Author: Parkev Tvankchian

                                        Friday, 


Karabakh Dissolution Decree Annulled

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Nagorno-Karabakh - Samvel Shahramanian is sworn in as new Karabakh president, 
Stepanakert, September 10, 2023.


Samvel Shahramanian has annulled his September 28 decision to liquidate the 
self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, an aide to the exiled Karabakh 
president revealed on Friday.

A decree signed by Shahramanian disbanded all government bodies and said that 
the unrecognized republic, which had been set up in September 1991, will cease 
to exist on January 1. It came just over a week after Azerbaijan’s military 
offensive that forced Karabakh’s small army to lay down weapons and restored 
Azerbaijani control over the region.

Speaking in Yerevan on October 20, Shahramanian said he had to sign the decree 
in order to stop the hostilities and enable the Karabakh Armenians to safely 
flee their homeland. Karabakh lawmakers likewise said early this month that the 
decision demanded by Baku helped to prevent a “genocide.”

Shahramanian’s adviser, Vladimir Grigorian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that 
the Karabakh leader invalidated the controversial decree on October 19.

“This means that the Republic of Artsakh, its government and other bodies will 
continue to operate after 2023,” he said, adding that all senior Karabakh 
officials will keep performing their duties without getting paid.

“We can consider the September 28 decree null and void,” stressed Grigorian. He 
did not say why its invalidation was not made public earlier.

Residents gather next to buses in central Stepanakert before leaving 
Nagorno-Karabakh, September 25, 2023.

The development may put Karabakh’s leadership now based in Yerevan at odds with 
Armenia’s government. Political allies of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian have 
said in recent weeks that Karabakh government bodies should be dissolved 
following the region’s recapture by Azerbaijan and the resulting exodus of its 
ethnic Armenian population. Parliament speaker Alen Simonian claimed on November 
16 that their continued activities would pose a “direct threat to Armenia’s 
security.”

In its December 10 statement, the Karabakh legislature balked at attempts to 
“finally close the Artsakh issue” while signaling its desire to discuss them 
with Pashinian’s government.

On Tuesday, Pashinian he gave more indications that the Karabakh issue is closed 
for his administration. “As I said, I am the prime minister of Armenia and must 
advance Armenia’s national interests,” he said in televised remarks.




Yerevan Open To Delinking Peace Deal With Baku From Border Delimitation

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen SImonian chairs a session of the National 
Assembly, November 24, 2022.


Armenia may agree to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan before delimiting the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border, parliament speaker Alen Simonian indicated on 
Friday.

Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham 
Aliyev, said earlier this week that Baku believes "the border delimitation issue 
should be kept separate from peace treaty discussions."

“I think that we could consider such a practice because that [delimitation 
process] … could take years,” Simonian said, commenting on Hajiyev’s statement. 
“In my view, a country seeking a real peace will have no problems with such 
things.”

“So I think that yes, such a thing can be done after we settle some issues, sign 
the peace treaty and bring peace to our societies,” he told reporters.

Armen Rustamian, a senior member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance, 
expressed concern over Simonian’s remarks, saying that delinking the peace 
treaty from the border delimitation is “only in Azerbaijan’s interests.”

“We have to make sure that there are no occasions for new tensions and conflicts 
in the future,” said Rustamian. “And the more uncertainty there is in the 
treaty, the higher their likelihood will be.”

Ongoing border disputes have been one of the main sticking points in 
Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on the treaty. Armenia has said until now that the 
peace deal must contain a concrete mechanism for the border delimitation. It 
insists on using late Soviet-era military maps for that purpose. Baku rejects 
the idea backed by the European Union.

Yerevan also wants the treaty to explicitly uphold the territorial integrity of 
the two South Caucasus states. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other Armenian 
officials have said Azerbaijan should specifically recognize Armenia’s 
internationally recognized area of 29,800 square kilometers.

Eduard Aghajanian, another lawmaker representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract 
party, insisted on Friday that this remains the most important element of the 
would-be treaty for the Armenian side.

“It’s still too early to say whether this will be done parallel to the 
delimitation process … or in another format,” he said.

Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian said 
that Baku is “reluctant to finalize” such a peace deal. Kostanian had suggested 
earlier that it wants to leave the door open for future territorial claims to 
Armenia. Some Armenian analysts believe this is the reason why Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev keeps delaying further negotiations mediated by the 
United States and the European Union.




218 Confirmed Dead In Karabakh Fuel Depot Blast

        • Artak Khulian

A photograph taken and released by the Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Ombudsman 
shows a fire at a fuel depot outside Stepanakert on September 25, 2023.


At least 218 people died in the September 25 explosion and fire at a fuel depot 
in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to the latest official figures released by 
Armenian investigators on Friday.

The spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Gor Abrahamian, said that it has 
still not identified three of the victims because of being unable to collect DNA 
samples from their presumed relatives.

Twenty-one other Karabakh Armenians, who may have been at the scene of the 
powerful explosion, remain unaccounted for, Abrahamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service.

“The Investigative Committee urges all those who had relatives, who were at the 
scene at the time of the explosion, and don’t know their whereabouts … to 
contact the Investigative Committee,” he said.

The deadly explosion, which destroyed the gasoline storage facility outside 
Stepanakert, occurred as tens of thousands of Karabakh residents fled to Armenia 
following an Azerbaijani offensive that paved the way for the restoration of 
Baku’s control over the region.

Videos posted on social media showed hundreds of cars parked near the depot, 
waiting to fuel up and head to Armenia. Fuel had been in extremely short supply 
in Karabakh since Azerbaijan blocked traffic through the Lachin corridor in 
December 2022.

The screenshot of video distributed by Siranush Sargsyan's Twitter account shows 
smoke rising after a fuel depot explosion near Stepanakert, September 25, 2023.

Samvel Shahramanian, the Karabakh president, said recently that Karabakh 
officials continue to believe that the blast was caused by a violation of safety 
rules. He said the underground depot, which reportedly contained 400,000 liters 
of gasoline reserved for Karabakh’s army, was besieged by scores of people 
desperate to leave their homeland.

Erik Yakhshibekian, a Karabakh man, was there together with his wife, who died 
in the resulting fire. He described chaotic scenes preceding the tragedy.

“From five or six locations people threw in buckets and pulled them back from 
the basement,” he said. “It was awful. The air was toxic and you couldn’t 
breathe. Those who could went downstairs to quickly collect [fuel] and get out.”

According to Abrahamian, the investigators have interrogated “many” witnesses of 
the explosion. He would not say whether they will prosecute anyone for the 
massive loss of life.

More than 200 other Karabakh Armenians were killed during the September 19-20 
fighting with Azerbaijani forces.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has acknowledged over 200 combat deaths among 
its military personnel involved in the operation. Its troops greatly outnumbered 
and outgunned Karabakh’s small army that received no military support from 
Armenia.




Russia, Armenia Still Allies, Says Envoy


Armenia - Russian Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin speaks during an event organized by 
the UN office in Yerevan, July 3, 2023.


Russia continues to regard Armenia as a strategic ally despite unprecedented 
tensions between the two states, the Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Sergei 
Kopyrkin, said in an interview published on Friday.

“We believe that the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia remain 
partners and strategic allies, united by common interests, a common history and 
similar views on international problem, and that this alliance corresponds to 
the fundamental interests of both participants,” Kopyrkin told the official TASS 
news agency.

“Of course, it cannot be denied that there are certain differences in our 
bilateral and multilateral agenda,” he said. “Both the Russian and Armenian 
sides are ready to discuss any contentious topics frankly and in a constructive 
atmosphere, as befits allies.”

Russian-Armenian relations have steadily deteriorated since the 2020 war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh mainly because of what Yerevan sees as Moscow’s failure to 
honor its security commitments. The trend accelerated shortly before 
Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 offensive in Karabakh that was not prevented or 
thwarted by Russian peacekeepers stationed there.

The Russian Foreign Ministry deplored “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by 
the Armenian government earlier in September. It subsequently accused Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian of systematically “destroying” bilateral ties.

Pashinian and other Armenian leaders boycotted high-level meetings held this 
fall within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) 
and other Russian-led alliances of ex-Soviet states. So far they have announced 
no plans to end Armenia’s membership in those organizations.

Earlier this week, Pashinian again accused the CSTO of giving his country “zero” 
support in the conflict with Azerbaijan. Another Armenian official elaborated on 
December 4 on the premier’s assertions that Moscow has failed to deliver more 
weapons to Armenia despite bilateral defense contracts signed in the last two 
years. The contracts are worth $400 million, he said.

Kopyrkin acknowledged “issues” in the implementation of those contracts. He 
implied that Russian defense companies have not fulfilled their contractual 
obligations on time because of having to manufacture more weapons and other 
military equipment for the Russian military.

“But these are working issues that are resolved in the dialogue between relevant 
agencies of Russia and Armenia,” said the envoy.

Kopyrkin added in this regard that the two sides are now “discussing new 
agreements in the field of military-technical cooperation.” He did not elaborate.

Russia has long been Armenia’s principal supplier of weapons and ammunition. 
Yerevan is now increasingly looking for other arms suppliers. Since September 
2022 it has reportedly signed a number of defense contracts with India worth 
hundreds of millions of dollars. In October this year, it also signed two arms 
deals with France.



Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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