the Minsk Group.
This begs the question what will happen to the Armenian population in NK once the Russian peacekeeping mission is over in less than four years. Given the brutalities documented during the war, the state-promoted Armenophobia in Azerbaijan as well as post-war incidents that target the Armenian population, there is a real threat of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in NK.
Another important consequence of the war is the change in the de-facto borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The contact line between the armed forces has become so close that in some locations they are a few hundred meters away from each other. This situation has had a major impact on the rights and livelihoods of local communities. In several instances, near-border residents were taken captive, their cultivated fields were set to fire, and their cattle were stolen.
The recent three meetings between Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev, two of which were mediated by the EU, have produced only modest results.
One outcome of these meetings is that there is a direct line between the defense ministers of two countries for preventing border skirmishes.
The two countries also agreed to take steps towards unblocking railway connections. One of the most important issues remains the border demarcation. Russia has proposed creating a committee, which it would lead, however there is no progress in sight.
The explosive situation in Ukraine can potentially have devastating consequences for the Caucasus, including a new conflict. Despite personal friendship between presidents Vladimir Putin and Erdogan, Russia has been increasingly annoyed by Turkey due to its position on Crimea and for providing armed drones to Ukraine.
There have also been some recent tensions between Azerbaijan and Russia, particularly over Russia’s peacekeeping mission in NK. Azerbaijan and Turkey will be tempted to resort to use of force again, especially as their earlier actions did not generate adequate condemnation.
In this context, a much more engaged EU is necessary, in particular around the following three areas.
First, it is critical to pressure Azerbaijan to move away from an aggressive militaristic approach and embrace negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group around the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.
There should be an unambiguous message that the use of force is not an option and will be met with adequate consequences. The status quo has changed dramatically and the two sides can no longer be treated as equal sides to the conflict: Armenia is being subjected to aggression.
Second, the EU could push for and support a monitoring mission along the border. EU’s civilian CSDP mission is a relevant instrument that the EU has used in similar contexts and can go a long way to stabilise the situation on the ground.
Such a mission could enable the creation of a demilitarised zone so that conducive environment is created for the border demarcation process. In parallel, the EU should push for a border delimitation and demarcation process as soon as possible, ideally under OSCE.
Last but not least, decisive measures should be taken for the return of Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) still detained in Azerbaijan and raise the problem of state-promoted hate speech.
While there have been many statements calling for Azerbaijan to return POWs, Azerbaijan still holds dozens of them in violation of international humanitarian law.
Earlier this month, Azerbaijan announced plans to erase Armenian traces, such as old writings from churches, which was met with some outcry. The situation warrants more drastic measures, including application of targeted individual sanctions as well as aid conditionality, particularly in the face of the recently approved €2bn aid package by the EU.
The EU has the tools to change the situation – it now needs the will.
David Amiryan is the deputy director for programmes at Open Society Foundations-Armenia.
After the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in which loitering munitions were seen as playing a decisive role, interest in the new weapon type among Asian militaries is growing.
The vast Pacific Ocean, as well as the many smaller seas and thousands of islands that dot the region, are driving interest in maritime uses of loitering munitions, says Assaf Schechter, director of loitering munition systems with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), at the Singapore air show.
Militaries are interested in anti-shipping applications for the weapon type, as well as uses against tanks and radars. Schechter declines to name specific potential customers. IAI makes a variety of loitering munitions – essentially explosive-laden drones – including the Harpy, Harop, Green Dragon and Rotem.
Loitering munitions will complement conventional anti-ship missiles, but not replace them, Schechter says. The type gives commanders a way to disable an enemy ship, without sinking it.
“If you cripple the bridge or the rudder or the missile base, you succeed and you don’t need to sink a ship,” Schechter says.
Militaries are interested in giving commanders options to sideline an adversary while limiting potential for a situation to escalate, he says.
“When you’re going against a superpower on the first shot you do not want to sink a ship,” says Schechter.
Loitering munitions fly much slower than rocket-powered anti-ship missiles, making the type vulnerable to being shot down by ship-borne close-in weapon systems, such as automated Gatling guns. Still, there are ways for loitering munitions to get through, especially if multiples of the type converge on the target, says Schechter.
“Coming from different directions and different angles, more than one kill vehicle will penetrate,” he says.
