Category: 2023

Armenpress: U.S. Secretary of State to meet with Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers

Bedik Zaminian

 09:39,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. The United States continues to believe that peace is within reach between Armenia and Azerbaijan and direct dialogue is the key to resolving the remaining issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing on June 26.

“So, we certainly have a number of items we want to discuss,” Miller said when asked on the forthcoming Armenia-Azerbaijan foreign ministerial talks in Washington D.C.  “I’m not going to read those out publicly, obviously.  They’re very sensitive diplomatic discussions that will take place here.  We expect the talks will commence tomorrow, on Tuesday, continue through Thursday of this week.  Secretary Blinken will meet with the foreign ministers from both Azerbaijan and Armenia.  We’ll have more details as the week progresses. We continue to believe that peace is within reach and direct dialogue is the key to resolving the remaining issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace,” the U.S. State Department spokesperson added.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 06/26/2023

John Hovhannisian 
                                        Monday, 


Armenian Lawyers On Strike Over ‘Police Violence’

        • Anush Mkrtchian

Armenia - Lawyers demonstrate in Yerevan, .


Dozens of court hearings in Armenia were cancelled on Monday as lawyers went on 
strike to show support for their colleagues allegedly beaten up by police 
officers.

One of the lawyers, Karen Alaverdian, claims to have been subjected to “undue 
physical force” after trying to stop several policemen kicking and punching his 
client at the police headquarters of Yerevan’s central Kentron district earlier 
this month.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee effectively denied the allegations on June 13, 
saying that Alaverdian himself shoved and even hit the officers in a bid to free 
the criminal suspect. They had to briefly detain the lawyer, the law-enforcement 
agency said, adding that he was rightly charged with “hooliganism” and 
obstruction of legitimate police actions.

Armenia’s Chamber of Advocates voiced support for Alaverdian and demanded a 
proper investigation into the incident. The national bar association organized 
the one-day strike to protest against what it sees as an official cover-up of 
the incident. Dozens of its members marched to the Kentron police headquarters 
to demand the sacking of its chief officer.

“We believe that if the police service does not react strongly to this case it 
will implicitly take full responsibility for this situation,” said one of the 
protesters.

Armenia - Lawyer Karen Alaverdian speaks during a news conference, June 13, 2023.

Two other lawyers claimed to have been ill-treated at another Yerevan police 
station in February while representing a teenage criminal suspect. Their 
allegations were likewise denied by the police and the Investigative Committee.

The chairman of the Chamber of Advocates, Simon Babayan, decried the fact that 
the police have not even suspended or taken other disciplinary action against 
any officers accused of assaulting the lawyers. He said prosecutors and 
investigators dealing with those incidents must also face disciplinary 
proceedings.

The Office of the Prosecutor-General announced, meanwhile, that it has assigned 
the probe of Alaverdian’s alleged beating to the National Security Service. 
Alaverdian welcomed that decision, saying he hopes that the incident will now be 
investigated in earnest.

“This problem is not so much about me or my client as about addressing the 
causes of all this and reviewing state mechanisms for countering torture,” the 
lawyer told journalists.

Human rights activists say that ill-treatment of criminal suspects remains 
widespread in Armenia despite sweeping law-enforcement reforms promised by Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government.

As recently as on June 22, a man in Yerevan claimed that the Investigative 
Committee chief, Argishti Kyaramian, personally tortured and threatened to kill 
him following his arrest on June 17. A spokesman for Kyaramian denied the 
allegations.




Yerevan Insists On ‘International Mechanism’ For Karabakh

        • Ruzanna Stepanian
        • Heghine Buniatian

Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen SImonian chairs a session of the National 
Assembly, November 24, 2022.


Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks will lead nowhere if Baku persists in rejecting 
an “international mechanism” for dialogue with Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership, 
Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian said on Monday.

Yerevan has been pressing for such a “mechanism” during ongoing negotiations on 
an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty, saying that it is essential for protecting 
“the rights and security” of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population.

Foreign Ministers Jeyhun Bayramov of Azerbaijan and Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia 
are scheduled to start a new round of those talks in Washington on Tuesday. 
Bayramov made clear late last week that Baku will not agree to any special 
security arrangements for the Karabakh Armenians.

Simonian played down Bayramov’s statement, expressing confidence that “they will 
agree to that at some point.”

“I think that even now this is done for setting the bar high ahead of the 
negotiations and … then taking a step back,” he told journalists.

But Simonian went on to warn: “If this issue is not discussed and solved it will 
mean that most of the negotiations can be considered meaningless.”

Azerbaijani leaders have repeatedly ruled out any internationally mediated talks 
with Stepanakert, with President Ilham Aliyev saying in April that the Karabakh 
Armenians “will either live under Azerbaijani rule or leave” their homeland.

