Category: 2023

AW: Senators Padilla and Rubio launch bi-partisan bill condemning Azerbaijan’s Artsakh blockade; Demanding Aliyev sanctions

Boshkezenian Garik

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June 8, 2023 ANCA ANCA News 0

WASHINGTON, DC – Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) teamed up to introduce anti-blockade legislation today, backed by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and supported by a wide array of American civil society coalition partners, increasing US pressure on Azerbaijan to end its nearly six-month long blockade of 120,000 Christian Armenians in their indigenous Artsakh homeland.

The measure is similar to H.Res.108, a bipartisan resolution spearheaded by Congressional Armenian Caucus co-chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and the Armenian Caucus leadership, which currently has 88 cosponsors.

The Senate introduction – which is supported by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who is an original cosponsor of the measure – is timed with the next round of US-mediated Azerbaijan-Armenia peace talks, scheduled as early as next week in Washington, DC.  The measure specifically calls for US sanctions against Azerbaijani officials responsible for the Artsakh blockade and ongoing anti-Armenian human rights violations and urges the Biden Administration to stop all military aid to Azerbaijan by fully enforcing Section 907 sanctions.

“Armenian and allied Americans thank Senators Padilla, Rubio and Menendez for enforcing concrete costs and real-world consequences on Azerbaijan over its six-month-long blockade of Artsakh – starting with the immediate cut-off of all US military aid to Baku,” said ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian. “American taxpayers should not be asked to subsidize the armed forces of an authoritarian regime that neither needs nor deserves US support.”

Armenians and allied Americans can voice support for the Padilla-Rubio Anti-Blockade measure by visiting https://anca.org/resolution.

“Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor—the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) to Armenia—is inhumane and unacceptable,” said Senator Padilla, upon introduction of the measure. “This blockade has created a humanitarian crisis, rendering the 120,000 Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh without access to food, medicine and other basic necessities. Our resolution would make it clear that the United States must take action to hold Azerbaijan accountable.”

Rep. Pallone welcomed the Senate introduction of the measure, stating, “I stand with my colleagues today in condemning Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockade of Artsakh. It’s clear that Azerbaijan’s blockage of the Lachin Corridor is coordinated and intended to shut off the only supply route for much of Artsakh’s food, medical supplies and transport, and other essential goods. We stand united in telling Azerbaijan to end this intentional humanitarian crisis.”

In addition to clearly and unequivocally condemning Azerbaijan’s six-month blockade, the resolution would place the US Senate on record in favor of five practical remedies to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Artsakh caused by Azerbaijan’s blockade of food, medicine and other vital necessities:

(1) Encourages the United States Government and the international community to petition the United Nations Security Council, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other appropriate international bodies to investigate any and all war crimes committed by Azerbaijani forces against Armenian civilians;

(2) Calls for the deployment of international observers to the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh to explore opportunities for more effective and sustainable guarantees of security and peaceful development.

(3) Calls on the President to immediately suspend any US new, current or pending military or security assistance to Azerbaijan and to fully enforce Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act;

(4) Supports US sanctions under existing statutory authority against Azerbaijani officials responsible for the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh and other well-documented human rights violations committed against Armenians in the region, such as the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the destruction of historic, cultural and places of worship of great significance to Armenians;

(5) Supports efforts by the United States, the European Union and the international community to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of Azerbaijani aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The full text of the resolution is available here.

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The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest and most influential Armenian-American grassroots organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 06/08/2023

