Category: 2021

The newly elected Council of Elders of Goris, a community in Armenia’s Syunik Province, convened its first meeting on Thursday.

13 seats in the council are held by the bloc led by Arush Arushanyan, who won reelection by a wide margin in the 17 October local elections three months after his arrest. The ruling Civil Contract party has 7 seats and the Armenian National Congress – one seat.

The meeting was chaired by the oldest member of the Goris Council of Elders, Armenuhi Sonoyan.

Arush Arushanyan was installed as Goris community head by force of law.

He remains in custody.

A rally organized by the opposition is being held outside the Armenian government building against the establishment of Azerbaijani customs checkpoints on the Goris-Kapan road section in Syunik Province of Armenia.

“With the tacit consent of the capitulant authorities, or rather with their collusion, Turkish domination has been established on one of the key roads in Armenia – the Goris-Kapan highway in Syunik,” Gegham Manukyan, an MP from the opposition Armenia faction, said during the protest on Thursday.

In an interview to the Public TV Company on Wednesday, Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigoryan announced that Azerbaijani forces would set up customs checkpoints on the Goris-Kapan road starting from midnight.

The lawmaker stated the south of Armenia has been cut off from the rest of the country as a result of the treacherous steps of the authorities, and a number of villages in Syunik have ended up in a blockade.

“Meanwhile, these men keep bragging about the peace they have brought. In reality, they have brought slavery, defeat and humiliation,” Manukyan stated.

He demanded that government members meet with protesters and provide explanations. Also, Manukyan denounced the authorities for deploying large police forces outside the government building while a cabinet meeting is being held.

“If there had been so many police officers on the Syunik highway, no one would have dared to set up customs checkpoints there,” the MP said.

He accused the authorities of failing to protect the sovereignty and security of the country.

“They talk about delimitation and demarcation of the borders. They haven’t made a single step in that direction yet, but they agree to the setup of Azerbaijani checkpoints on Armenian territory,” Manukyan noted, stressing that the current leaders will gradually cede Armenian territories to the enemy as long as they remain in office.

“As long as our compatriots tolerate them, we will remain in such a defenseless position. The government members must now answer on what basis did they make a secret agreement with the Turks? How did they make it? Who is responsible for it?” Manukyan said.

“It seems we must now refer to the territory of Armenia in the past tense and that is advised to do with clear judgement and common sense which is unacceptable,”  the Head of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs Taguhi Tovmasyan stated on Thursday, commenting on PM Pashinyan’s statement about the establishment of Azerbaijani customs checkpoints on the Goris-Kapan road section in Syunik Province of Armenia.

Tovmasyan informed she invited an urgent working discussion on the matter, sending an invitation to Pashinyan as well, however the latter didn’t appear. The Chairwoman of the NA Committee read out five demands on the occasion of which the meeting was called for. 

“What are the grounds for Pashinyan to state that the Azerbaijani customs checkpoints are not located in the territory of Armenia if no delimitation and demarcation have been conducted? What are the legal grounds to state the Azerbaijani checkpoint is out of the territory of Armenia and what maps are taken as basis for that assertion? Any changes of the state border are made through amendments to the Law on State Border. We have not made any changes to the Law, consequently the statement is controversial from the legal point of view. What is the process of free and safe movement of goods and people under Azerbaijan’s border and customs control? What problems may people driving through Goris-Kapan roadway face and what are the mechanisms for protecting their right to life, free movement and other fundamental rights?” Tovmasyan said. 

The opposition lawmaker said she expected answers to the raised questions from the government, expressing hope any representative from the executive branch would appear at the Committee sitting. 

The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh along with Armenian and Azerbaijani sides is investigating the details of the incident on November 8 near Shushi, the Russian Defense Ministry reported in its daily bulletin. 

“On November 8, at 13.40 Moscow time, a fire from the Azerbaijani side was opened at a group of four workers from Nagorno Karabakh as a result of which three people were injured, another one killed. “The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, together with the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides, is conducting an investigation,” the statement issued by the ministry said. 

Despite the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020 that ended the 44-day war in Artsakh, Azerbaijani forces continued to commit criminal actions against the Artsakh Armenians over the past year, Artsakh’s Human Rights Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Over the past year, after the signing of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, the Azerbaijani side deliberately and consistently continued to commit criminal actions against the Artsakh people, about which the Ombudsman’s Office repeatedly informed the public, international structures and human rights organizations,” the ombudsman said.

“Even though the large-scale hostilities have ceased, the military aggression of the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem has been replaced by planned and coordinated actions to intimidate the population of Artsakh and to force out the Armenians from Artsakh,” Stepanyan said.

The statistics provided by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Artsakh show that last year the Azerbaijani armed forces deployed near the civilian settlements committed 56 crimes and 43 criminal cases were opened over them.

“As a result of criminal actions of the Azerbaijani troops, 2 civilians and 9 military personnel were killed, attempted murder was committed against 24 civilians and 44 servicemen, 9 civilians and 28 military men received various gunshot wounds, 6 people were physically abused and 2 received death threats,” the report says.

In Stepanyan’s words, property damage totaling 17,710,000 drams was caused as a result of Azeri criminal encroachments. 5 houses, 3 units of agricultural machinery, 7 vehicles, 2 units of construction machinery were targeted, 3 gardens and sowing areas were burnt, cattle herds were also targeted.

Over the past year, shots were repeatedly fired from the Azerbaijani outposts stationed near the Armenian settlements, thus infringing upon the mental inviolability of the peaceful population.

According to Stepanyan, the Ombudsman’s Office will compile a report on all the recorded incidents to submit it to international organizations.

Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov met in Paris, Azerbaijani media reported on Thursday, citing the country’s Foreign Ministry.

The talks were attended by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office.

According to the reports, the parties exchanged views on issues related to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

It is worth noting that the Armenian side has not released a statement on the meeting. There is no information about the Paris meeting either on the official website of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, or on its official Facebook page. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson has not made any statement either.

There is no statement on the meeting on the OSCE website as well.