Category: 2022

The Armenian Defense Ministry in response to Sputnik Armenia’s request confirmed the fact of another advance of Azerbaijani troops in Syunik – in the area of Mount Vardasar.

“At the beginning of May, we reported that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces or border guards had infiltrated the Armenian territory much to the south – near the height south of the villages Tsav and Nerkin Khand – about a year ago.

The information about the locations of the positions coincides with the former ombudsman Arman Tatoyan’s data. Tatoyan said so on 11 April, after Azerbaijani guards moved into the area of Nerkin Hand in March.

However, when Sputnik Armenia asked, the Defense Ministry said that “there are no Azerbaijani positions on the territories adjacent to the village of Tsav, and there never was any.”

Moreover, when asked if there were other areas of Azerbaijani armed forces intrusion, except for the Vardenis community (Kut, Verin Shorzha and others) in Gegharkunik, Sev lich, Ishkhanasar and Nerkin Hand areas in Syunik, then the Defense Ministry said that “except for the incursions on Armenian territory in the past, no other cases were recorded”.

After examining the satellite maps, on 10 May we decided to send a request to the Defense Ministry again with a satellite picture and indication of the areas of engineering works near Vardasar.

We asked for clarification whether Azerbaijani positions were visible in the photo and (if so, when the incursion took place). The reply was: “Enemy military positions at the points indicated by the arrows were deployed in May-June 2021.

We should note that during the last year there was no official information from the Armenian authorities about an Azerbaijani invasion in this region, as in the case of the Nerkin Hand village area.

https://news.am/eng/news/703482.html

Charles Michel’s statement on the results of the trilateral meeting held recently in Brussels is a reason for bewilderment from the point of view of distorting the essence of the settlement of the Karabakh problem and heritage, 4 factions of the Artsakh Parliament said in a statement.

The statement says, in part:

The unified position of the people and authorities of Artsakh was presented in the statement of the National Assembly dated April 14 of this year, thereby confirming that the agendas of discussions and negotiations held in international instances are acceptable to us only if they are comparable with the provisions set out in the above statement.

Charles Michel’s statement on the results of the recent trilateral meeting in Brussels is a reason for bewilderment from the point of view of distorting the essence of the settlement of the Karabakh problem and the legacy accumulated over 30 years of the negotiation process.

For the first time in the negotiation discourse, an attempt is made to abandon the political and geographical concept of “Nagorno-Karabakh” and the phrase “ethnic Armenian population of Karabakh” is introduced into circulation. All this is completely in tune with the theses spread by the leadership of Azerbaijan before the Brussels meeting and recently in general and testifies to the retreat of the current authorities of Armenia from the foreign policy vector.

The active role of the Council of Europe in the issue of opening the “epoch of peace” between Armenia and Azerbaijan at an accelerated pace could be understood if the response to the aggression provoked by Azerbaijan against the people of the Republic of Artsakh in September 2020 would be heard with the same consistency. The emphasis on security and protection of rights during the 44-day war would be acceptable to some extent for the people of Artsakh, who are defending their sovereignty.

In the current circumstances, the authorities of Armenia are obliged to act solely from the standpoint of promoting and protecting the right of the Artsakh people to self-determination in international instances, based on the decision of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Armenia on July 8, 1992, according to which “any domestic or international document is unacceptable for Armenia, in which Nagorno-Karabakh is celebrated as part of Azerbaijan.”

For the authorities acting both in Artsakh and Armenia, the priority should be declarations on the proclamation of two Armenian republics, the values enshrined in the decision of September 2, 1991, and the independence referendum of December 10, 1991. Not a single official, not a single political force is authorized to independently decide the future of the Motherland, for the formation of which thousands of the sons of our people did not spare their lives.

We are faced with the imperative of making historic decisions, and no one can evade responsibility to generations.

Representatives of the Resistance Movement held an action of disobedience on the territory of the Yeritasardakan station of the Yerevan subway.

“This time we will not stop the operation of the subway, as soon as the cars arrive, we will stick emblems with the flag of Artsakh. Remember how yesterday they ripped off the flag of Artsakh from the carriage, well, let them do it now,” Hovhannes Harutyunyan, the founder of the Voice of Youth initiative, said live on his Facebook page.

Young people attached stickers with the flag of Artsakh to the walls of the Yeritasardakan station of the Yerevan subway. The protesters are also chanting “Armenia without Nikol [Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan – ed.].” 

Armenian Deputy PM Mher Grigoryan met his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustafayev on Tuesday on the interstate border of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The meeting took place as part of the implementation of the agreements reached between the two countries, on the basis of relevant instructions, on within the format of joint work of commissions on border security issues and the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border delimitation.

As the Armenain MFA reported, the parties reaffirmed their readiness to work within the commissions on border demarcation and other relevant issues, including border security issues.

The two also discussed organizational and procedural issues of joint activities of the commissions.

Along with meetings at the interstate border, the interlocutors agreed on the expediency of using various venues for further meetings of the commissions. An agreement was reached to hold the second meeting in Moscow, and the third in Brussels.

The particular issue of exclaves/enclaves was reportedly not discussed by the leaders during the meeting of the head of the European Council with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Brussels, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar told Armenian News – NEWS.am.

“The leaders looked at broad principles which would provide a framework to govern future transit and international transport once the connectivity infrastructure is unblocked. Details will be worked out by Deputy Prime Ministers.

“To my knowledge, the particular issue of exclaves/enclaves was not discussed by the leaders during their meeting on 22 May in Brussels. I believe it was not particularly discussed by them as a separate agenda point on previous occasions either,” he said.

When asked if he was aware of any agreement on the opening of the so-called Zangezur corridor, which was announced by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, and which was denied by the Armenian side, Toivo Klaar said: “On this particular aspect, I want to reiterate that the discussions in Brussels addressed the issue of connectivity and principles for reopening communications between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the sovereignty of both countries.”

“The EU also sometimes uses the term “transport corridor” when talking about roads or railways inside the EU.

“It is important to stress here that both sides explicitly acknowledged that there were no extraterritorial claims in relation to the communications that would be reopened. It is good to be clear about that as this allows us to address concerns and misperceptions which are sometimes raised in this context where confidence still needs to deepen.

“The parties also discussed practical arrangements for border controls, fees, safety and security, and in the case of international transport to third countries, also customs.

“On our side, we hope that the discussion between the leaders on Sunday will pave the way to unblocking these roads as the connectivity potential, also with an emphasis on the growing opportunities of the “Middle Corridor” transit between Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and the EU in mind.

“We warmly welcome the first meeting of the border commissions that took place today, 24 May, on the inter-state border between the Deputy Prime Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.”