Wednesday,
Gyumri Mayor Rules Out Resignation
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - Gyumri Mayor Vardges Samsonian chairs a session of the city council,
.
The mayor of Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri made clear on Wednesday
that he will not resign following the collapse of his bloc’s coalition
arrangement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
“It’s the residents of our city that gave us the mandate and only they can take
it away,” Vardges Samsonian told reporters.
Civil Contract unexpectedly announced on December 6 the end of the power-sharing
deal struck two years ago following a municipal election in which a bloc linked
to the city’s longtime former mayor, Samvel Balasanian, garnered most votes but
fell short of a majority in the local council. Civil Contract finished second in
what was a serious setback for Pashinian.
Gyumri’s new municipal council appointed Samsonian, who is affiliated with the
Balasanian Bloc, as mayor and two Civil Contract figures as deputy mayors. More
than three dozen other members of Pashinian’s party were also given posts in the
municipal administration. All those officials have stepped down since December 6.
The ruling party has blamed its exit from the local coalition on “shadowy
governance” on the part of the Balasanian Bloc. But it has still not elaborated
on the claims which the Gyumri mayor’s political team denied in a carefully
worded statement issued earlier this week.
Civil Contract members attacked their former coalition partner on Wednesday
during a tense session of the 33-member local council. But they again announced
no plans to try oust Samsonian through a vote of no confidence.
Pashinian’s party controls only 11 council seats, compared with 14 seats held by
the Balasanian Bloc. The eight other councilors represent three opposition
groups. Two of those groups have explicitly ruled out any cooperation with Civil
Contract.
They tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to force a debate on the discord between
the Balasanian Bloc and Armenia’s ruling party. The latter opposed such a
discussion.
Despite not facing an imminent no-confidence vote, Samsonian will have trouble
pushing key decisions, notably the local budget, through the Gyumri council. So
far the mayor has signaled no plans to try to regain a majority there by teaming
up with local oppositionists.
EU’s Michel Vows Continued Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Efforts
• Heghine Buniatian
• Rikard Jozwiak
Belgium - EU Council President Charles Michel is interviewed by RFE/RL,
Brussels, December 12, 2023.
The European Union’s top official, Charles Michel, has said that the EU keeps
“working very hard” to help Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiate a comprehensive
peace agreement.
“We are determined on the EU side to work with the partners and with them to
ensure that as soon as possible a peace treaty will be signed between both
sides,” Michel told RFE/RL in an interview.
In that regard, the president of the EU’s decision-making Council was encouraged
by last week’s Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement to exchange prisoners reached as a
result of direct negotiations.
“I would like to say that if it was possible for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make
some joint announcements a few days ago, this is partially because we help
them,” he said. “We encourage them. We suggested some options and some ideas to
bring them closer to each other on the topics that have been announced. And we
are still working on additional steps to encourage a peace treaty, a
normalization agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Michel was scheduled to host Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in October for further talks on the treaty.
However, Aliyev cancelled the talks. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun
Bayramov likewise withdrew from a meeting with his Armenian counterpart slated
for November 20 in Washington.
Michel declined to comment on Baku’s moves. “We are still working on a meeting
that could take place in Brussels,” he said without giving potential dates.
Michel would also not say whether the EU or other world powers are ready to act
as guarantors of Yerevan’s and Baku’s compliance with the would-be peace treaty.
Nor did he clarify whether the treaty will likely make any reference to the
rights and security of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population that fled to
Armenia following Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive.
He pointedly declined to use the word “Karabakh,” referring instead to “this
part of Azerbaijan” until recently populated by an ethnic minority.
“We think that they [Karabakh Armenians] should have the right to return or at
least to be able to visit this part of Azerbaijan and their security and rights
must be guaranteed and there are international standards in terms of protection
of the minorities that must be respected in line with the constitution of
Azerbaijan, which should be a framework to guarantee those protections of
minorities,” he said.
Brussels is therefore trying to “convince the Azerbaijani authorities to
demonstrate that … they want to protect the minorities and to guarantee that the
international standards are respected,” added Michel.
Even before their mass exodus triggered by the Azerbaijani offensive, Karabakh’s
leaders and ordinary residents made clear that they will not live under
Azerbaijani rule. Only a few dozen Karabakh Armenians are believed to remain in
the territory recaptured by Baku. More than 100,000 others fled their homes
later in September.
Armenian, Azeri Prisoners Exchanged
• Artak Khulian
Azerbaijan - Azerbaijani officers escort Armenian POWs to the Armenian border,
.
Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged over three dozen prisoners on Wednesday one
week after reaching an agreement to that effect welcomed by the international
community.
In line with that agreement, Azerbaijan freed 32 Armenian soldiers and civilians
in exchange for Armenia’s release of two Azerbaijani servicemen. The swap took
place at the border between the two countries.
