20:06,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has excluded Russia from the organization, ARMENPRESS reports, citing “RIA Novosti”, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy Luigi Di Maio said.
Earlier, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe had initiated the procedure for termination of Russia’s membership in the organization.
We are all here defending our independence – Zelenskyy posts footage from Kyiv
21:15,
YEREVAN, 25 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. The President of Ukraine Vladymyr Zelenskyy released a video message in which he noted that he and the leadership of the government and the parliament are in Kyiv, ARMENPRESS reports Zelenskyy published the video message on his Telegram channel.
“We are all here, we are defending our independence, our state, it will continue to be so,” Zelenskyy said.
Earlier, CNN had reported about Zelensky’s departure from Kyiv.
BELMONT, Mass.—The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) and the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) will present a webinar with Dr. Thomas Sinclair, “Eastern Trade and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages: Peglotti’s Ayas-Tabriz Itinerary and Its Commercial Context,” on Friday, March 4, 2022, at 1:00 pm (Eastern)/10:00 am (Pacific). Dr. Sinclair’s talk will draw on his book of the same name published by Routledge in 2021.
The webinar will be accessible live on Zoom (registration required) and on NAASR’s YouTube Channel.
In this lecture, Dr. Sinclair will look at the most prosperous period of east-west trade through Armenia—the period of the Il-Khans—in the second half of the Middle Ages (1100-1500), and within that period at the most important avenue of trade. It ran from Ayas in the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia to the city of Sivas/Sebasteia, then through Armenia to the Il-Khanid capital of Tabriz. Tabriz was the gathering point for goods from China and India (via Hormuz) and Iran itself. The Ayas-Tabriz route is known from an itinerary compiled probably in the 1320s which details the Il-Khanid toll stations along the way and how much the merchant had to pay at each.
In researching the exact line of the route, Dr. Sinclair has taken data from the Roman itineraries—and the medieval route helps to solve problems of location in the Roman itineraries. In addition, he will discuss the role of money and what minting patterns in the various cities and in other mints can reveal, the impact the trade had on each of the cities, their Armenian population, and their expansion, and competitor routes in the period, highlighting the value of the Ayas-Tabriz route.
Dr. Sinclair was a professor of Turkish history in the Department of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cyprus. He is the author of Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey (4 volumes, 1987-90) and writes principally on economy and administration in Armenia during the late pre-Ottoman and early Ottoman periods.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The USC Institute of Armenian Studies has selected 23 applicants from eight countries to participate in its 2022 research call—The Future of Karabakh.
The Institute will provide more than $90,000 in funding to researchers investigating the urgent questions related to the future of regional relations in the South Caucasus and the status of Karabakh (Artsakh) post-war. More than 60 applicants from 15 countries submitted proposals in response to this call.
The war in 2020 created new challenges and exacerbated unanswered questions about the future of regional relations and the status of Karabakh. This new research aims to address some of the questions that are crucial to Karabakh’s existence and development.
Some of the topics that researchers will be studying during the next year include: the effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Karabakh, assessment of healthcare needs in Artsakh, post-war energy security in the region, the impact of the 2020 war on entrepreneurial activities in Karabakh, the organization of war volunteers, cultural heritage, media bias, impact of traumatic memories, and Karabakh in the Iranian media.
This diverse group of scholars come from Armenia, the United States, Azerbaijan, France, Turkey, Russia, Georgia and Canada.
“Today, as Armenians in Armenia and Karabakh continue to find themselves amid a humanitarian catastrophe and an uncertain future, rigorous and relevant research on these topics is not just crucial for understanding what happened, but also for generating the types of reforms and policies necessary to shape a new path for the future of the region,” says Syuzanna Petrosyan, associate director of USC Institute of Armenian Studies.
This is the fourth time the Institute has funded large research projects. In 2016, the “Research Support on Nagorno Karabakh and the Region” program funded 14 international scholars, all of whom traveled to Karabakh for field work. In 2017, the Institute funded another 24 scholars to examine Armenia’s post-Soviet transition through various lenses, including social movements, economy, regionalism, cinema, and culture. The program, entitled “End of Transition: 25 Years After the Soviet Collapse,” culminated in two major conferences in Los Angeles and in Yerevan in 2017. In 2019, “From Democratic Breakthrough to Challenges of Consolidation in Armenia” research program funded 23 researchers from nine countries. The Institute supported these with a total of $230,000 in research funding over three years.
