Category: 2022

Several important developments have taken place recently in Azerbaijan-Armenia relations.
The first was a meeting on Dec. 14 of last year between President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia, facilitated by European Council President Charles Michel. This was the very first meeting in three decades between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders without Russia’s presence.
The second was a meeting on April 6 in Brussels, again facilitated by Charles Michel, who characterized the encounter as the true beginning of the “negotiations process” between the two countries.
The third was a landmark speech that Pashinyan delivered on April 13 in the Armenian parliament, in which he said: “Today, the international community clearly tells us that to be the only country in the world that on a bilateral level does not recognize the territorial integrity of an ally of Turkey, Azerbaijan, is a great danger not only for Artsakh (the name Armenians use for Karabakh) but also for Armenia. Today, the international community again tells us to lower the bar a bit regarding the question of the status of Artsakh and you will ensure a great international consolidation around Armenia and Artsakh. Otherwise, the international community says, do not rely on us, not because we do not want to help you, but because we cannot help you.”
He also pointed out that the Karabakh question was not, in his opinion, a territorial one but rather one that concerned the rights and freedoms of Armenians living there.
For decades, Armenia has considered this issue as a question of territory. Pashinyan became the first Armenian political leader to make this distinction. In fact, as the Soviet Union dissolved, Armenia committed itself to the preservation of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and the Soviet-era borders. The question of territory had thus already been solved in 1991.
Only a political leader who won a strong electoral mandate could take such a bold step. As expected, Pashinyan’s statement caused a storm both in parliament and on the streets. The opposition faction in parliament boycotted the parliamentary sittings for one week. These are understandable reactions in a highly politicized atmosphere. The boycott will have a limited effect on the unfolding of events because the international agreements are on Azerbaijan’s side.
A threshold has now been crossed with Pashinyan’s parliamentary address. More reactions may be expected, but everything is unfolding as it would in a pluralistic society.

A bumpy road lies ahead for both countries. Because of deep-rooted mutual negative perceptions, fanatics in both countries will raise objections to the process.

Yasar Yakis

One of the merits of Pashinyan’s approach is that it made him the first political leader to address the heart of the Karabakh problem. No other leader so far had been able to make a distinction between the rights and freedoms of Karabakh Armenians and the international obligations that Armenia had assumed in becoming an independent country.
Russia’s temporary absence in the bilateral Azerbaijan-Armenia meeting does not of course mean that it will be sidelined indefinitely. After the ceasefire of the Second Karabakh War, Moscow monopolized the Minsk Process by practically excluding the two other co-chairs, the US and France. As Russia is now almost at war with NATO in Ukraine, the Minsk Process co-chairs may not be able to convene a meeting, but Russia may still stick to the process for the sake of remaining in command.
After the Second Karabakh War, a broad agreement was reached to set up a Joint Border Commission whose tasks would be twofold. One is the process of defining the borders of villages inhabited by Azerbaijanis or Armenians. In the almost seven decades of the Soviet era, it did not matter much whether a particular village was inhabited by Azerbaijanis or Armenians because they both were Soviet citizens. Neither did the borders of the village matter, whereas borders may now become a crucial issue. Russian archives will now become important because original borders were delineated by Josef Stalin in 1921. Russia will probably use this leverage to counterbalance EU-mediated negotiations.
The second task is demarcation, the process of physically marking the border by erecting poles.
Azerbaijan will not oppose committing itself to preserving the rights and freedoms of its citizens of Armenian origin. Apparently, it was able to persuade the EU Council president that these international commitments must be observed, mutatis mutandis, by both sides.
A bumpy road lies ahead for both countries. Because of deep-rooted mutual negative perceptions, fanatics in both countries will raise objections to the process and attempt to interrupt it, but if wisdom prevails, such obstacles could be overcome by moderate and realistic leaders.

• Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling AK Party.
Twitter: @yakis_yasar

Hye Pointe Armenian Church is planning its Armenian Spring Festival.

The annual festival features finger foods; Armenian dinners of lamb, chicken and beef served with pilaf, salad and bread; Armenian desserts; and hot dogs and chips for children. There will also be children’s activities.

The event takes place Saturday June 4, from noon-6 p.m., at Hye Pointe Armenian Church, 1280 Boston Road, Haverhill.

