Category: 2023

                                        Monday, August 7, 2023


Opposition Figure Elected Parliament Speaker In Nagorno-Karabakh

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

David Ishkhanian, newly elected speaker of the Karabakh parliament, Stepanakert, 
August 7, 2023.


An opposition figure representing a nationalist party with links across the 
far-flung Armenian diaspora has been elected parliament speaker in 
Nagorno-Karabakh, fueling speculation about a possible shift in local politics 
largely influenced by Azerbaijan’s blockade of the region in recent weeks.

David Ishkhanian, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation 
(Dashnaktsutyun), a minority group in the 32-member Karabakh parliament, was 
installed to the top legislative post by a secret ballot of 22 to 9 on Monday, 
nine days after former speaker Artur Tovmasian announced his resignation.

The ruling Free Homeland – United Civil Bloc faction, of which Tovmasian was a 
member, denied any political motives behind his resignation, saying that it was 
his personal decision driven by “health matters.”

Tovmasian himself acknowledged that it was his personal decision, but stressed 
that despite his resignation he remained committed to the cause of 
self-determination of the region that proclaimed its independence from 
Azerbaijan in 1991.

The change in Nagorno-Karabakh’s main political body comes amid a continuing 
blockade of the region by Azerbaijan that has installed a checkpoint at the 
Lachin corridor connecting it with Armenia and effectively blocked all cargoes 
coming to Nagorno-Karabakh from there.

Azerbaijan’s cutting off the transport link between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia 
and thus tightening its grip on the region that it considers to be part of its 
sovereign territory is the latest in a series of similar steps that Baku has 
taken since the Armenian defeat in a war three years ago.

Stepanakert and Yerevan insist that the Lachin corridor must remain under the 
control of Russian peacekeepers that were deployed in the region following a 
Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement that put an end to six weeks of fierce 
fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.

The current blockade has also revealed some growing differences between the 
ethnic Armenian leadership in Stepanakert and the government of Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian in Armenia. In particular, Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian 
government has repeatedly cautioned Pashinian against questioning the region’s 
self-determination by recognizing it as part of Azerbaijan – a condition that 
Baku puts forward for a peace treaty to be signed with Armenia.

Incidentally, Dashnaktsutyun is also in opposition to Pashinian in Armenia and 
demands that the current Armenian government refuse to pursue a policy that 
would jeopardize Nagorno-Karabakh’s self-determination.

Metakse Hakobian, a member of the Karabakh parliament’s opposition Justice 
faction who said she had voted for Ishkhanian’s candidacy, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service that the oppositionist’s nomination for the post was a “cunning 
move” on the part of Nagorno-Karabakh’s President Arayik Harutiunian.

“In the hopeless situation in which he [Harutiunian] has found himself in now 
and which he is no longer able to cope with, he also considers this as a 
lifeline, thinking that over time there will emerge a structure, a person who 
will be able to more confidently oppose the authorities in Armenia. This is a 
cunning move, because Arayik Harutyunyan has never done anything for the good of 
the state or based on the interests of the state,” the opposition lawmaker 
claimed.

Hakobian said that the Justice faction voted for Ishkhanian’s candidacy and 
welcomes his election because it hopes that a parliament speaker representing 
Dashnaktsutyun “will be able to act more independently and turn the 
Nagorno-Karabakh parliament into a separate decision-making political entity.”

At the same time, Hakobian claimed that an opposition candidate’s election as 
parliament speaker could also be designed by Harutiunian as a step to split the 
local opposition, something that she said the authorities would not be able to 
achieve.

Meanwhile, Marcel Petrosian, who heads the second largest faction in 
Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament, United Homeland, which is linked with former 
secretary of the region’s Security Council Samvel Babayan, said that they voted 
against the candidacy of Ishkhanian because the ruling faction did not consult 
them before his nomination.

“That’s not how things are done. In fact, it turns out that they have brought 
the opposition to power in a roundabout way,” he said.

Attempts by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service to contact the leader of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh parliament’s pro-government Free Homeland – United Civil Bloc 
faction during the day were unsuccessful.

It emerged later that Harutiunian and two former Karabakh presidents Arkady 
Ghukasian and Bako Sahakian had approached Dashnaktsutyun with an offer to have 
Ishkhanian elected parliament speaker in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Gegham Manukian, a Dashnak lawmaker in the Armenian parliament, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service that “after long discussions the party gave its consent, 
considering the crucial moment for Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.].”

Manukian made it clear, however, that the Dashnak representative would be free 
to resign in case of differences with Nagorno-Karabakh’s government on key 
issues.

Meanwhile, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian congratulated Ishkhanian on 
the election as Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament speaker in a telephone 
conversation reported by the press office of Armenia’s National Assembly today.




Russian Peacekeepers Said To Refuse To Provide Security To Karabakh Protesters

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

A Russian officer meets with ethnic Armenian activists the near the command 
headquarters of the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh. August 4, 
2023.


The Russian peacekeeping force deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh has declined to 
provide security to participants in a local protest planning a trip to an 
Azerbaijani checkpoint at the Lachin corridor to try to break what authorities 
in Stepanakert view as an illegal blockade of the region.