Aliyev warned in late May that they must dissolve their government bodies and 
unconditionally accept Azerbaijani rule or risk fresh military action by Baku. 
Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov echoed that threat in televised 
remarks publicized on Monday.

“We do not rate highly the capabilities of illegal armed formations located in 
the Karabakh economic zone of Azerbaijan,” Hasanov told the Azerbaijani TV 
channel CBC. “We know their number, weapons, morale, and we know what they are 
capable of.”

“If they resort to any provocations and illegal actions, then the problem of 
these illegal armed formations can be solved by a single corps of the 
Azerbaijani army and not even with full strength,” he said.

Tensions along the Karabakh “line of contact” and the Armenian-Azerbaijani 
border have increased significantly over the past month, with the conflicting 
sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire on a daily basis. The 
Armenian government said earlier this month that Baku may be gearing up for 
another attack on Nagorno-Karabakh.




Red Cross Resumes Medical Evacuations From Karabakh

        • Artak Khulian

Nagorno-Karabakh - Red Cross vehicles are seen outside Stepanakert, January 4, 
2023.


Ten days after blocking the movement of humanitarian convoys through the Lachin 
corridor, Azerbaijan allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) 
on Sunday to resume the evacuation of seriously ill persons from 
Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

“We resumed yesterday the transfer of patients to Armenia through the Lachin 
corridor,” Eteri Musayelian, a spokeswoman for the ICRC office in Stepanakert, 
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday. “We evacuated 15 patients yesterday 
and 16 others today.”

Videos released by Azerbaijani government-controlled media showed those 
patients, family members accompanying them and ICRC vehicles undergoing 
meticulous checks at an Azerbaijani checkpoint controversially set up in the 
corridor in April.

According to health authorities in Stepanakert, nearly 190 Karabakh residents 
were waiting to be evacuated to Armenian hospitals for urgent treatment as of 
Saturday.

The medical evacuations have been carried out only by the ICRC ever since 
Azerbaijan stopped last December commercial traffic though the sole road 
connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Baku blocked them as well as Russian 
peacekeepers’ food supplies to Karabakh on June 15 following a shooting incident 
near the Azerbaijani checkpoint.

The evacuations resumed one day after Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun 
Bayramov met with an ICRC delegation in Baku. The situation in the Lachin 
corridor was reportedly high on the meeting’s agenda.

Gegham Stepanian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, linked the development to 
serious concerns expressed by Russia, the European Union and the Parliamentary 
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) at the tightening of the Azerbaijani 
blockade, which aggravated food shortages in Karabakh.

“But we cannot consider [the international pressure] fully effective because 
although the transport of patients and medicine through the Red Cross has been 
restored, 120,000 people are still denied access to food and other essential 
items,” said Stepanian.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Pashinyan testifies at parliament select committee on 2020 war

Vatche Chakhmakhchian

 10:00,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in parliament for his second appearance at the parliament select committee on the 2020 war where he is expected to testify.

During the first session last week the Prime Minister made a speech at the hearing.

On June 27 PM Pashinyan will take questions from lawmakers.

Opposition factions are boycotting the hearing.

Economic stability encouraged investments in Armenian bonds – economist

Emil Lazarian

 11:02,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. In contrast to the existing accumulating risks in the world, the favorable economic developments and the formation of a sustainable economic environment in Armenia contribute to these risks being assessed very low for the country, economist Hayk Bejanyan told ARMENPRESS.

The said that the economic development, financial flows and the inflation environment has led to a very high level of profitability of Armenian bonds. Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan earlier said that foreign investment funds are interested in Armenian government bonds.

In April 2023 the volume of Armenian bonds held by foreign investors reached 146 million dollars, compared to the 20 million dollars of 2021 July-August. The share of non-residents in AMD government bonds buyers grew from 0,9% to 3,5%.

Investors always look into the risk and reward while making transactions, according to Bejanyan.  These two factors led investors access the Armenian financial market, especially for long-term maturity bonds, because these types of bonds allow avoiding currency risks and minimizing losses. That’s why bonds in drams have become so attractive for investors.

Nevertheless, this interest is still in small volumes.

“The main precondition for continuous development of financial flows is stability. Right now we have a situation which is beneficial for foreign investors, and these flows will continue as long as the favorable conditions will be in place,” the expert said.

Manvel Margaryan

Robert Kocharyan discussed Meghri-Nagorno Karabakh swap option with Heydar Aliyev in 1999 – Pashinyan

Mary Lazarian

 11:28,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that he has information that Robert Kocharyan considered swapping the Armenian town of Meghri with Nagorno Karabakh during his presidency in negotiations with then-Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev.

Pashinyan told lawmakers at the parliament select committee on the 2020 war that Vagharshak Harutyunyan, the Armenian Ambassador to Russia, told him that the option was discussed during a Kocharyan-Aliyev meeting in 1999 in Sadarak. Harutyunyan, who was Minister of Defense of Armenia at that time, was present at the meeting, according to his account.

