Category: 2021

                                        Tuesday, 


Yerevan Rejects Aliyev’s Demands For ‘Corridor’

        • Nane Sahakian
        • Lusine Musayelian

Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel meets with Armenian Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian in Brussels, .


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accused Ilham Aliyev of obstructing the opening 
of transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday after the 
Azerbaijani president said Yerevan must not control a land “corridor” demanded 
by Baku.

Speaking just hours before his fresh talks with Pashinian planned in Brussels, 
Aliyev said the so-called “Zangezur corridor” that would connect Azerbaijan to 
its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenian territory must have the same status as the 
existing Lachin corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

“There are no customs checkpoints on the Lachin corridor right now,” Aliyev said 
after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “The same must also be 
the case on the Zangezur corridor.”

“If Armenia insists on setting up customs checkpoints to control the movement of 
goods and people through the Zangezur corridor, then we will insist on the same 
conditions for the Lachin corridor,” he told reporters.


Belgium -- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrives in Brussels, December 13, 
2021.

Pashinian was quick to reject Aliyev’s demands and accuse Baku of trying to 
“drive the issue of opening regional transport links into deadlock.”

“The Azerbaijani president’s attempts to draw parallels between the opening of 
regional transport routes and the Lachin corridor have nothing to do with 
discussions held and statements signed on that topic to date and are 
unacceptable to Armenia,” he wrote on Facebook. “I will make this position clear 
at the trilateral meeting slated for today.”

Pashinian referred to his planned talks with Aliyev hosted by European Council 
President Charles Michel. The latter held separate talks with the two leaders 
earlier on Tuesday.

Aliyev, Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin reported major progress 
towards opening Armenian-Azerbaijani transport links after holding talks in the 
Russian city of Sochi on November 26. Putin said the 
Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group will formalize in the coming days 
“decisions which we agreed today.”

However, the group co-headed by deputy prime ministers of the three states 
announced no agreements after meeting in Moscow on December 1.

On December 6, Aliyev renewed his threats to forcibly open a land “corridor” to 
Nakhichevan. Yerevan condemned the threats and said they run counter to 
understandings reached at Sochi.

Visiting Yerevan on November 5, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk 
said the trilateral task force has agreed that Armenia and Azerbaijan will 
“retain sovereignty over roads passing through their territory.” The Russian 
Foreign Ministry also reported such an understanding at the time.



Armenian Central Bank Approves Another Rate Hike


Armenia - The Central Bank building in Yerevan.


The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) raised its benchmark interest rate on Tuesday 
for the seventh time in a year as it continued to grapple with rising inflation.

The CBA’s governing board set the refinancing rate at 7.75 percent, up by 0.5 
percentage points.

The minimum cost of borrowing stood at 4.25 percent when the bank began 
tightening its monetary policy in December 2020 after a major weakening of the 
Armenian currency, the dram, followed by rising consumer prices.

In a statement, the CBA blamed the latest increase on a “substantial increase in 
inflationary pressures” on the Armenian economy emanating from the outside world.

The statement said annual consumer price inflation in the country accelerated 
from 9.1 percent in October to 9.6 percent in November, the highest rate in many 
years. It is well above a 4 percent target set by the Armenian authorities for 
2021.

The higher-than-projected inflation was primarily driven by sharp rises in the 
prices of key foodstuffs. Armenia imports some of them.

The CBA said that international food and commodity prices keep rising. “In these 
circumstances, inflationary pressures on Armenia’s economy coming from the 
external sector are expected to increase,” it warned.

After concluding a three-week visit to Yerevan on November 12, a senior official 
from the International Monetary Fund stressed the importance of “reducing 
inflation towards the Central Bank’s target of 4 percent.”

The bank also reported on Tuesday a slowdown in economic activity in the 
country, raising more questions about the Armenian government’s GDP growth 
projections.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said in July that the domestic economy is on 
course to grow by 6 percent this year after contracting by 7.4 percent in 2020. 
The IMF and the World Bank forecast more modest growth rates this fall.

The government’s Statistical Committee registered a GDP growth rate of just 2.7 
percent in the third quarter of 2021.



Armenia, Turkey To Name Special Envoys For Dialogue

        • Tatevik Sargsian
        • Artak Khulian

Lebanon - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attends a news conference 
with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib in Beirut, November 16, 2021.


Turkey and Armenia have said that they will appoint soon special envoys for 
bilateral negotiations on normalizing their relations.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was the first to announce the planned 
talks in Turkey’s parliament on Monday evening. The special negotiators will be 
named as part of “steps to normalize relations with Armenia,” he said without 
giving any other details.

Cavusoglu also stressed that Turkey consulted with Azerbaijan before making the 
decision. “We will be taking every step together with Azerbaijan,” he said.

Armenia confirmed and hailed Cavusoglu’s statement on Tuesday morning. The 
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Vahan Hunanian, said “the Armenian side also will 
appoint a special representative for the dialogue.”

“Armenia has always been and remains ready for a process normalizing relations 
with Turkey without preconditions,” Hunanian said in written comments to the 
media.


Armenia - The Foreign Ministry new building in Yerevan.

Ankara has for decades refused to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan 
and kept the Turkish-Armenian border closed out of solidarity with Azerbaijan. 
It provided decisive military support to Baku during last year’s 
Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh.

In August this year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian spoke of “positive signals” 
sent by the Turks, saying that his government is ready to reciprocate them. 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said afterwards that Pashinian has 
offered to meet with him.

Erdogan appeared to make such a meeting conditional on Armenia agreeing to open 
a transport corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. 
He also cited Azerbaijan’s demands for a formal Armenian recognition of 
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.

Cavusoglu made clear later in September that Turkey will continue to coordinate 
its policy on Armenia with Azerbaijan. “We decide together, we take steps 
together,” he said.


Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (L) meets with Azerbaijani President Ilham 
Aliyev in Nagorno-Karabakh, June 15, 2021

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan complained last month about “new 
preconditions” set by Ankara. “Among them is a ‘corridor’ connecting Azerbaijan 
and Nakhichevan,” he told the French daily Le Figaro.

Eduard Aghajanian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign 
relations, said on Tuesday that the two sides announced plans for normalization 
talks as a result of a “process that started at some point.” He shed no light on 
that process.

“This doesn’t mean that Armenia is renouncing its key national interests,” 
Aghajanian told reporters. “We believe that it is in Armenia’s interests to 
establish diplomatic relations with Turkey.”

The main opposition Hayastan alliance dismissed these assurances. “It is evident 
that Turkey and Azerbaijan are now trying to clinch everything from a weakened 
Armenia and its government willy-nilly serving their interests,” said Artsvik 
Minasian, a senior Hayastan lawmaker.

Hayastan and other opposition groups denounced earlier what they see as 
Pashinian’s secret overtures to Erdogan. They said that Pashinian is ready to 
make more unilateral concessions to Ankara and Baku.


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