Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Armenian FM Expects More Talks With Azeri Counterpart
October 06, 2021
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan speaks in the parliament, Yerevan,
October 6, 2021
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on Wednesday that he and his Azerbaijani
counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov will meet again soon for peace talks mediated by the
U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
Mirzoyan gave no dates for the meeting. He said only that he and Bayramov agreed
to continue their direct contacts during talks held in New York on September 24
in the presence of the three mediators.
It was the first face-to-face meeting of Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s top
diplomats since a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the
Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh last November.
In a joint statement on the New York talks, the co-chairs said they “proposed
specific focused measures to deescalate the situation and possible next steps.”
They did not disclose those proposals.
“The resumption of discussions, the negotiating process in this format is
definitely in the interests of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,” Mirzoyan said
during the Armenian government’s question-and-answer session in the parliament.
He said the very fact of such negotiations disproves Azerbaijani claims that
that Azerbaijan ended the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with its victory in the
six-week war.
It is also expected that the three mediators will visit Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Karabakh soon.
Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian announced, meanwhile, that Azerbaijan has
set free an Armenian army officer who went missing on Armenia’s border with
Azerbaijan in August.
The Armenian Defense Ministry suggested at the time that the 32-year-old
Lieutenant Artur Davidian lost his way and strayed into Azerbaijani-controlled
territory in thick fog.
Azerbaijan continues to hold dozens of other Armenian soldiers and civilians
captured during or shortly after the war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire
last November. Yerevan regularly demands their unconditional release and
repatriation.
Iran Warns Against Redrawing Of South Caucasus Borders
October 06, 2021
• Aza Babayan
• Karlen Aslanian
Russia - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) and his Iranian
counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian hold a joint news conference, Moscow,
October 6, 2021.
Iran strongly opposes any redrawing of borders in the South Caucasus, Iranian
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said after meeting with his Russian
counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday.
Amir-Abdollahian visited Russia amid Iran’s mounting tensions with Azerbaijan
that followed Baku’s decision last month to levy hefty fees from Iranian trucks
transporting goods to and from Armenia.
He said on his arrival in the Russian capital late on Tuesday that Tehran
expects Moscow to “react to possible changes in regional countries’ borders.” He
also echoed Iranian allegations that Baku is harboring Middle Eastern
“terrorists” as well as Israeli security personnel near Iran’s borders.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev angrily denied the accusations on Monday. He
earlier criticized large-scale Iranian military exercises that began along the
Azerbaijani border last week.
Earlier on Monday, a senior Iranian parliamentarian reportedly accused Aliyev of
trying to “cut Iran’s access to Armenia” with the help of Turkey and Israel.
The Azerbaijani leader has repeatedly threatened in recent months to forcibly
open a land “corridor” that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave
via Armenia’s Syunik province bordering Iran. All Armenian roads leading to Iran
also pass through Syunik.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Lavrov held after their talks,
Amir-Abdollahian reiterated that any “changes in the region’s map” are
unacceptable to Iran. He indicated that the issue was on the meeting’s agenda.
Armenia/Iran - The Arax river separating Armenia and Iran.
The Russian foreign minister said they discussed “the situation in the South
Caucasus” but did not comment on the unprecedented Azerbaijani-Iranian row. He
said only that Moscow, which has deployed Russian troops in Syunik over the past
year, is against any “provocative” war games in the region.
“Azerbaijan is expressing concern over recent military exercises held by our
Iranian friends near its borders,” Lavrov told journalists.
Amir-Abdollahian countered that Azerbaijani and Turkish troops have held six
joint drills in Azerbaijan so far this year.
Lavrov also stressed the importance of “unblocking all transport and economic
links in that region” after last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
“That will benefit not only Armenia and Azerbaijan but also Georgia … as well as
Iran, Russia and Turkey, the nearest neighbors of the three South Caucasus
republics,” he said. “In this context, we discussed today the [Turkish]
initiative to create a ‘three plus three’ format: the three South Caucasus
countries and their three big neighbors: Russia, Iran and Turkey. Our Iranian
friends have a positive attitude to this initiative.”
Amir-Abdollahian flew to Moscow on Tuesday one day after meeting with Armenian
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Tehran. The latter accused Baku of
misrepresenting Russian-brokered agreements that call for the opening of
transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“In this regard, we highly appreciate Iran’s position on Armenia’s territorial
integrity and the inviolability of its borders,” Mirzoyan said after talks with
his Iranian counterpart.
Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, likewise insisted
on Wednesday that any road and/or railway connecting Nakhichevan to the rest of
Azerbaijan would be under full Armenian control.
“There will be no sovereign corridor in Armenia,” Grigorian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service. “That is, Armenia will control its entire territory.”
Azerbaijan Resumes Armenia Overflights
October 06, 2021
• Lilit Harutiunian
• Artak Khulian
RUSSIA -- A Boeing 787 Dreamliner of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) flies in
Moscow, April 8, 2015
An Azerbaijani passenger plane flew over Armenia on Wednesday for the first time
in seven years.
Azerbaijan’s national airline AZAL said it has started again using Armenian
airspace for its flights from Baku to Nakhichevan, an Azerbaijani exclave
separated from the rest of the country by Armenia and Iran. It said this will
shorten travel time between the two cities and thereby cut the cost of those
flights.
“This step demonstrates Azerbaijan’s resolute readiness to unblock regional
transport links, which corresponds to the interests of all neighboring
countries,” the state-run carrier said in a statement.
The statement came the day after Iran banned, according to Azerbaijani media
reports, Azerbaijani military planes from flying over the Islamic Republic en
route to Nakhichevan. Tensions between Tehran and Baku have risen dramatically
since Azerbaijani authorities began on September 12 demanding hefty fees from
Iranian vehicles using the main Armenia-Iran highway.
Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee confirmed the AZAL announcement. It said that
despite the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Armenia and Azerbaijan had never formally
closed their airspaces for each other’s civilian flights.
A statement by the government agency said the Azerbaijani side stopped using
Armenia’s airspace for Baku-Nakhichevan flights in November 2014 “at its own
initiative.” By contrast, airlines have since continued to carry out flights to
and from Yerevan over Azerbaijan, added the statement.
An Armenian pro-government lawmaker, Hayk Sargsian, claimed, however, that
Armenia had similarly “refused to carry out flights through Azerbaijan’s
airspace.” “By the same token, we can now start using their airspace,” he said.
A Russian-brokered agreement that stopped last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh
commits Armenia and Azerbaijan to opening transport links between the two South
Caucasus states. The Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani governments set up a
joint task force for that purpose in January.
It emerged recently that Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey banned Armenian aircraft from
its airspace on September 9, 2020, less than three weeks before the outbreak of
the Karabakh war. The Civil Aviation Committee confirmed that Yerevan never
retaliated by imposing a similar ban on Turkish carriers.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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