“There were other people present at the discussion, particularly Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan,” Pashinyan said when asked on the Kocharyan-Aliyev meeting. “[Harutyunyan] has publicly said that the Meghri option was discussed at his presence between Robert Kocharyan and Heydar Aliyev in July of 1999 in Sadarak. Harutyunyan has also said that Kocharyan told him that the Meghri option was a good option for resolving the Karabakh conflict. According to him, the Meghri option back then was the following: The former NKAO territory was to be united with Armenia, as well as Lachin, as a corridor between Armenia and Artsakh, and in exchange Armenia were to surrender the Meghri region to Azerbaijan with the 1988 borders, for Azerbaijan to obtain a land connection with Nakhchivan. But by doing so Armenia would lose its land connection with Iran,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan added that there are testimonies that this option was indeed discussed.

He also cited a newspaper article from 2000 about then-FM Vartan Oskanian, who allegedly spoke about the Meghri option and said that it also envisaged a sovereign road for Armenia to retain land connection with Iran.

Military acquisition plan wasn’t changed, but additional equipment was bought – PM

David Nargizian

 11:57,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. The military armament acquisition plan was not changed but additional equipment was bought, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on June 27.

“There’s a lot of talk alleging that the acquisition plans of armaments and military equipment were changed after I took office of prime minister. Nothing was changed, but additional, other equipment was acquired,” Pashinyan told lawmakers at the parliament select committee on the 2020 war.

He added that his administration has never rejected the military’s spending requests.

Theoretically 2020 war could have been avoided by abandoning Armenian vision of NK resolution – Pashinyan

Emil Lazarian

 11:47,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Theoretically, war could have been avoided if Armenia abandoned its vision of a Nagorno Karabakh outside of Azerbaijani control, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told lawmakers on June 27 at the parliament selection committee on the 2020 war.

“We could have said that we abandon our vision of viewing Nagorno Karabakh outside of Azerbaijan and taken that path, which of course wouldn’t have guaranteed that it could be possible to avoid war,” Pashinyan said when asked whether or not he believes war was inevitable.

“I also want to speak about the crossroads of war, because the war conveyer was followed by crossroads of war with negotiations content, there were issues leading to war in the negotiations process. The crossroads of war were clarifications regarding Lachin Corridor which weren’t clarified in Kazan, and were less clarified afterwards, some discussion should have taken place there. The next crossroads of war was the process of the involvement of the so-called Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno Karabakh, the next was the possible process of delimitation and demarcation as part of a peace treaty. I mean I am not saying that there was no theoretical chance of avoiding war, but that theoretical chance required a mandatory condition of abandoning the Armenian vision of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict resolution which could have created a theoretical possibility of avoiding such developments,” Pashinyan said.

Some episodes during 2020 war sought to organize change of government in Armenia, says Pashinyan

Vicken Chmshkian

 12:00,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that he believes that the goal of some episodes that took place during the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh War on the battlefield was to organize a change of government in Armenia.

“There are many episodes regarding the war that have led to many views and narratives, that the goal of what happened on the frontline was actually to organize a change of government in Armenia. For very long, even until the end of the war I didn’t allow myself to consider this. But then, analyzing several developments, sometimes I start to think about this,” Pashinyan told lawmakers at the parliament select committee on the 2020 war.

This hypothesis was strengthened by the developments in Sotk-Khoznavar, with a criminal investigation still ongoing, a defendant facing an indictment, but still no explanations, Pashinyan said. 

“For example, it turned out that someone committed a crime, everything is revealed. But what’s not revealed is their motive. And this is a very important nuance,” Pashinyan said.

Armenia didn’t have full control over some types of weapons in 2020, says PM

Vardan Badalian

 12:13,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on June 27 that some types of weapons in the arsenal of the Armenian military weren’t entirely under the control of Armenia itself during the 2020 war.

MP Hayk Sargsyan asked Pashinyan at the parliament select committee on the 2020 war whether or not the army had any limitations or orders on not using any particular weapon during the war.

Pashinyan refused to go into details during the open format hearing but said: “There were some types of weapons the right of which didn’t entirely belong to the Republic of Armenia.”

He said he would elaborate during the closed hearing.

No change of foreign policy vector discussed – PM

Jirair Kafian

 12:02,

YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that at no point did his administration consider changing the foreign policy vector of the country before the 2020 war.

“We didn’t discuss a change of foreign policy vector,” Pashinyan said when asked whether or not his administration considered changing the foreign policy vector of Armenia during the period leading up to the 2020 war. “On the contrary, we believed that a foreign policy vector change could have had grave consequences in the context of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict itself,” Pashinyan said.