As part of the deal, Yerevan also dropped its objections to Baku’s bid to host
the COP29 climate summit next year. The United Nations officially announced
Azerbaijan as the summit host on Monday.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian posted the list of the freed Armenians on his
Facebook page. He said that they will undergo medical examinations before
reuniting with their families.
Most of them were taken prisoner in Nagorno-Karabakh in December 2020 just weeks
after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the last Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Also repatriated was Gagik Voskanian, an Armenian army reservist who was
mobilized a few weeks before straying into Azerbaijani territory in August this
year in unclear circumstances. An Azerbaijani court convicted Voskanian of
“terrorism” just hours before the announcement of the prisoner swap.
“Up until the last minute we were not sure [about Voskanian’s release] because
we feared that the Azerbaijanis could do something at the last minute,” his
mother, Ashkhen Avetisian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “So it really was a
surprise, a big surprise.”
According to Yerevan-based human rights activists, 23 Armenians remain in
Azerbaijani captivity after the latest swap. They include eight current and
former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh arrested following Azerbaijan’s September
military offensive in the region.
The Azerbaijani soldiers set free by Yerevan were detained in April after
crossing into Armenia’s Syunik province from Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave.
One of them, Huseyn Akhundov, was charged with murdering a Syunik resident the
day before his detention. Armenia’s Court of Appeals sentenced him to life
imprisonment last week.
The 56-year-old murder victim, Hayrapet Meliksetian worked as a security guard
at a waste disposal facility of Armenia’s largest mining company. Meliksetian ‘s
daughter has reportedly condemned Pashinian for agreeing to Akhundov’s release.
The United States, the European Union and Russia were quick to welcome the
Armenian-Azerbaijani deal on the prisoner swap. EU Council President Charles
Michel called it a “major breakthrough in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations.”
Yerevan Urges Baku To Resume Western-Mediated Talks
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (right) meets his Estonian
counterpart Margus Tsahkna, Yerevan, .
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday urged Azerbaijan to agree to
restart peace talks with Armenia mediated by the United States and the European
Union.
“I think that Azerbaijan should return to the negotiation table in the format of
meetings. We have already said that most of the job has been done, and now we
need to meet and agree on the final wording of key issues,” he said, referring
to a peace treaty discussed by Baku and Yerevan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice cancelled talks with Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian which the European Union planned to host in October.
The peace accord was due to be their main focus.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov similarly withdrew from a November
20 meeting with Mirzoyan that was due to take place in Washington. Baku accused
the Western powers of pro-Armenian bias and proposed direct negotiations with
Yerevan.
Bayramov reiterated that offer on Monday when he spoke during a meeting in
Brussels of the foreign ministers of EU member states and several former Soviet
republics. He did not hold talks with Mirzoyan on the sidelines of the meeting.
Mirzoyan indicated on Wednesday that Yerevan still prefers Western mediation of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiation process.
“Our negotiations in the last two or three years have been bilateral and
facilitated by international actors. We believe that we should carry on like
this,” he told a joint news conference with Estonia’s visiting Foreign Minister
Margus Tsahkna.
“Like I said, most of the job has been done, and if we return and continue with
the same mechanisms we will succeed in quickly achieving results. The missing
component … that would complete the whole process and bring it to a logical end
is the political will of Azerbaijan’s leadership which may and may not be
demonstrated,” added Mirzoyan.
Baku cancelled the Washington meeting in protest against what it called
pro-Armenian statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of
state for Europe and Eurasia. O’Brien met with Aliyev and Bayramov in Baku last
week. He said he told them that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “looks
forward to hosting foreign ministers Bayramov and Mirzoyan in Washington soon.”
No agreement on the talks has been announced so far.
Armenian officials suggested earlier this year that Aliyev is reluctant to sign
the kind of peace deal that would preclude Azerbaijani territorial claims to
Armenia. The Azerbaijani leader claimed late last month that Yerevan itself is
“artificially dragging out the process.”
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.
Armenpress: Armenian, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers to meet in US in January
10:34,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Baku has accepted the US proposal to hold a meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the United States in January.
Edmon Marukyan, Ambassador-at-Large of Armenia, announced this on the air of Public Television of Armenia.
Marukyan expressed hope that during the meeting it would be possible to finalize the draft peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia announced that Yerevan has accepted the proposal to hold a meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington.
U.S. welcomes Armenia-Azerbaijan prisoner swap
10:43,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The United States has welcomed the exchange of prisoners between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“This is something that we have encouraged, actively encouraged in talks with both governments. We welcome the return of the Armenian and Azerbaijani detainees earlier today and reports that additional confidence-building measures are being discussed,’’ Miller said during the press briefing in Washington DC.
“We will continue to work with Armenia and Azerbaijan to move the process forward. We continue to believe that peace is possible if both parties are willing to pursue it”, Miller added.
Armenia ready to restore railway communication with Azerbaijan, says Armenian PM
11:49,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenia expresses readiness to restore motorway and railway connection with Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Ministerial Meeting of Landlocked Developing Countries, which Yerevan is hosting.