On Bagrevand Street, 21/1 in the Nor Nork section of Yerevan is the Science and Technology Museum, part of the Engineering City complex. While there are science exhibits of famous trailblazing Armenian scientists from Armenia and the Diaspora, the focus of the museum is on products which were engineered and manufactured in Armenia during the Soviet era. Products range from machine tools to electronic equipment, computers and household appliances. These products were distributed to all the Soviet republics. The message conveyed is “Armenians had a talent for engineering and manufacturing a few decades ago. We still have that talent.”
Science and Engineering Museum
Engineering City started with a few high-tech companies coming together to promote high tech in Armenia. In 2016-2017, the Engineering City campus was established as part of a public-private partnership funded by the Armenian government, the World Bank, investors and the private business sector. Currently, 14 companies have facilities there, including companies from Armenia, Canada and the US. Industries that are particularly sought include advanced automotive electronics, wireless communication, radio frequency electronics, industrial electronics, manufacturing technology, aerospace and education technologies.
Services offered include precision, numerically controlled machine tools with experienced operators; sheet metal fabrication; RoHS compliant surface mount printed circuit assembly and test; and mold making. Companies meeting certain criteria will have an opportunity to receive donations of land to establish an office with access to Engineering City’s lab and manufacturing facilities.
Besides the museum and production facilities, Engineering City offers tuition-free business, management and technology courses at an on-site branch of the State Engineering University (Polytechnic Institute). Facilities include a library, a cafeteria and a technical high school. High school graduates, if they wish, can continue their engineering or scientific education at the Polytechnic Institute.
The intent is to create an environment where companies can efficiently develop marketable products and go into production. Any company, whether a startup or a branch of an established company that wants to take advantage of the facilities is welcome. The goal is to facilitate rapid development of products which can be exported, the establishment of a manufacturing city to mass produce products, and the creation of 10,000 good paying jobs.
Marina Saguinian, an Engineering City principal, addressed R&D and manufacturing issues. She indicated that a key to success is rapid development and transition to manufacturing. Armenia can produce products with quality equaling or exceeding those produced elsewhere, and at a lower cost due to low wages in Armenia. Armenians, she emphasized, have the talent to do so.
Recent news from Engineering City indicated that engineers have completed development of a system to automatically evaluate electronic control systems used in electric vehicles. This equipment, developed in Armenia, is ready for deployment to markets in Europe and Asia.
Saguinian addressed the issue of exporting manufactured goods and was confident that Armenia can effectively compete in the global market.
A leak revealing secret Swiss banking records implicates several figures from the South Caucasus, including former president of Armenia Armen Sarkissian and the sons of the head of Nakhichevan Vasif Talibov.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published its findings from a leak identifying 18,000 foreign customers at Credit Suisse whose holdings amount to a total of over $8 billion. The accounts belong to “corrupt politicians, criminals, spies, dictators and other dubious characters,” according to the OCCRP report.
“Credit Suisse’s clients included the family of an Egyptian intelligence chief who oversaw torture of terrorism suspects for the CIA; an Italian accused of laundering criminal funds for the infamous ‘Ndrangheta criminal group; a German executive who bribed Nigerian officials for telecoms contracts; and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who held a single account worth 230 million Swiss francs ($223 million) at its peak, even as his country raked in billions in foreign aid,” the February 20 report reads.
Data from the leak was provided to 48 media outlets worldwide, including Armenian investigative news outlet Hetq. Hetq uncovered that approximately 400 Armenian citizens hold bank accounts at Credit Suisse, including Sarkissian and his sister Karine Sargsyan.
Former President Armen Sarkissian
Sarkissian and Sargsyan held more than 10 million Swiss francs in a Credit Suisse bank account between 2006 and 2016 that he did not disclose in his financial declarations. Sarkissian was legally obligated to submit a financial statement upon his appointment as Armenian ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2013, a post he held until his election to the presidency in 2018.