Emil Lazarian 
                                        Thursday, June 8, 2023
Armenian Ex-Presidents Insist On Acquittal
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Former President Serzh Sarkisian talks to his lawyer during his trial 
in Yerevan, February 25, 2020.
Lawyers representing Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian said on Thursday that 
the former Armenian presidents standing trial on corruption charges will not 
invoke the statute of limitations and will continue fight for their acquittal.
They were indicted shortly after the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Nikol 
Pashinian to power. Kocharian was charged with receiving a hefty kickback from a 
businesswoman at the end of his 1998-2008 presidency, while Sarkisian stands 
accused of illegally granting a lucrative government contract to a longtime 
friend.
Both ex-presidents, who now lead major opposition groups, strongly deny the 
accusations, saying that they are part of a political vendetta waged against 
them by Pashinian. Their trials have being going on for years.
Lawyers for Kocharian and Sarkisian confirmed that the Armenian statute of 
limitations for the charges leveled against their clients has expired. This 
means that the latter can now cut short their trials and avoid prison sentences 
without being acquitted by courts. They will not go to jail even if they refuse 
to plea the statute of limitations.
“Such a thing cannot be discussed. We are fighting only for a not-guilty 
verdict,” Ruben Hakobian, one of Sarkisian’s lawyers, told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service. Hakobian said that the judge presiding over Sarkisian’s trial has not 
offered him such a settlement because he knows that the ex-president will reject 
it.
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian arrives for a court hearing, 
Yerevan, February 18, 2020.
Hayk Alumian, a key member of Kocharian’s legal team, suggested that his client 
will hardly settle for anything less than acquittal.
“My impression until now has been that the choice of that [statute of 
limitation] option is very unlikely,” said Alumian.
The high-profile trials are therefore expected to continue in the months ahead. 
They could drag on further following the recent resignations of the trial 
prosecutors in both cases. The reasons for the resignations are not yet known.
Sarkisian’s trial was adjourned on Thursday after the presiding judge gave the 
new prosecutor one month to familiarize himself with details of the criminal 
case.
Armenian Task Force To Explore Nuclear Plant Options
        • Robert Zargarian
Armenia - The main control room of the Metsamor nuclear plant.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has formed a working group tasked with fleshing 
out his government’s ambitious plans to build a new nuclear power station in 
Armenia.
The ad hoc body will specifically explore the possibility of replacing the aging 
Metsamor nuclear plant by small modular reactors (SMRs) designed by U.S. 
companies.
Metsamor’s sole functioning reactor, which generates roughly 40 percent of 
Armenia’s electricity, went into service in 1980 and is due to be decommissioned 
in 2036. The Armenian government announced in April 2022 plans to build a new 
nuclear plant by that time.
The chief executive of Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom, which has helped 
to modernize Metsamor’s 420-megawatt reactor, visited Yerevan twice in the 
following weeks to discuss the project with Pashinian.
The United States has also shown an interest in the project, with U.S. Secretary 
of State Antony Blinken and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan signing in 
May 2022 a memorandum of understanding on “strategic nuclear cooperation” 
between their countries. A senior State Department official said last month that 
Washington is “assessing the feasibility” of the construction of an SMR plant in 
Armenia. She said the US technology could make the South Caucasus nation less 
dependent on Russia for energy.
Pashinian announced afterwards that an Armenian government delegation will visit 
the U.S. soon to take a close look at the SMRs. He suggested that they could be 
more affordable for Armenia than the much more powerful nuclear facilities built 
by Russia.
It is not yet clear whether the delegation will consist of members of the 
interagency task force set up by Pashinian on Tuesday. According to a relevant 
executive order signed by him, it must analyze various options for building the 
new facility, including the SMRs, and submit its findings to the prime 
minister’s staff within two months.
The 13-member working group headed by Deputy Minister of Territorial 
Administration and Infrastructures Hakob Vartanian will comprise deputy 
ministers of economy, environment and interior as well as other senior 
government officials.
The U.S. company NuScale Power Corp plans to build America’s first SMR plant at 
the Idaho National Laboratory by 2030. The demonstration facility will consist 
of six reactors with a combined capacity of 462 megawatts. The U.S. nuclear 
power regulator certified the design of NuScale’s reactor in January this year.
Armenian-Azerbaijani Talks In Washington Postponed (UPDATED)
        • Astghik Bedevian
U.S. - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts talks between the Armenian 
and Azerbaijani foreign minsters in Arlington, Virginia, May 4, 2023.
Azerbaijan has postponed fresh talks between its Foreign Minister Jeyhun 
Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan slated for next week, 
official Yerevan said on Thursday.
Bayramov and Mirzoyan were due to begin on June 12 a fresh round of negotiations 
in Washington to try to build on progress towards an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace 
treaty made by the two sides in recent weeks.
A spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said the talks have been delayed 
“at the request of the Azerbaijani side.” She did not give a reason for the 
delay.
“The public will be duly notified of the new dates of the meeting,” she added in 
a short statement.
The Azerbaijani news agency Turan was the first to report earlier in the day 
that the Washington talks have been postponed. It cited unnamed diplomatic 
sources as attributing the postponement to a scheduling conflict and 
“logistical” issues.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry essentially confirmed the information. “We hope 
that the meeting will take place in the near future,” a ministry spokesman said, 
adding that the new date will be announced by the U.S. State Department.
“Regarding the exact date of the next round of talks, we don’t have any specific 
dates to announce at this time,” a State Department spokesperson said in written 
comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The official also said Washington looks forward to again hosting 
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. “Direct dialogue is the key to resolving 
issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace,” added the official.
The two foreign ministers held four-day negotiations outside Washington one 
month ago. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President 
Ilham Aliyev met together with European Union chief Charles Michel a week later. 
They held two more meetings in the following weeks and are due to meet again in 
July.
The two sides say that despite Pashinian’s pledge to recognize Azerbaijani 
sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh through the peace treaty, they still disagree 
on other sticking points.
Armenia - U.S. Ambassador Kristina Kvien (right) visits Syunik province, June 8, 
2023.
Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and “the line of contact” around 
Karabakh have steadily increased over the last few weeks, with the sides 
accusing each other of violating the ceasefire on a virtually daily basis. 
Armenian officials and pundits claim that Baku is ratcheting them up in a bid to 
clinch more Armenian concessions.
Incidentally, the U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Kristina Kvien, visited on 
Thursday Armenia’s Syunik province bordering Azerbaijan. She said she “saw first 
hand the tense situation along the border” and “heard about pervasive security 
concerns from local officials, civil society.”
“Everyone deserves the safety and security a just and durable peace would 
bring,” tweeted Kvien.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Ground Broken for New Checkpoint on Iran-Armenia Border