Security Council Secretary, CSTO Sec-Gen discuss situation at Armenian-Azerbaijani border
09:41,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan held a phone conversation with CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas to discuss the current situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Grigoryan’s office said in a readout.
Grigoryan emphasized that a border exists between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan back from the Soviet years. He stressed that according to the 1991 agreement on Creating the Commonwealth of Independent States, the parties recognized that border, ratified the agreement in their parliaments and made it an integral part of the two countries’ legislation.
Grigoryan and Zas also discussed issues relating to the Armenian chairmanship at the CSTO.
11:10, 9 February, 2022
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. 2811 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, the ministry of health reported.
The total number of confirmed cases in the country has reached 396,885.
The COVID-19 recoveries rose by 3291 in a day, bringing the total to 359,456.
The death toll has risen to 8108 (6 death cases in past day).
7297 COVID-19 tests were conducted on February 8.
The number of active cases is 27,762.
The Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi is being dismantled by Azerbaijanis
Azerbaijan’s government has set up a special commission with this specific task of destroying Armenian cultural heritage sites in Artsakh and presenting them as having an Albanian origin.
Azerbaijan’s Culture Minister Anar Karimov told local media that this commission comprises specialists who know the history, culture, and heritage of Albania.
“Armenians have left traces on our monuments. Now we are gathering evidence in this regard,” Karimov said, adding that the policy of Azerbaijan’s authorities is to identify Armenian churches as Albanian.
“Work is being done in this regard with international experts in the field of Albanian Studies,” Karimov said adding that plans are underway to invite those “experts” to Azerbaijan.
“The next phase will be to go—with local and international experts—to the areas where the Armenianized Albanian monuments are locate. All the facts will be documented and presented to the international community,” Karimov said.
Since the end of military actions in 2020, Azerbaijani authorities have categorically refused to allow UNESCO representatives to enter Armenian territories under their control, presumably to bide time to alter and falsify traces of Armenian heritage.
The issue of the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh was taken up on Friday by Jean-Christophe Buisson, the deputy editor of the French Le Figaro newspaper, who took to Twitter to call Azerbaijan’s effort “cultural genocide.”
His social media post was prompted by an announcement by Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, who held meetings in Baku and praised EU’s energy partnership with Azerbaijan.
“While Azerbaijan continues its cultural genocide of the Armenian heritage in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) without anyone reacting (especially not the French government or UNESCO), the EU welcomes its energy partnerships with Baku,” Buisson wrote on Twitter on Friday.
Friday, February 4, 2022
European Leaders Organize Fresh Talks Between Aliyev, Pashinian
Armenia - French President Emmanuel Macron holds a video conference with
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and
European Council President Charles Michel, February 4, 2022.
French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel
held a virtual meeting with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday.
The video conference came about two months after Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s two face-to-face meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
which were separately hosted by Macron and Michel in Brussels.
“They took stock of progress achieved since the [December] meetings held in the
sidelines of the Eastern Partnership Summit, in particular recent releases of
detainees, ongoing joint efforts to search for missing persons, as well as the
upcoming restoration of railways tracks,” Macron and Michel said in a joint
statement on the video conference.
“The heads of State and Government agreed that this meeting offered a valuable
opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues,” added the statement.
Pashinian’s office reported that the four leaders discussed efforts to reduce
tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and open transport links between
the two South Caucasus states as well as international organizations’ access to
Karabakh.
“Prime Minister Pashinian stressed the need for a long-term settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the signing of a peace treaty under the aegis of
the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,” it said.
Neither statement mentioned any concrete agreements reached by Aliyev and
Pashinian.
The two leaders pledged to de-escalate border tensions and restore
Armenian-Azerbaijani rail links at their December 14 trilateral meeting with
Michel. But they failed to patch up their differences on the status of a highway
that would also connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s
southeastern Syunik province.
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel meets with Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels,
December 14, 2021.
Aliyev said ahead of the Brussels talks that people and cargo passing through
that “Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Pashinian
rejected the demand.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said late on Thursday that Yerevan has presented
Baku with new proposals regarding “the opening of the roads.” The ministry
spokesman, Vahan Hunanian, did not disclose them.
“We have not received any response from the Azerbaijani side to these proposals
yet,” Hunanian said in written comments. “Armenia is ready to start implementing
these proposals as soon as possible.”
The comments came in response to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov’s
claims that Yerevan is obstructing the launch of the cross-border transport
links. Hunanian said the claims are “paradoxical” in light of what Pashinian
stated earlier on Thursday.