In 2013, Sarkissian declared that he held eight million euros. In 2016, Hetq reported that Sarkissian had not submitted his financial holdings for several years. Sarkissian submitted his annual disclosures from the previous five years in 2017, following notices from Armenia’s Ethics Committee. Those statements did not include the 10 million francs in his Credit Suisse account, according to Armenia’s Corruption Prevention Commission.
Reached for a comment from Hetq, Sarkissian said that “accessing details of someone’s private bank account, as you have, is wrong and unlawful, all over the world. It is an infringement of privacy and breach of confidentiality.”
According to Sarkissian, positions served on a pro bono basis, like diplomatic posts, only require the declaration of cash holdings.
“It was not certain that the rules obliging officials to declare their interests applied in such circumstances and, in fact, others serving on a pro bono basis did not make any declarations,” he said.
His financial declarations did not specify whether his assets were cash or electronic.
“They were not electronic at the time and did not oblige me to declare specific bank accounts, only my cash holdings, which I declared every year,” he told Hetq.
Sarkissian had three other Credit Suisse accounts that closed before he took office.
Sarkissian resigned at the end of January, citing the constitutional limits on the power of the presidency to influence policy in times of national crisis. Yet an investigation published by Hetq said that Sarkissian resigned after he was contacted by journalists regarding his secret second citizenship of St. Kitts and Nevis.
According to Hetq, Sarkissian held a passport for the Caribbean nation as late as 2017. Under the Armenian Constitution, the president must have held citizenship of only the Republic of Armenia for the preceding six years.
The office of the president denied the media report, calling it an “attempt to divert public attention by a false agenda.”
Vasif Talibov, Heydar Aliyev and Ilham Aliyev (Twitter)
The Credit Suisse leak also names Seymur and Rza, sons of the leader of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic Vasif Talibov.
Three separate banking leaks reveal that Rza and Seymur received wire transfers worth a total of $20.5 million between 2007 and 2012 in bank accounts held with Credit Suisse, Emirates NBD, Barclays and other major financial institutions.
The money came from two shell companies, Murova Systems and Continus Corporation, which are associated with the Azerbaijani and Troika Laundromats. The Azerbaijani Laundromat is a multi-billion dollar secret slush fund used among other things to purchase silence from European politicians regarding Azerbaijani human rights abuses.
In 2012, Rza purchased two buildings in the Georgian resort town of Batumi that he converted into a five-star hotel. Rza, Seymur and their sister Baharkhanim also bought a dozen properties in Dubai, including a luxurious villa and a 12-floor apartment hotel. In total, their properties are worth an estimated $63 million.
Talibov’s official salary is about $26,000 per year. The report says that the Talibov family “enriched itself from questionable sources even as Nakhchivan’s people suffered.”
Rza and Seymur Talibov (Facebook)
“Talibov has led Nakhchivan with an iron fist for more than 26 years. Under his rule, detainees have been subject to beatings and vicious torture. Dissidents have been forced into psychiatric hospitals. He has also used his power to silence independent media: Journalists and activists who criticized his rule have faced pressure, arrest, and exile,” the OCCRP report reads.
Credit Suisse has faced a string of scandals over the past two decades regarding its facilitation of money laundering and tax evasion. The bank currently faces charges of allowing a group of Bulgarian cocaine smugglers to launder 146 million euros through its accounts.
The OCCRP interviewed over a dozen anonymous Credit Suisse employees. Most spoke of a “highly toxic corporate culture that incentivized taking on risk to maximize profits—and bonuses.”
“The bank incentivizes a banker to look the other way with an account they know to be toxic,” said a former senior manager. “If you close a toxic account, especially a large account in excess of $20 million, the banker finds himself in a deep hole. A deep hole that is almost impossible to get out of.”
Credit Suisse released a statement in response to the report stating that it “strongly rejects the allegations and inferences about the bank’s purported business practices.” According to Credit Suisse, the media reports are based on “partial, selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank’s business conduct.”
Critics also blame the Swiss government for creating a “lax regulatory environment and laws that punish those who speak out against corruption.”
“The irony is that Switzerland has become the place for dirty money to go because it is pure, well-managed, reliable,” says James Henry, a senior adviser to the U.K. charity Tax Justice Network who has studied tax evasion at Credit Suisse. “The business model of taking money out of poor countries is the problem.”
