Monday,
Iranian Trucks Entering Armenia Stopped By Azerbaijan
• Artak Khulian
A road connecting the Armenian cities of Kapan and Goris, September 3, 2018.
Azerbaijani forces have set up a checkpoint to stop and reportedly tax Iranian
commercial trucks using a strategic road that passes through areas along
Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province controversially handed over to Azerbaijan
after last year’s war.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian ordered Armenian army units and local militias to
pull out of those areas one month after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the
six-week war over Nagorno-Karabakh last November. Pashinian said that they are
located on the Azerbaijani side of Armenia’s Soviet-era border with Azerbaijan,
which had never been demarcated due to the Karabakh conflict.
The order, strongly condemned by the Armenian opposition and local government
officials, left Azerbaijani forces in control of a 21-kilometer stretch of the
main highway connecting Syunik’s capital Kapan to another provincial town, Goris.
The highway, parts of which are now patrolled by Russian soldiers and border
guards, remains Armenia’s sole transport link with Iran. Pashinian and other
government officials assured critics in December that Armenians as well as
foreigners will continue to pass through its Azerbaijani-controlled section
without any restrictions.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) reported on Sunday that Azerbaijani
police units deployed there have started stopping Iranian trucks to check their
drivers’ documents and cargos. It said Armenian and Russian border guards are
now jointly trying to “resolve the situation.”
Vahe Hakobian, a senior opposition parliamentarian and former Syunik governor,
said on Monday that Azerbaijani officers are also collecting payments from
Iranian drivers.
Armenia -- Iranian truck drivers speak with RFE/RL in Yerevan, September 13,
2021.
One driver, who arrived in Yerevan last week, echoed that claim, citing fellow
truckers stuck in Syunik. “They say the Azerbaijanis demand $120 from every
truck for using the road,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Another Iranian, who also did not want to give his name, said Azerbaijani
officers stopped him on the Goris-Kapan road to extort diesel fuel days before
setting up their checkpoint. “The most interesting thing is that the
Azerbaijanis posed as Armenians,” he said.
The Azerbaijani authorities effectively confirmed later on Monday that they have
started taxing Iranian trucks using the mountainous road. The State Customs
Committee in Baku said it is enforcing an Azerbaijani law that requires it to
levy road and transit fees from all foreign vehicles entering the country.
In what may have been a related development, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said
on Sunday that it has sent a letter to the Russian military demanding that it
stop vehicles from “other countries” illegally passing through “Azerbaijani
territory where Russian peacekeeping forces are temporarily deployed.”
Earlier this year, Baku condemned Iranian trucks for transporting goods to and
from Karabakh without its permission.
The Armenian government did not publicly react to the latest development as of
Monday evening. Nor did the NSS issue any updates on its purported contacts with
the Azerbaijani side.
A Russian military post on a road connecting Goris and Kapan.
Meanwhile, Hakobian and other lawmakers representing the main opposition
Hayastan alliance demanded an emergency session of the Armenian parliament on
Azerbaijan’s actions seen by them as a further grave threat to Armenia’s
security.
Hayastan’s Artsvik Minasian said government officials should address parliament
deputies and answer their questions “so that we get a clear idea of what’s going
on there.”
“I also see an economic problem … which is no less important,” Hakobian said for
his part. “As you know, over 40 percent of our cargo turnover [with the outside
world] is carried out through Iran.”
The parliament’s pro-government speaker, Alen Simonian, promised to consider
organizing such a discussion.
Azerbaijan already blocked the Goris-Kapan road section controlled by it late
last month and kept it closed for two days, citing the alleged stabbing of one
of its soldiers. Traffic through the road resumed after talks involving Russian
military commanders on the ground.
The Iranian Embassy in Yerevan expressed concern over the blockage which
disrupted cargo traffic between Armenia and Iran. It expressed hope that the
Armenian government will speed up work on “alternative routes” for
Iranian-Armenian trade.
The government is financing the ongoing reconstruction of an alternative Syunik
road bypassing the border areas.
Karabakh Conflict Still Unresolved, Insists U.S. Envoy
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy addresses members of the American Chamber
of Commerce in Yerevan, May 15, 2019.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved after last year’s
Armenian-Azerbaijani war, a senior U.S. diplomat insisted at the weekend,
prompting strong criticism from Azerbaijan.
“We do not think that the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is resolved. We will
continue to keep that on the agenda of the [OSCE] Minsk Group,” the U.S.
ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, told reporters in Yerevan.
Tracy said Washington is “doing everything to support bringing the parties
together under the auspices of the Minsk Group” co-headed by the United States,
Russia and France.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken similarly stressed the need for a
“comprehensive and sustainable political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict” earlier this month.