Mary Lazarian
Financial Tribune, Iran
June 7 2023

Armenia will build a new checkpoint at the Iran border. 

Ground for the new facility was broken on Friday in a ceremony attended by Chairman of the State Revenue Committee Rustam Badasyan, Head of the Yerevan Office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development George Akhalkatsi, Syunik Governor Robert Ghukasyan, representatives of international and other state bodies, Public Radio of Armenia reported.

The reconstruction and modernization of the Meghri Border Checkpoint are being carried out with credit facilities and grants provided by the European Union and EBRD.

Armenia and EBRD signed an agreement for a loan worth €21,146,263 on Feb. 7, 2020.

The current infrastructure at the Meghri checkpoint is outdated. Its operational, technical, engineering, environmental and safety conditions need to be improved to meet modern safety and security requirements and adhere to international border management standards.

The project aims to reconstruct and modernize the road border checkpoint facilities at the Meghri checkpoint. The project involves the demolition of outdated buildings, construction of new modern facilities and installation of modern equipment for undertaking border, customs and other controls in line with modern standards.

The construction work will be carried out by Tana Energy Management Company, winner of an international tender and Roughton International Limited Company will carry out technical quality control of the construction work.

 

Pashinyan broaches possibility of returning key exclave to Azerbaijan

Chakhmakhchian Vatche
EurasiaNet.org
June 7 2023
Joshua Kucera Jun 7, 2023

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has raised the prospect of ceding control of an occupied exclave of Azerbaijani territory inside Armenia. But it remains unclear if that is a signal of an impending Armenian concession or a rhetorical attempt to lower domestic expectations, analysts say.