Wednesday,
Parliament Majority Blocks Anti-Turkish Resolution
Armenia - Opposition deputies arrive for a scheduled session of the National
Assembly boycotted and thwarted by its pro-government majority, Yerevan,
.
The pro-government majority in Armenia’s parliament on Wednesday rejected an
opposition proposal to condemn a joint declaration adopted by the Turkish and
Azerbaijani presidents last June during a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev signed the declaration in the Karabakh
town of Shushi (Shusha) that was captured by Azerbaijani forces during the 2020
war. They pledged to further deepen Turkish-Azerbaijani ties and, in particular,
provide “mutual military assistance” in the event of an armed conflict with
third states.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry at the time condemned their visit to Shushi and
accused Turkey and Azerbaijan of threatening Armenia’s territorial integrity
after their “joint aggression” against Karabakh. It pointed to the Shushi
declaration’s references to a “corridor” that should connect the Nakhichevan
exclave with the rest of Azerbaijan via Armenia’s Syunik province.
The main opposition Hayastan alliance proposed earlier this month that the
Armenian parliament also condemn the “provocative” declaration. A parliamentary
resolution drafted by it says the document raises questions about Ankara’s
readiness to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations “without preconditions.”
Hayastan and the other parliamentary opposition bloc, Pativ Unem, collected
enough signatures to force a parliament debate on the proposed resolution. The
session did not take place, however, because the deputies representing the
ruling Civil Contract party boycotted it and prevented the National Assembly
from making a quorum.
Ishkhan Saghatelian, a deputy speaker of the parliament affiliated with
Hayastan, deplored the boycott, saying that the parliamentary majority is thus
“catering for Turkish-Azerbaijani interests.”
The parliament committee on defense and security refused to back the opposition
measure last week. Some pro-government members of the committee said that it
would complicate the Armenian government’s ongoing efforts to normalize
relations with Ankara.
Turkey lent Azerbaijan decisive military support during the six-week Karabakh
war. Yerevan says that Turkish military personnel participated in the
hostilities on the Azerbaijani side along with thousands of mercenaries
recruited in Syria’s Turkish-controlled northern regions.
Outgoing Ombudsman ‘Won’t Join Any Party’
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia -- Outgoing human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan holds a farewell press
conference in Yerevan, .
Armenia’s outgoing human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, insisted on Wednesday
that he has no plans to join any political group after leaving office.
Tatoyan met with the press one day before completing his six-year tenure. He
will be replaced on Thursday by former Deputy Justice Minister Kristine
Grigorian.
Grigorian, 40, was nominated for the post by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
Civil Contract party and elected by the Armenian parliament last month.
Opposition lawmakers rejected her candidacy.
For their part, Civil Contract deputies hit out at Tatoyan, who has been
increasingly critical of the Armenian government.
In particular, Tatoyan has denounced Armenian troop withdrawals ordered by
Pashinian following the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and accused the authorities
of undermining judicial independence and bullying opposition groups that
defeated the ruling party in local elections.
He also criticized Pashinian’s pledges to wage “political vendettas” against
defiant local government officials made during campaigning for last June’s snap
parliamentary elections.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, responded late
last year by accusing Tatoyan of engaging in “counterrevolutionary” activities
in support of opposition forces.
Armenia - Human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan talks to Armenian soldiers
deployed in Syunik province, May 14, 2021. (Photo by the Armenian Human Rights
Defender's Office)
“I have received no offers from any political force [of late,]” Tatoyan told the
farewell news conference. “In case of receiving them, I am not going to join any
political force.”
He added that some parties did approach him in the run-up to the 2021 elections
but that he rebuffed them “very sharply.” He did not name them.
A U.S.-funded opinion poll conducted late last year found that of all state
bodies in Armenia, Tatoyan’s office enjoyed the highest approval rating.
According to some media outlets, the 40-year-old ombudsman was courted by at
least one opposition party in recent months.
Tatoyan said that he will not retire from public life and will remain engaged in
human rights advocacy. He said he will be particularly active in supporting
residents of Armenian border towns and villages facing what he sees as grave
security threats from Azerbaijan.
The U.S.-educated lawyer has frequently denounced those threats over the past
years. He has also been critical of the Armenian authorities’ responses to
cross-border Azerbaijani incursions and broader handling of border security.
