Friday,
EU Head Discusses Karabakh With Putin, Pashinian
BELGIUM – European Council President Charles Michel gives a statement during an
extraordinary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, March 1, 2022
European Council President Charles Michel phoned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
on Friday hours after discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
Michel said that he and Pashinian spoke about “prospects for further work
towards advancing a stable, peaceful and prosperous future for the South
Caucasus.”
“The [European Union] remains committed to supporting Armenia and Azerbaijan in
their dialogue,” he wrote on his Twitter page.
The Armenian government’s press office said they discussed the implementation of
understandings reached during Michel’s trilateral meeting with Pashinian and
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held in Brussels on April 6.
It was Pashinian’s second phone call with Michel in four days. Their previous
conversation took place on the eve of Pashinian’s official visit to Russia. The
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict topped the agenda of his talks with Putin held on
Wednesday.
Michel spoke with Putin by phone earlier on Friday. While the war in Ukraine was
the main focus of the call, the two men also touched upon the Karabakh issue.
A statement released by the Kremlin said Putin briefed the EU’s top official on
Russia’s efforts to “implement projects to restore economic and transport links
and launch the process of delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and
negotiations on a peace treaty between the two countries.”
On Thursday, Moscow again accused the EU of trying to hijack those efforts and
use the Karabakh issue in its standoff with Russia over Ukraine. It first voiced
such accusations following Michel’s April 6 meeting with Pashinian and Aliyev.
The Armenian premier on Friday also met in Yerevan with Toivo Klaar, the EU’s
special representative to the South Caucasus. Klaar tweeted afterwards that they
“reviewed developments since 6 April leaders’ meeting, progress on agreed agenda
and challenges along the way.” He did not elaborate.
Pashinian Hits Back At Opposition Criticism Of His Karabakh Policy
• Sargis Harutyunyan
• Tatevik Sargsian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Friday hit back at opposition leaders and
other critics accusing him of planning to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinian insisted that his administration has no plans to “surrender” Karabakh
through a peace deal with Baku.
“If we were to surrender Artsakh (Karabakh) we would not have spent tens of
billions of drams to ensure the return of Artsakh residents to their homes after
the 44-day war,” he said at a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
“Our strategy in the short, medium and long terms is as follows: to ensure a
situation or solution whereby the people of Artsakh will continue to live in
Artsakh … Any solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict or any state of affairs
in Nagorno-Karabakh that does not ensure and guarantee these conditions is
unacceptable to us,” he said.
Pashinian again did not specify the Armenian-populated territory’s future status
acceptable to Yerevan. Instead, he attacked his political opponents, saying that
a tougher line advocated by them would lead to another war with Azerbaijan and a
complete loss of Karabakh.
“Rest assured that we will not allow that to happen,” he said.
Armenia - The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances hold a rally in
Liberty Square, Yerevan, April 5, 2022.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament on April 13, the prime minister said the
international community is pressing Armenia to “lower a bit the bar on the
question of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status” and recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. He signaled Yerevan’s intention to make such concessions to Baku.
The speech fueled more opposition allegations that Pashinian has agreed to help
Azerbaijan regain control over Karabakh. Armenia’s leading opposition groups
have pledged to stage anti-government rallies in a bid to topple his government
and prevent such concessions to Baku.
Pashinian claimed that virtually all peace proposals made by international
mediators since the 1990s also called for the Armenian side to “lower the bar”
on the status issue.
The prime minister delivered his controversial speech in the National Assembly a
week after meeting with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels for talks
hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. Michel said after the talks
that the two leaders pledged to “move rapidly” towards negotiating an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty meant to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Russia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian lays a wreath at the Monument
to the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, Aprl 20, 2022.
Pashinian has repeatedly said that Baku’s proposals on the key elements of such
an accord, including a mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity,
are acceptable to Yerevan.
Aliyev emphasized this fact on Friday when he visited the Karabakh town of
Shushi (Shusha) captured by Azerbaijani forces during the 2020 war. He said the
Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministries are already gearing up for official
negotiations on the peace treaty.
“The treaty may soon be drawn up and signed,” he said. “Armenia and Azerbaijan
may thus establish relations, including diplomatic ones.”
Aliyev also implied that Yerevan’s refusal to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity through the treaty could lead to another Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
“Given the outcome of the second Karabakh war, the Armenian side must be
conscious of what such a step would lead to,” he warned.
Russia Again Blasts Western Diplomacy On Karabakh
• Aza Babayan
• Naira Nalbandian
RUSSIA -- A view of the Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow, April 6,
2018
Russia has again accused Western powers of undercutting the OSCE Minsk Group and
trying to hijack Russian efforts to broker peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The group dealing with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has long been led by the
United States, Russia and France. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on
April 8 that Washington and Paris stopped cooperating with Moscow in that format
following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. U.S. and French officials have not
denied that.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said late on Thursday
that the U.S. and the European Union stepped up their separate mediation efforts
on Karabakh after “paralyzing” the Minsk Group co-chairs’ joint activities.
“Such coincidences are not accidental,” she said in written comments to the
press posted on the ministry’s website.
In that context, Zakharova condemned the EU’s “shameless attempts to appropriate
the subject of the well-known Russian-Azerbaijani-Armenian agreements” and
possible negotiations on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty proposed by the
Minsk Group co-chairs last year.
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian make statements to the press after
talks in Sochi, November 26, 2021.
The agreements reached during and after the 2020 war in Karabakh commit Armenia
and Azerbaijan to demarcating their border with Russia’s assistance and opening
it to commerce. Zakharova stressed that Moscow will continue to seek their
“consistent implementation.”
“At the same time we are determined to contribute in every possible way to the
conclusion of a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” added the Russian
official.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also made this clear in a joint statement with
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian issued after their talks held near
Moscow on Wednesday.
Zakharova hit out at the West shortly after the EU’s special representative to
the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, met with deputy prime ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan for talks that focused on the planned opening of Armenian-Azerbaijani
transport links
Klaar met with Pashinian and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in
Yerevan on Friday. According to the Armenian government, they discussed the
implementation of agreements reached by Pashinian and Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev at their trilateral meeting with European Council President Charles
Michel held in Brussels on April 6. Those agreements also relate to the
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord, transport links and border demarcation
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel, Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev begin a trilateral
meeting in Brussels, April 6, 2022.
Sargis Khandanian, an Armenian pro-government lawmaker, acknowledged on Friday
that Russia’s heightened tensions with the U.S., France and other Western powers
have created “additional difficulties” in the work of the Minsk Group.
“But we must note that all three parties have stressed the importance of the
co-chairmanship of the Minsk Group,” he said. “The co-chairs separately visited
Armenia recently.”
In their joint statement, Putin and Pashinian called for a continued use of “the
potential and experience of the Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship” in the
international peace efforts on Karabakh.
Arman Grigorian, an Armenian political scientist, downplayed this, saying that
Moscow does not count on renewed joint mediation with Washington and Paris.
“When you look at that document you get the impression that Russia’s involvement
in Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations seems to have gone beyond the format of the
Minsk Group,” Grigorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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