In a question-and-answer session at a June 2 appearance with Moldova’s Armenian community, Pashinyan was asked about Karki. That is one of the vexatious bits of territory, a relic of idiosyncratic Soviet border-drawing practices, that are effectively islands of de jure Azerbaijani territory inside Armenia, or vice versa. These exclaves are one of several tricky issues that Armenia and Azerbaijan are trying to resolve in ongoing negotiations to comprehensively resolve their decades-long conflict.

Pashinyan’s answer seemed to indicate that Armenia was willing to give up Karki, which was part of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic but was entirely surrounded by the Armenian SSR. It was taken over by Armenia in the first war between the two sides in the 1990s and is now home to a small community of Armenians who moved there following the war. From a national security perspective, the village is critical because it lies directly on the country’s main north-south highway.

Delineating the countries’ shared border is one of the main tasks of the peace talks, and  Pashinyan has repeatedly said that 1975 Soviet maps – the most recent and precise available – should be the standard by which Armenia and Azerbaijan should draw their border today. In his comments in Moldova, he said that should be the basis for determining the fate of Karki. “If it turns out that it belongs to Azerbaijan by that map, then we don’t have any problem,” he said. 

As Pashinyan no doubt already knew, it does in fact turn out to belong to Azerbaijan according to that map. 

He continued by minimizing the road issue: “There’s no such enclave that could cause the kind of road problems for us that would be unsolvable. There’s no such issue. If the road can’t pass this way it will pass that way. There is no problem whatsoever. We are actually developing our road network in Armenia to such a level that there is no unsolvable issue,” Pashinyan said.

His comments created the impression among some that this and a few other territories were already virtually signed away.

“If Nikol Pashinyan remains in power and continues with his current policy, Tigranashen [the Armenian name for Karki] will face a fate far worse than that of Shurnukh [a village on the Armenia/Azerbaijan border that Armenians lost partial control of as a result of the 2020 war],” Artur Khachatryan, a member of parliament from the opposition Armenia alliance, told reporters following the prime minister’s remarks. 

“The handover of enclaves to the enemy will create more favorable conditions and temptation for them to continue the war on Armenia’s territory. As a result, the peace treaty will become a war treaty,” Vazgen Manukyan, a former prime minister now allied with the political opposition, wrote on Facebook.

Karki and several other villages in similar conditions emerged as contentious issues even before the end of the 2020 war. In initial media reports about the November 10 ceasefire statement that ended that war, the agreement contained language stipulating the “return to the Azerbaijani side the territory held by the Armenian side in the Gazakh region of the Azerbaijani republic.” In the document that was formally published, however, that line had been deleted. (Two of the Azerbaijani exclaves that were surrounded by the Armenian SSR are part of Gazakh region. Karki, the third, is near Nakhchivan. There are also several bits of territory contiguous with Azerbaijan that Armenia sliced off during the first war in the 1990s. There was one Armenian exclave inside the Azerbaijani SSR, Artsvashen.)

Since then, the issue has periodically bubbled up into public discussions about Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiations. The Armenian position has typically been that the two sides should just keep the territories inside their borders (i.e. they would give up Artsvashen and get the seven Azerbaijani territories in return). “Our hope is that the possible solution is that the exclave of Armenia is left to Azerbaijan, the exclaves of Azerbaijan, which are in the territory of Armenia, are left to Armenia,’” the head of Armenia’s National Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, said last May. 

The stated Azerbaijani position, meanwhile, has been that its Soviet-era territories should be returned to its control.

In a June 5 statement, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry again reiterated that position, complaining that “Armenia […] is still occupying 8 villages of Azerbaijan” and is delaying the “return of 8 villages to Azerbaijan under various pretexts.”

Pashinyan’s statement might appear to be a reversal of Armenia’s previous position. But he may simply be lowering expectations so that if in the negotiations Armenia managed to hold on to the territories inside its borders, it could be presented to the Armenian public as a diplomatic victory, said Benyamin Poghosyan, an analyst and head of the Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies in Yerevan.

“He has to have two options,” Poghosyan told Eurasianet. “If he keeps the exclaves, he can show it as a victory for himself. And if the exclaves are given up, then he has to show that it’s not a tragedy.”

