✓Russian peacekeepers will be deployed to the region of Syunik.
✓The fate of 73 servicemen in Karabakh’s south remains unknown.
✓900 bodies have been retrieved from the battlefield so far.
✓Artsakh’s president says he will resign when the time is right.
Source: Ruptly
Russian border guards will be deployed to Armenia’s southernmost Syunik Province as new border demarcations bring Armenia and Azerbaijan closer than ever.
Armenia’s Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan says that the border between the two countries is being adjusted and demarcated at the moment with the participation of high-ranking officers from both sides.
“Not a single meter will be conceded from Armenia’s territory,” he says.
Armenia’s southern Syunik Province borders Iran to the south, the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan to the west, and as of November 9, Azerbaijan proper to the east. The new eastern border is the result of the “end of war” agreement signed by heads of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, which handed over much of the Armenian-controlled territory in the area to Azerbaijan.
In this mountainous province, the few roads that lead to major towns are now positioned nearly on the border with Azerbaijan. The question remains as to how the security of the people and of the roads will be guaranteed given the new situation.
Syunik’s community leaders say that a number of their towns and villages have found themselves directly beneath Azerbaijani military units.
“People are demanding security guarantees,” says Gevorg Parsyan, mayor of Syunik’s provincial capital Kapan. He tells CivilNet that on Thursday a number of volunteer military reservists had closed a major highway in protest of instructions from Armenia’s defense ministry that said volunteers must leave their military positions by 17:00 on December 18.
Parsyan tells us that if the volunteer reservists who have been protecting Kapan’s borders leave, strategic roads and communities will be left unprotected.
Armenia’s Defense Minister, who is in Syunik, reassures that an agreement has already been reached and Russian border guards are to be deployed to the area. He says new Armenian military units are also being organized, and new positions will be formed in the region.
Armenia’s Vice Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan stated at the cabinet sitting today that works on clarifying the data of captives are underway.
He said the steps are taken for further exchange of the captives.
“Negotiations are being held with the Azerbaijani side with the involvement of the Red Cross and the Russian side,” Avinyan stressed.
The Vice PM noted that the data on persons captured from Khtsaberd is being clarified, adding that head of the Chief of Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Onik Gasparyan is in Artsakh.
“Negotiations are being held with the Azerbaijani side, we expect resolution [of the situation],” Avinyan said.
He stressed about some tension in Hin Shen, adding that there is an intermediate communication as of now but the issue is not completely settled.
“But Russian peacekeeping troops have been deployed in the sector and we expect to reach final resolution. Minister of Defense is in Syunik, deployment works of our border troops along our border in Syunik are being carried out,” he stressed.
Head of Vorotan town of Armenia’s Syunik Province Surik Ohanjanyan has joined the demonstrators who have shut down the road to Goris.
“We all demand that the Turks don’t reach our borders. Even if the authorities are giving a territory to them, it should be a neutral zone. The issue of Kubatlu and Zangelan wasn’t stated in the joint statement signed on November 9. The sides to the conflict had to stop at their positions,” Ohanjanyan stated, adding that if Armenia gives one territory, it will have to give more territories.
“It’s easy for people living in Yerevan. If Armenia gives away Syunik Province, the Turks will want Yerevan as well. What we’re saying is that there should be a neutral zone that is far away from Syunik Province,” Ohanjanyan said.
According to Mayor of Kapan Gevorg Parsyan, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia has issued an order according to which all the positions of the city of Kapan of Syunik Province will be transferred to Azerbaijan by 5 p.m. tomorrow.
Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan posted on his Facebook page maps of Azerbaijani soldiers presenting a major part of the Republic of Armenia as historical territory of Azerbaijan, adding the following:
“The maps also feature texts that clearly don’t correspond to reality and directly underlie the Armenophobic and enmity propaganda of the Azerbaijani authorities. All this is directly linked to the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia since it concerns the guaranteeing of the life, properties and all other rights of the population of Armenia and the Armenian people and their protection from tortures and inhuman treatment.
The examination by the Human Rights Defender shows that these are among the main reasons why the Azerbaijani Armed Forces committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and cruelties during the Four-Day Artsakh War in April 2016 and during the war in September-November 2020 and still commit them (beheadings, executions, tortures, etc.).
All this is enshrined in the real and concrete proofs obtained by the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.