In a written reply to participants of the planned protest on buses a deputy 
commander of the peacekeeping force reportedly said that the terms of the 
deployment of the Russian military under a trilateral statement signed by the 
leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in November 2020 to end a six-week war 
in Nagorno-Karabakh did not provide for the possibility of escorting protests on 
wheels and ensuring the security of various demonstrations and rallies.

“Peacekeepers are there to check for prohibited items, in particular, firearms 
and explosives, among participants of traffic at checkpoints,” Russian officer 
Sazonov, who introduced himself only by his surname, wrote, as quoted by Artur 
Osipian, a Karabakh activist engaged in the local movement against the 
Azerbaijani blockade.

The Russian representative also reportedly dismissed claims being disseminated 
on social media in Azerbaijan that Russian troops intended to use force against 
Azerbaijani officers at the checkpoint of the Hakari bridge on the pretext of 
providing the security for a peaceful Karabakh Armenian protest. Sazonov, as 
presented by Osipian, stressed that peaceful protests were not grounds for 
holding any military operation by the Russian peacekeeping force.

Having a written reply from Alexander Lentsov, the commander of the Russian 
peacekeeping forces, was the demand of members of the movement for unblocking 
the Lachin corridor that they presented to the command of the Russian contingent 
in Nagorno-Karabakh last Friday.

Participants of the movement say that the intended goal of their action is “to 
show to the world that [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev is lying when he 
says that the road is open.”

It is unclear yet whether members of the movement will attempt their announced 
protest on dozens of buses towards the Azerbaijani checkpoints in the coming 
days, but activist Osipian said that they remained adamant despite the reply of 
the Russian peacekeeping force command that he described as preposterous.

“Now let the Russians explain how providing the security of a dozen or a hundred 
civilian vehicles is different from providing the security of one civilian 
vehicle,” Osipian said in a Facebook video.

The activist claimed that with this latest development “the Kremlin has revealed 
its true face, showing that the Russians are together with Azerbaijan.”

“We have great suspicions now that along with Azerbaijan it is the Russian 
peacekeepers, or should I say occupation troops, which they are, who subject us 
to a blockade… We do not lose heart, we will continue our struggle,” Osipian 
said.

Amid severe shortages of food, medicines, fuel and other basic products brought 
on by the Azerbaijani blockade Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian authorities 
stressed last week that while they were not part of the civil initiative and did 
not provide it with logistics, they treated with understanding the demands of 
the movement.

Meanwhile, at least one opposition member of the region’s parliament, Metakse 
Hakobian, claimed last week that the “theatrical” initiative was being guided by 
authorities in Stepanakert and Yerevan to discredit the Russian peacekeepers.

Russian peacekeepers deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh as part of the 2020 ceasefire 
agreement have increasingly been criticized in Stepanakert and Yerevan for their 
inability to act in accordance with their mission stated in the document, that 
is, to protect the security of the local population.

They are also blamed for effectively ceding control of the Lachin corridor, the 
only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, to Azerbaijan earlier this 
year amid a perceived weakening of Russia’s political and military positions in 
the region due to its largely failing invasion of Ukraine.

Echoing this widely held belief, Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader 
Arayik Harutiunian acknowledged on Sunday that Russia’s inability to implement 
“the most important provision [of the ceasefire agreement] concerning the Lachin 
corridor” is “a consequence of the Russo-Ukrainian war.”




Armenia Urges International Action To End Karabakh Blockade


Ani Badalian, a spokersperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia


A diplomatic representative in Armenia has stressed the need for international 
calls and decisions on restoring free and safe access to Nagorno-Karabakh to be 
acted upon amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Armenian-populated 
region surrounded by Azerbaijan.

Problems with shortages of foodstuffs, medicines and other essential goods have 
remained acute in Nagorno-Karabakh for weeks as Azerbaijan continues to keep a 
convoy of Armenian trucks with humanitarian supplies stranded at the entrance to 
the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia with the region on which 
Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint in April and tightened the effective blockade 
several weeks later.

The United States, the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called for an 
immediate end to the blockade of the corridor that Yerevan and Stepanakert 
insist must remain only under the control of Russian peacekeepers in accordance 
with the terms of a Moscow-brokered trilateral ceasefire agreement that put an 
end to a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.

Baku has dismissed such appeals, saying that the Karabakh Armenians should only 
be supplied with food and other basic items from Azerbaijan.

A number of international organizations have also issued appeals urging the 
reopening of the Lachin Corridor. Among them was the Parliamentary Assembly of 
the Council of Europe (PACE).

In a tweet on Monday a spokesperson for Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
referred to a PACE resolution adopted on June 22 that was based on the report of 
one of its members, Paul Gavan.

“Now clear steps are needed to implement all international calls and decisions,” 
Ani Badalian wrote, without elaborating. She cited Gavan, an Irish politician, 
as saying that “what we are witnessing now is a deliberate attempt to ethnically 
cleanse the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Edmon Marukian, Armenia’s ambassador-at-large, also recently wrote on Twitter 
that people in Nagorno-Karabakh faint on a daily basis due to malnutrition, 
publishing a photograph of one such reported incident.