Pashinian announced further progress towards the planned construction of the
45-kilometer Syunik railway. He said senior Armenian and Russian officials
discussed “practical” details of the project on Wednesday.
Next Turkish-Armenian Talks Set For February 24
• Tatevik Sargsian
Armenia - Armenia's deputy parliament speaker Ruben Rubinian (left) and Turkish
diplomat Serdar Kilic.
Turkish and Armenian envoys will meet in Vienna on February 24 for the second
round of negotiations on normalizing relations between their countries.
The two sides announced the date and venue of the meeting in identical
statements issued late on Thursday. They said nothing about its agenda.
The Turkish daily Sabah reported last month that Ankara would like the talks to
be held in Turkey or Armenia.
The first meeting between Serdar Kilic, a veteran Turkish diplomat, and Ruben
Rubinian, a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament, took place in Moscow on
January 14. The foreign ministries of the two neighboring nations described the
talks as “positive and constructive.” They said the special envoys agreed to
continue the dialogue “without preconditions.”
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday voiced cautious optimism
over the success of the process welcomed by Russia, the United States and the
European Union.
Earlier, the Turkish government invited Mirzoyan and Rubinian to an
international conference that will be held in Turkey in March. Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian signaled last week that Yerevan will likely accept the
invitation.
Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Turkish Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly made clear that his government will coordinate
the Turkish-Armenian normalization talks with Baku.
“We will naturally continue to advance the course and all stages of these
meetings through a dialogue with our Azerbaijani brothers,” Cavusoglu’s deputy,
Yavuz Selim Kiran, said on Thursday.
Speaking at an event in Ankara marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment
of Turkish-Azerbaijani diplomatic relations, Kiran noted the resumption this
week of charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan.
Armenian Opposition Won’t Field Presidential Candidate
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Senor lawmakers from the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances
talk during a parliament session in Yerevan, August 24, 2021.
The two opposition forces represented in Armenia’s parliament have decided not
to nominate a candidate for the new president of the republic who will be
elected by lawmakers in the coming weeks.
In a joint statement released on Friday, the Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances
slammed the presidential candidate fielded by the ruling Civil Contract party
and said they do not want to legitimize his almost certain election.
The candidate, Vahagn Khachatrian, has served as minister of high-tech industry
in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet since August. Khachatrian was
officially nominated on Wednesday ten days after former President Armen
Sarkissian unexpectedly stepped down.
Civil Contract controls enough parliament seats to install the 62-year-old
economist as head of states. He will have largely ceremonial powers.
The opposition statement claimed that Khachatrian is a partisan figure who does
not correspond to constitutional provisions requiring the presidency to be a
“really neutral institution consolidating the society.” It said such
consolidation is especially necessary now that Armenia is facing “extremely
serious internal and external challenges.”
“But this regime, which has put the country on the brink of destruction and
split the society, decided to stick to its practices and to be guided by only
parochial, rather than national, interests,” added the statement.
Hayastan and Pativ Unem therefore “will not participate in any way in the
election of the president of the republic,” it said.
Speaking with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service later in the day, Khachatrian said he
regrets the opposition decision. He expressed readiness to meet with opposition
leaders and discuss their concerns.
Asked whether he will try to win the backing of opposition lawmakers ahead of
the vote, Khachatrian said: “I just don’t know ways of doing that.”
New Poll Finds Growing Pessimism In Armenia
Armenia - A view of Yerevan and Mount Ararat, 17 February 2013.
Armenians have grown more pessimistic since last year’s parliamentary elections,
with only one in three of them thinking that their country is on the right track
now, according to a U.S.-funded opinion poll.
The nationwide poll released this week also found that most of them do not
expect major economic benefits from the possible opening of Armenia’s borders
with Turkey and Azerbaijan.
It was commissioned by the Washington-based International Republican Institute
(IRI), financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and
conducted by an Armenian polling organization in late November and early
December.
According to IRI, 46 percent of 1,512 randomly interviewed people felt that
“Armenia is heading in the wrong direction,” up from 34 percent in the previous
survey conducted last July shortly after the snap elections won by Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. The capital Yerevan had the
highest percentage of such respondents.
The proportion of those who anticipate positive change in the country fell from
41 percent to 34 percent in that period. It stood at 62 percent in late 2019.