The international community and especially international organizations with the mandate to protect human rights must take resolute steps to help prevent the condemnable propaganda of hatred and enmity against the Armenians on the ground of ethnic belonging.
After an analysis, the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia will sum up all this and send it to international bodies and will provide the information to the relevant organizations in Armenia.”
The Defense Army of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) reports the following:
“On , according to preliminary information, the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed in Artsakh transferred to the Defense Army of Artsakh the bodies of 9 Armenian servicemen found in the area near the Armenian military posts stationed in the direction of Hin Tagher-Khtsaberd (the circumstances behind the deaths of those servicemen remain unknown).
Necessary operations are currently being carried out to find out the circumstances behind the deaths of the servicemen and to identify them.”
An extremely major event is taking place in Syunik Province right now, and it completely contradicts the capitulation act that Nikol Pashinyan since the capitulation act doesn’t mention anything about Kapan and the remaining territories of Syunik Province. This is what President of Legal Education and Oversight NGO Arpine Hovhannisyan said during the “Armenia Without Nikol” march today.
“Nikol Pashinyan is staying in power so that he can complete his treacherous plan. What he is trying to say is that either he will be Prime Minister or Armenia won’t exist. We have gathered here to tell the traitor that Armenia will exist without him. Pashinyan is leading Armenia closer to a larger precipice every time,” she stated.
According to Arpine Hovhannisyan, since there is nothing mentioned about the handover of the territories of Syunik Province in the trilateral statement, Armenia’s law-enforcement authorities must launch a criminal case against Nikol Pashinyan to find out why the territories of Syunik Province are being handed over.
“What is this treacherous act? Within the scope of this act, I am asking the Prosecutor General of Armenia if he is a citizen of Armenia and a defender of law and order. He has to follow the example of the honorable prosecutors who are resigning because they don’t want to serve the traitor. It is the duty of the Prosecutor General to immediately find out why the traitor is handing over Armenia to the Turks,” she said.
Advantageous defense positions of the town of Kapan in Armenia’s Syunik Province will be handed over to Azerbaijan by 5 p.m. Friday, Kapan Mayor Gevorg Parsyan confirmed to Aysor.am on Thursday.
“It is correct information. It is a painful order for us. Today in the morning we were ordered to leave by tomorrow 5 p.m. our favorable positions we were holding by November 9 ensuring security zone for Kapan,” he said, adding that they have been ordered to retreat along the borderline.
Asked whether it has been envisaged by the signed trilateral statement, Parsyan said he has not seen anything about Zangelan and Kubatlu regions in it.
“The territory near us is Zangelan, the territory near Goris is Kubatlu. This agreement makes no mention of Kubatlu and Zangelan regions,” he said.
The mayor stressed that he has repeatedly warned against making any decisions without local self-governmental bodies’ involvement.
“They did not listen. I was afraid of it. That’s why I was raising the security issue so many times,” he stressed.
He said that the situation in Kapan is tense now and protests are being held in the town, adding that he has joined demonstrators too.
The Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography has joined the call of the Yerevan State University Academic Council and the National Academy of Sciences demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation.
“Realizing that our homeland is in a deep crisis today and this situation is fraught with fatal consequences, the administrative and teaching staff of the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography, including doctors of science, professors and honored artists of Armenia (120 citizens in total), join the call of YSU and National Academy of Sciences demanding the resignation of the prime minister,” the institute said in a statement on Thursday.
“We also call for election of new prime minister by the National Assembly and formation of a government composed of exclusively professionals,” the statement read.
Armenian opposition forces making up the Homeland Salvation Movement called for a general strike and class boycott on Tuesday, December 22, at the end of Thursday’s “march of dignity” demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
“A nationwide strike and boycott of classes are declared starting from 12pm Tuesday,” Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Supreme Council member Gegham Manukyan told demonstrators.
He said that Tuesday will a “decisive day” to remove Pashinyan from office.
“Tomorrow, at 6:30pm – 7pm, we will gather at Garegin Nzhdeh Square with torches and candles and will head to Yerablur Military Pantheon where we will pay tribute to our heroes,” the opposition figure said.
Also, he said a short rally will be held at Liberty Square on Saturday afternoon, after which a requiem service will be offered in memory of fallen soldiers of the Artsakh war at St. Gregory the Illuminator Church in Yerevan.