“We encourage reengagement in substantive negotiations under the auspices of the
Minsk Group Co-Chairs as soon as possible,” Blinken wrote in a congratulatory
message to Armenia’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was quick to condemn Tracy’s remarks, saying
that they are “undermining the Minsk Group’s further activities.” A ministry
spokeswoman echoed President Ilham Aliyev’s repeated claims that Azerbaijan’s
victory in the six-week war put an end to the Karabakh conflict.
Aliyev ruled out on July 22 any negotiations on Karabakh’s status. He said
Yerevan must instead recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over the
Armenian-populated territory through a “peace treaty” proposed by Baku.
Later in July the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the Minsk Group issued a
joint statement calling for a “negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable
settlement of all remaining core substantive issues of the conflict” and urging
the conflicting parties to resume talks “as soon as possible.”
The mediators made a similar appeal to the parties in April. They said they are
ready to facilitate Armenian-Azerbaijani talks focusing on their pre-war peace
proposals.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian cited that statement to dispute Aliyev’s claims
about the conflict’s settlement.
Armenia, Turkey ‘Not Holding’ Normalization Talks
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - The Foreign Ministry new building in Yerevan, 2016.
Armenia and Turkey are not yet holding any negotiations on normalizing their
relations, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian raised the possibility of such a rapprochement
when he spoke on August 27 of “some positive signals” sent by the Turkish
government of late and said his administration is ready to reciprocate them.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded by saying that Ankara is open
to normalizing ties with Yerevan. But he appeared to echo Azerbaijan’s demands
for a formal Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinian described Erdogan’s statements as encouraging on September 8. He
reiterated Yerevan’s readiness to embark on a dialogue with Ankara.
“At the moment no negotiations are being held for the purpose of normalizing
relations between the two countries,” the Foreign Ministry said in a written
statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
It said contacts between Armenian and Turkish diplomats are currently “limited
to participation in multilateral discussions on various issues on the
international agenda.”
The ministry did not comment on the possibility of Turkish-Armenian negotiations
in the weeks or months ahead.
Armenia and Turkey came close to normalizing bilateral relations in 2009 when
their foreign ministers signed two relevant protocols in Zurich, Switzerland in
the presence of top U.S., Russian and European Union diplomats.
Ankara subsequently linked their ratification by the Turkish parliament to a
Karabakh settlement. As a result, Armenia’s former government formally annulled
the protocols in 2018.
Armenian opposition leaders and some analysts say Ankara continues to make the
normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on a Karabakh settlement
favorable to Baku. They say the Turks also want Yerevan to stop campaigning for
a greater international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman
Empire.
Turkey provided decisive military assistance to Azerbaijan during the six-week
war in Karabakh stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again thanked Ankara for that aid when he and
Erdogan visited in June the Karabakh town of Shushi (Shusha) captured by the
Azerbaijani army.
Ten Parties, Blocs Join Mayoral Race In Gyumri
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - The statute of the late U.S.-Armenian billionaire and philanthropist
Kirk Kerkorian on a street in Gyumri, October 21, 2018.
Seven political parties and three blocs have applied to run in local elections
that will be held in Gyumri on October 17.
They will vie for 33 seats in the municipal council that will elect the next
mayor of Armenia’s second largest city.
Gyumri has been run by Samvel Balasanian, a local businessman, for the last nine
years. He was allied to the former Armenian government that helped him win
reelection in 2016.
Although Balasanian has decided not to seek another term in office, a newly
created party bearing his name has joined the mayoral race. Its list of election
candidates is topped by one of the outgoing mayor’s relatives, Vardges Sanosian.
The latter heads a municipal agency providing utility services.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party is expected to be the
pro-Balasanian party’s main challenger. Civil Contract’s mayoral candidate,
Hovannes Harutiunian, is the governor of Shirak province, of which Gyumri is the
capital.
Armenia - Gyumri Mayor Samvel Balasanian is sworn in for a second term in
office, 10Oct2016.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service at the weekend, Harutiunian did not say
why he agreed to run for a less important position in the state hierarchy. He
said only that he made a “very difficult decision.”
Harutiunian also insisted that Civil Contract will not abuse its administrative
resources in a bid to install him as Gyumri mayor.
The ruling party was accused by its political opponents of committing such
abuses in the June 20 parliamentary elections. Its election campaign in Shirak
was managed by the current provincial governor.
Only one major national opposition group, former President Serzh Sarkisian’s
Republican Party of Armenia, will participate in the Gyumri election. The main
opposition Hayastan alliance led by another ex-president, Robert Kocharian, has
decided to sit out the vote.
Two opposition parties affiliated with Hayastan have also refrained from
participating in it on their own. But they will field candidates in local
elections that will held in other parts of Armenia in October and November.
The Central Election Commission should register all election contenders, among
them three Gyumri-based blocs, by September 17.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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