Meal dine-in and take-out options are available, but the online ordering deadline is Wednesday, June 1. The order form is here.

Those wishing more information may visit HyePointeArmenianChurch.org or call the Church office at 978-372-9227.

Format

 News and Press Release 

 

Source

• UNHCR

Hrazdan,

On 23 May, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, organized a ceremony in Hrazdan town, Kotayk province, to thank the European Union (EU) for its generous support that benefited families in a refugee-like situation in Armenia displaced by the Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict, improving their integration within the host communities. The contribution from the EU, in the framework of the 2021 Inter-Agency Response Plan, enabled UNHCR to provide timely and efficient protection support to the families in a refugee-like situation in Armenia – among them vulnerable women, children, older persons, and people with special needs.

This funding supported the establishment of community support initiatives through UNHCR partner Armenian Red Cross Society (ARCS) to strengthen peaceful co-existence between the people in a refugee-like situation and host communities, and allowed UNHCR to carry out important activities such as protection monitoring, case management, legal assistance, capacity building, and support to the inter-agency coordination architecture. UNHCR also implemented projects for women, including local women, to promote their self-reliance through livelihoods and inclusion in the host community.

The ceremony was held at the community-based NGO ‘’Resource Center for Women’s Empowerment NGO” in Hrazdan, and welcomed the participation of the Deputy Head of Cooperation, the European Union Delegation to Armenia, Ms. Silja Kasmann; the Mayor of Hrazdan, Mr. Sevak Mikayelyan; the UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia, Ms. Lila Pieters Yahia; Anna-Carin Öst, the UNHCR Representative in Armenia; as well as community-based NGOs, local families, and families in a refugee-like situation and their children.

“Today’s occasion,” said Lila Pieters Yahia, the UN Resident Coordinator, “will give us the opportunity to celebrate the hospitality of the host communities and the resilience of the displaced people who are determined to start a new life, learn and create, and contribute to their host communities.”

“UNHCR sincerely thanks the European Union for its committed support for the families in a refugee-like situation” said Anna-Carin Öst, UNHCR Representative in Armenia during the ceremony. “EU’s contribution has enabled UNHCR and its partners to provide effective and efficient protection and community support activities, including psycho-social and legal support, as well as educational and livelihoods activities, reaching around 26,000 people in a refugee-like situation as well as the communities which have warmly welcomed and hosted them.”

“EU is very grateful to our partners, in particular UNHCR but also other partners, for their tireless efforts to help people in need and ensure a timely response for effective and efficient refugee protection. For the EU, it is a priority to continue our support to people in a refugee-like situation and host communities,” mentioned Silja Kasmann, Deputy Head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation to Armenia.

END

Media contact:

Russell Fraser, External Relations Officer, UNHCR Armenia, [email protected]

Aliyev and Pashinyan announce the creation of a border commission after their 

trilateral talks in Brussels.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have announced that they had set up a border commission, a potential step towards ending a dispute over the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh that has festered for 30 years.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Monday posted a decree on his website creating a border delimitation commission under Vice-Premier Shahin Mustafayev.

Armenia’s commission on border delimitation and security will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, according to the Telegram channel of the Russian Sputnik agency.

The leaders of both countries had agreed in Brussels on Sunday to work on a peace plan, despite a wave of protests in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, fuelled by opposition claims that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is giving too much away.

A simmering dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous territory inside Azerbaijan controlled since the 1990s by ethnic Armenians supported by Yerevan, flared up in 2020 into a six-week war in which Azerbaijan’s troops regained swaths of territory.

European Council President Charles Michel said after a meeting with Pashinyan and Aliyev that they had agreed to advance discussions on a future peace treaty, with respective commissions on delimiting their inter-state border to meet on the border itself within days.

Pashinyan has faced a series of protests in Yerevan in recent weeks since he said the international community wanted Armenia to “lower the bar” on ethnic Armenian claims to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Michel said on Sunday that he would hold another trilateral meeting with Aliyev and Pashinyan by July or August.

According to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency, Aliyev agreed with Pashinyan on the opening of the Zangezur corridor, allowing Azerbaijan to access its Nakhchivan exclave.

Aliyev aims to construct motorways and rail lines through the corridor, linking Turkey with Russia through Azerbaijan.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/24/armenia-azerbaijan-take-small-step-towards-peace-deal