Tatoyan questioned on Wednesday Pashinian’s regular assertions that the planned
opening of the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier to commerce will usher in an “era
of peaceful development” in the region. “Peace is a supreme value but it cannot
come about at the expense of only one party,” he said.
Armenian Opposition Slams Government Over Russian-Azeri Accord
• Artak Khulian
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev meet in Sochi, November 26, 2021
Armenia’s two main opposition forces have described Russia’s and Azerbaijan’s
pledges to act like regional allies as a serious geopolitical setback for
Yerevan and blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration for it.
They claimed that a joint declaration on “allied cooperation” signed by the
Russian and Azerbaijani presidents on Tuesday was made possible by Pashinian’s
mishandling of Armenia’s relationship with Russia.
The 7-page declaration says that Baku and Moscow will deepen bilateral ties “on
the basis of allied interaction, mutual respect for independence, state
sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of the two
countries.” The two sides, it says, will avoid “any actions directed against
each other” and could also consider “providing each other with military
assistance.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the “strategic” character of the
document after four-talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev held in
the Kremlin.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry suggested on Wednesday that the development should
not have an adverse impact on Armenia’s close ties with Russia. They do not
depend on relations with third countries “unless the parties develop them to the
detriment of the Russian-Armenian alliance,” it said in what appeared to be a
veiled warning to Moscow.
“Yerevan and Moscow … have been consistently taking steps to expand their
relations in both bilateral and multilateral formats for the benefit of the
development of our countries in the conditions of guaranteed security,” the
ministry spokesman, Vahan Hunanian, added in written comments.
Hunanian also said Yerevan hopes that the Russian-Azerbaijani declaration will
facilitate the implementation of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by
Moscow since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances insisted, meanwhile, that the
declaration is a serious blow to Armenia.
“This document highlights the completely failed foreign policy of the current
Armenian authorities,” said Artur Khachatrian, a senior lawmaker from Hayastan.
“We have lost old friends but have not gained new ones.”
“They have thoroughly botched our relations with Russia … and this document also
shows that something is not right in [Russian-Armenian] relations,” he told
journalists.
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian in Sochi, November 26, 2021
Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanian claimed that Moscow “needed another ally in the
South Caucasus” because it does not view Pashinian’s government as a predictable
and trustworthy partner.
Pativ Unem consists of two opposition parties, including former President Serzh
Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The HHK’s governing body was the
first to react to the Russian-Azerbaijani document with a statement issued late
on Tuesday.
“When your sole ally becomes allied to your adversary that is first and foremost
a consequence of your own weakness, blunders, and geopolitical failure and
bankruptcy,” the statement said, adding that Pashinian’s foreign policy has not
been “compatible” with Russian interests in the South Caucasus.
Pashinian’s political allies dismissed the opposition criticism. Hakob
Arshakian, a deputy parliament speaker and senior member of the ruling’s Civil
Contract party, said Russia’s military alliance with Armenia never prevented the
two nations from forging close ties with other states.
Armenia Treads Carefully On Ukraine Crisis
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Ukraine - A military vehicle drives on a road as smoke rises from a power plant
after shelling outside the town of Schastia, near the city of Lugansk, February
22, 2022.
Armenia on Wednesday refrained from publicly siding with Russia in its deepening
standoff with Ukraine and the West.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry indicated that Yerevan will not join Moscow in
recognizing two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent republics.
“There is no such issue on the agenda,” the ministry spokesman, Vahan Hunanian,
said in written comments.
“We certainly want the existing issues between the two friendly states to be
resolved through diplomatic dialogue, negotiations, and in accordance with the
norms and principles of international law and the UN Charter,” he said. “We hope
that necessary steps will be taken towards reducing tension and resolving the
situation peacefully.”
The Ukrainian charge d’affaires in Yerevan, Denis Avtonomov, welcomed this
stance. “We are grateful,” Avtonomov told a news conference.
“Unfortunately, international law and the UN Charter have ceased to exist for
the Russian Federation because so have also the [2014] Minsk agreements,” he
said.
UKRAINE -- A tank drives along a street in the city of Donetsk in eastern
Ukraine, February 22, 2022
The diplomat referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to
recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's
Republic which has drawn strong condemnation from the United States and the
European Union.