Civil Contract won the June 2020 polls with about 54 percent of the vote,
according to their official results. Pashinian regularly cites that victory in
response to opposition criticism of his policies and accusations of misrule.
The latest IRI poll suggests that 61 percent of Armenians believe their country
is “governed in the interest of some groups,” rather than the majority of the
population. Just under a fifth of those polled were “very satisfied” with the
work of the prime minister’s office, with another 30 percent only “somewhat
satisfied.”
Of all state institutions, the office of the outgoing human rights ombudsman,
Arman Tatoyan, had the highest approval ratings, followed by the Armenian
police, local governments and the military.
Tatoyan has been increasingly critical of Pashinian’s administration, accusing
it of undermining judicial independence and bullying opposition groups that
defeated the ruling party in recent local elections.
Respondents were also asked about what they see as the key challenges facing
Armenia more than one year after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Their most
frequent answers were “territorial, border issues” (28 percent) and “national
security” (15 percent).
Armenia - An Armenian soldier stands guard on the border with Azerbaijan,
November 12, 2021.
“With the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a history of military
confrontation in the region, Armenians are understandably concerned about
national security and threats along the [Armenian-Azerbaijani] border,” said
Stephen Nix, director of IRI’s Eurasia Division. “They would like to see a
resolution to these long-standing territorial issues.”
Pashinian, who is blamed by his political opponents for Armenia’s defeat in the
six-week war, has repeatedly promised to usher in an “era of peaceful
development.” He has stressed the importance of having economic links with
Azerbaijan and Turkey, saying that they will significantly benefit the Armenian
economy,
The IRI poll shows most Armenians do not share the prime minister’s view.
According to its findings, only 5-6 percent of them think that the economic
impact of open borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey will be “definitely positive.”
More than two-thirds of respondents described Turkey as “the greatest economic
threat to Armenia.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
“This is not an emotionally-driven decision and it comes from a specific logic,” Sarkisian said in a statement on his official website.
“The president does not have the necessary tools to influence the important processes of foreign and domestic policy in difficult times for the people and the country,” he said.
Sarkisian was at the centre of a domestic political crisis last year that erupted in the wake of a war between Armenia and its long-standing rival Azerbaijan for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
His role is largely ceremonial and executive power rests primarily with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Sarkisian and Pashinyan had disagreed over a decision to remove the chief of the military’s general staff in the wake of the war and amid protests that brought thousands onto the streets of the Caucasus nation.
“I hope that eventually the constitutional changes will be implemented and the next president and presidential administration will be able to operate in a more balanced environment,” the statement added.
Sarkisian was born in 1953 in the capital Yerevan. He served as prime minister between 1996-1997, according to an official biography, before being elected president in March 2018.
Armenia’s economy has struggled since the Soviet collapse and money sent home by Armenians abroad has aided the construction of schools, churches and other infrastructure projects, including in Nagorno-Karabakh.
China, Russia and Iran have launched joint military drills amid new confrontation between Russia and the West, Armenian MP Tigran Abrahamyan, who represents the opposition With Honor faction, said on Friday.
Earlier last year, Russia and China signed a road map for closer military cooperation, outlining the joint steps in the sphere up to 2025.
“During the recent visit of Iran’s president to Russia, it was also announced that Tehran would receive a $5 billion credit. According to official reports, most of this sum will be used for the delivery of the Russian Su-35. It is assumed that Iran will spend the rest of the credit on new military purchases,” the MP wrote on Facebook.
In his words, Iran and Russia have an enormous direct, while China indirect, influence on the processes in the South Caucasus, primarily aimed at deterring Turkey’s growing ambitions.
“At the same time, Turkey’s appetite has not been limited to the South Caucasus for a very long time and Iran, Russia and China have common interests in this regions to suppress Turkey’s aggressive policy,” Abrahamyan said.
“It is clear that the deepening and substantive cooperation between the trio is directly related to the intensification of Western policy, and the intense struggle for influence in different regions continues.
“This implies new alliances, revised relations, political adjustments and, of course, new tensions around the world.
“There is no point in saying on what front of cooperation Armenia can work with the Russia-Iran-China trio especially to counteract the new Turkish-Azerbaijani military adventure or possible aggression, because the anti-crisis formula of the Armenian authorities is to warm relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan in an effort to “settle” conflicts, which will only bring a new crisis and tragedy to our country,” the lawmaker noted.