A solution that would give back all territories to their Soviet-era owners would create logistical headaches, in particular among the territories that are fully surrounded by the other country. It would raise the prospect of the contention around the Lachin Corridor being multiplied and expanded to a new Karki Corridor, Artsvashen Corridor, and so on. 

As such, Azerbaijan may not be interested in a pure exclave-for-exclaves trade, but in bargaining over a solution that would see it gain as much territory as it stands to lose, said one Baku-based political commentator, who asked not to be named so as to be able to speak more candidly. Baku may be looking at a solution that would include Azerbaijan regaining control over the villages that are contiguous to Azerbaijan’s borders; a trade of the exclaves; and retaining control over enough of the Armenian territories that it now controls as the result of military advances since 2020 to make the ledgers work out, the commentator said. (Baku says that the border near the territories it took as a result of those operations is not demarcated and so should be the subject of negotiations; Armenia says they were incursions onto its internationally recognized territory.)

The deal also could include Nrnadzor, a village deep inside southern Armenia that until 1928 was part of the Azerbaijani SSR and was known as Nyuvadi. Azerbaijan has sought to regain control of that village in previous negotiations and may seek to do so again, the commentator said. 

Delimitation and demarcation of the countries’ shared border is being undertaken by a trilateral commission led by the deputy prime ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. 

Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of dragging its feet on cooperation with that commission. “Instead of insisting on special reference to some 1975 map, it would be more useful for the Armenian side to start the delimitation work,” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a June 4 statement. “It should not be forgotten that after the Patriotic War of 2020, it was Armenia that did not respond to the proposal of delimitation of the borders with Armenia for a long time.” 

In an appearance before parliament on June 5, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan was asked about the issue and said it should be the purview of the commission. 

“Politically, yes, we know that such enclaves existed in the territory of Armenia during the last period of Soviet Armenia, but I think that this is an issue that should be dealt with by the delimitation commission itself,” he said.

Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet’s former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.

Jerusalem: Armenian Community Fears Displacement in Jerusalem Land Deal

Nahapetian Zhanna
The Messenger News
June 7 2023
Published 06/07/23 10:05 AM ET|

Luke Funk



Jerusalem’s Armenian community is worried they will be forced out of their neighborhood due to a land development deal.

The community has resided in that part of the city’s Old City section since at least 25 B.C. Some 2,000 Armenians still live in the Armenian Quarter.

Some Christian historians believe the land is also the Biblical Mount Zion, an area that is coveted by other nations and religions.

The land in question is roughly 8 acres, according to the Jerusalem Post, and is a quarter of the current Armenian Quarter, which itself is about 14% of the Old City.

The 99-year lease has touched sensitive nerves, the Associated Press reports.

There are concerns that the Christian minority will be squeezed out. Alarm over the lease spread in April after Israeli land surveyors suddenly appeared.

Word got around that an Australian-Israeli investor planned to transform the parking lot and limestone fortress of Armenian apartments and shops into an ultra-luxury hotel.

The Armenian body that manages the community’s civil and religious affairs admitted that the church had signed the 99-year lease.

The Armenian patriarch, Nourhan Manougian, alleged that a now-defrocked priest did the deal without his full knowledge.

The admission inflamed passions in the Armenian Quarter, where activists decried the deal as a threat to the community’s longtime presence in Jerusalem, according to the Associated Press. 

The now-deposed priest who coordinated the deal, Baret Yeretsian fled to California for his safety.

Yeretsian identified the investor as Australian-Israeli businessman Danny Rothman.

Rothman declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press.  “I never get interviewed by the press. I’m a private person,” he said before hanging up.

Yeretsian said the project would be managed by the One&Only hotel company based in Dubai.

Kerzner International, the owner of One&Only Resorts, also declined to comment to the Associated Press.

Palestinian officials accused Manougian of helping Israel in a decades-long battle between Israel and the Palestinians over a city that both sides claim as their capital.

Yeretsian dismissed fears of an Israeli settler takeover of the Armenian Quarter as “propaganda” based solely on Rothman’s Jewish identity, according to the report.