Putin spoke with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian hours before announcing the
decision late on Monday. According to Pashinian’s press office, the two men
discussed, among other things, “the current situation in Russian-Ukrainian
relations.”
The Russian and Armenian foreign ministers also spoke about the Ukraine crisis
in a phone call last week.
Armenia has for decades been Russia’s main regional ally. Its dependence on
Moscow for defense and security has deepened further since the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Successive Ukrainian governments have supported a resolution of the Karabakh
conflict based on Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
Russia, Azerbaijan Agree On ‘Allied’ Ties
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev sign a joint declaration on "allied cooperation" between their countries,
Moscow, February 22, 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his visiting Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev on Tuesday pledged to deepen political, economic and military relations
between their countries and strive for the implementation of
Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow.
The two leaders signed a joint declaration on bilateral “allied cooperation”
during four-hour talks held in the Kremlin.
“The Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan build their relations on
the basis of allied interaction, mutual respect for independence, state
sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of the two
countries,” reads the declaration.
It says that the two sides will not only step up Russian-Azerbaijani military
cooperation but may also “consider the possibility of providing each other with
military assistance.”
“The Parties refrain from any actions, including those carried out through third
states, directed against each other,” adds the 7-page document.
“This declaration takes our relation to an allied level,” Aliyev told reporters
after the talks.
Putin similarly emphasized the “strategic” character of the document. He said he
and Aliyev also agreed to closely cooperate in implementing the Russian-brokered
agreements on the opening of economic and transport links between Azerbaijan and
Armenia and the demarcation of their long border.
Moscow will keep helping Baku and Yerevan to settle their “border issues” and
other “acute problems,” added the Russian leader.
Aliyev complained about “very slow” progress towards the opening of a transport
corridor that will connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through
Armenia. He also spoke of the “post-conflict situation in the region,”
effectively standing by his earlier claims that Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020
war with Armenia put an end to the Karabakh dispute.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Putin noted, however, that the conflict
is “not fully resolved.”
Putin spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian by phone on Monday. He
invited Pashinian to pay an official visit to Moscow in April.
Armenia has for decades been Russia’s main regional ally. Its dependence on
Moscow for defense and security deepened further after the 2020 war.
For its part, Azerbaijan has a military alliance with Turkey which proved
critical for the outcome of the six-week war.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Situation at Armenian-Azerbaijani border relatively stable – Ministry of Defense
09:50,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of Armenia released a statement warning against a new disinformation released by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense.
“The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan released another disinformation, falsely claiming that the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire on February 23 in the direction of the Azerbaijani military positions deployed in the eastern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” the Ministry of Defense of Armenia said.
It added that the situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable and under the full control of the Armenian Armed Forces.
10:21,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The issue of recognizing the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic is not on the agenda of Armenia, the Armenian foreign ministry spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan said in response to a query from ARMENPRESS.
ARMENPRESS: What is Armenia’s position on the ongoing developments in the Russian-Ukrainian relations?
Hunanyan: Naturally we want the existing problems between our two friendly states to be resolved through diplomatic dialogue and negotiations based on norms and principles of international law and the UN Charter. And we hope that necessary steps will be taken to reduce tension and resolve the situation peacefully.
ARMENPRESS: Do you find the recognition of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic by Armenia probable?
Hunanyan: There is no such issue on the agenda.
10:44,
STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Artsakh Vitali Balasanyan addressed a congratulatory message on the Fatherland Defender’s Day.
The message reads as follows:
“Dear compatriots,
I cordially congratulate on the occasion of the Fatherland Defender’s Day.
This holiday, traditionally loved and appreciated by the people, has gained a new meaning and essence in our times. Today we all carry out a mission of Fatherland’s Defender in Artsakh, believing in the peaceful future for which we haven’t spared any effort and energy, for the sake of which thousands of courageous Armenians sacrificed their lives.
I also congratulate the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh on the Fatherland Defender’s Day. The high level of partnership between the respective state structures of Artsakh and the contingent gives confidence in quickly and effectively solving the emerging problems.
Dear residents of Artsakh,
I wish us all peace, good health, success and all the best”.