“The leadership of Azerbaijan bears direct responsibility for this and the 
international community is sharing this responsibility by doing nothing to save 
people’s lives,” Marukian contended.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutiunian on August 6 
described the Azerbaijani blockade of access to the region for goods from 
Armenia as a genocidal policy. He again ruled out the possibility of 
humanitarian supplies to the region that seeks independence from Baku by 
Azerbaijan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for 
decades. Some 30,000 people were killed in a war in the early 1990s that left 
ethnic Armenians in control of the predominantly Armenian-populated region and 
seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan proper.

Decades of internationally mediated talks failed to result in a diplomatic 
solution and the simmering conflict led to another war in 2020 in which nearly 
7,000 soldiers were killed on both sides.

The 44-day war in which Azerbaijan regained all of the Armenian-controlled areas 
outside of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as chunks of territory inside the Soviet-era 
autonomous oblast proper ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire under which 
Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.

Tensions along the restive Armenian-Azerbaijani border and around 
Nagorno-Karabakh leading to sporadic fighting and loss of life have persisted 
despite the ceasefire and publicly stated willingness of the leaders of both 
countries to work towards a negotiated peace.




Karabakh Leader Sees Risk Of Renewed War With Azerbaijan


Arayik Harutiunian, leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert, Aug 6, 2023.


Azerbaijan seeks to renounce a 2020 Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement with 
Armenia and renew hostilities against Nagorno-Karabakh, the region’s ethnic 
Armenian leader warned over the weekend.

In an August 6 interview with Nagorno-Karabakh’s Public Television Arayik 
Harutiunian also cautioned Armenia against taking any steps that would “question 
the self-determination” of Karabakh Armenians.

Speaking about the current blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan 
Harutiunian claimed that it was already a siege warfare employed by Baku.

“Azerbaijan continues to exert pressure to extract maximum [concessions]. 
Azerbaijan is seeking to hold Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in some sense hostage, 
while simultaneously committing genocide and putting pressure on the Armenian 
authorities and international actors in terms of having a more privileged 
version of the Zangezur road,” the Karabakh leader said, referring to what 
Armenians perceive as Baku’s plans to get an extraterritorial corridor to its 
western Nakhichevan exclave via the southern part of Armenia.

Armenia insists that a road via its Syunik province (also called Zangezur in 
both Armenia and Azerbaijan), which is part of the 2020 ceasefire agreement, 
should remain under Armenian sovereignty. In contrast, Yerevan stresses that the 
Lachin corridor must remain under the control of Russian peacekeepers in 
accordance with the terms of the trilateral statement that put an end to a 
44-day Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh in which nearly 7,000 
soldiers were killed from both sides.

Yerevan and Stepanakert accused Baku of violating the terms of the agreement by 
installing a checkpoint at the Lachin corridor in April and then tightening the 
effective blockade of the Armenian-populated region in June.

The blockade, which has effectively been in place since last December when a 
group of pro-government Azerbaijani activists began a protest in the Lachin 
corridor, cutting off Nagorno-Karabakh’s connection with Armenia, has resulted 
in severe shortages of foodstuffs, medicines and other essentials in the region 
populated by some 120,000 Armenians.

Authorities in Stepanakert stress that Nagorno-Karabakh’s population is 
increasingly suffering from malnutrition and facing the imminent threat of 
starvation. They have already reported cases of people fainting while standing 
in queues for rationed bread.

In his latest interview Harutiunian said that Azerbaijan’s actions amounted to 
genocide. Baku routinely denies such claims.

The United States, the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called for an 
immediate end to the blockade. Baku has dismissed their appeals, saying that the 
Karabakh Armenians should only be supplied with food and other basic items from 
Azerbaijan.

The Karabakh leader, however, again rejected Baku’s offer of an alternative 
route for humanitarian supplies passing through Azerbaijan-controlled Agdam. He 
said that Azerbaijan, whom Stepanakert views as the cause of the situation, 
cannot be the one to offer a remedy.

“First they turn it into a concentration camp, and then they start offering what 
they want and as much as they want,” Harutiunian said. “Any proposal addressed 
to us must first of all respect our dignity, be within the framework of our 
dignity and comply with international humanitarian standards,” he added.

The Karabakh leader confirmed the news that a meeting between representatives of 
Stepanakert and Baku, which was supposed to take place on August 1 in Bratislava 
with the mediation of the West, did not take place. He claimed it was Azerbaijan 
who refused to hold the meeting.

Armenia insists that a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be found 
through an internationally visible dialogue between representatives of 
Stepanakert and Baku that would discuss the rights and security of the region’s 
ethnic Armenian population. Armenia views this as an essential prerequisite for 
a durable peace agreement with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan insists that no special 
treatment is required for Karabakh Armenians, while pledging that if 
reintegrated they will enjoy all the rights that other citizens of Azerbaijan, 
including ethnic minorities, have.


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