Speaking about the possibility of restoring railway communication with Azerbaijan, Pashinyan noted that it could be carried out through two pre-existing railways.
“The first is the northern route, which connects the Azerbaijani Kazakh region with the Tavush region of Armenia. The second is the southern route, which, among others, also connects the western regions of Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan. We believe that the western regions of Azerbaijan can be connected with Nakhichevan and the outside world through the northern route. We have officially expressed this readiness, and today, we reiterate it," Pashinyan said.
According to the Prime Minister the motorways also can have northern, middle, and southern routes, which will open new opportunities for the region.
“Basically, through the Crossroads of Peace, Armenia can connect and be connected with other countries along the north-south and east-west axis,’’ said Pashinyan.
“Moreover, we express the same readiness in terms of reopening the Armenia-Turkey railway, as well as in terms of reconstructing, reopening the two Armenia-Turkey motorways, which will have a significant impact not only on our region, but also on international economic relations, cultural, political ties, and global security issues, in general," noted Armenian PM.
Additionally, the Prime Minister underscored that all routes of communication must operate under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries through which they pass.
“The next principle is as follows: each state, through its state institutions, ensures border control, customs control and security of all infrastructures, including the passage of citizens, goods and vehicles,'' noted PM Pashinyan.
PM Pashinyan addresses the probability of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan
11:54,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has referred to the possibility of establishing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, outlining the principles within which it would happen.
In his opening remarks at the Ministerial Meeting of Landlocked Developing Countries, which the capital Yerevan is hosting, Pashinyan said that there are three main principles.
First, the agreements on the unblocking of transport links should be based on the principle of sovereignty, jurisdiction, equality and reciprocity of countries.
Secondly, Armenia and Azerbaijan should fully recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, based on the understanding that Armenia's territory covers 29,800 square kilometers and Azerbaijan's 86,600 square kilometers.
According to the third principle, Armenia and Azerbaijan should reaffirm their unconditional commitment to the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration as the political basis for the border demarcation.
“These principles were reached during negotiations with the President of Azerbaijan in Brussels, and these agreements had been recorded in the statements by European Council President Charles Michel after tripartite meetings on May 14 and July 15, 2023,” noted the PM.
"If Azerbaijan does not abandon the already reached agreements, signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan in the near future becomes very realistic.
Armenia reaffirms its commitment to these agreements. And the main question is about the possibility of signing the peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the near future.
One can focus on the facts that indicate that the probability of such an event is not high, and one can focus on the facts that can create a more positive impression that the probability of such developments is high.
"Both groups of facts exist. Yesterday an exchange of captured persons between Armenia and Azerbaijan took place, which is a very important event. I would prefer not to focus on facts that inspire pessimism. I would like to consider yesterday's event as a ‘zero point’ from which we will be able to at least make efforts so that all further developmets will indicate an increased probability of signing a peace treaty-rather than the opposite," Pashinyan said.
"Crossroads of Peace" will not compete with logistics projects, but complement existing opportunities, says FM Mirzoyan
12:56,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenia, as a landlocked developing country that has had its western and eastern borders under land blockade for the past three decades, is interested in the opening of communications in the region in accordance with international norms and full respect for the sovereignty of countries.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at the Ministerial Meeting of Landlocked Developing Countries being held in Yerevan.
In his speech, Mirzoyan referred to the Crossroads of Peace project initiated by the Government of the Republic of Armenia aimed at connecting the North and the South, the East and the West, and strengthening the ties between people, thus contributing to the dialogue and the establishment of peace and stability in the region.
Mirzoyan emphasized that the Armenian Government is ready to continue efforts to restore regional communications and build new ones. In this regard, he noted the importance of the North-South project, which is a high priority strategic plan for Armenia.
"It will ensure not only a good connection between the northern and southern regions of Armenia, but also between the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea, becoming an important transit route between Western Asia and Eastern Europe.
The Foreign Minister stressed the readiness of Armenia to restore the Gyumri-Kars, Hrazdan-Kapan, Nrnadzor-Agarak, and Yeraskh-Nakhichevan border railways.
“The Crossroads of Peace” is not a competitor to other logistics projects, but is meant to complement them,” Mirzoyan concluded.
None of 32 captives returned from Azerbaijan to Armenia transferred to civilian medical centers – Healthcare Minister
13:41,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The 32 servicemen, who returned to Armenia from Azerbaijan captivity as part of a prisoner swap deal, have underwent preliminary medical examination.
“The 32 Armenian captives underwent a preliminary medical examination at the Muratsan hospital and none of them was transferred to civilian medical centers as there was no need for it," Minister of Healthcare of Armenia Anahit Avanesyan told reporters.
Baku approves work regulations of Armenian-Azerbaijan delimitation commission
15:06,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan has approved the regulations on the work and meetings of the Azerbaijani and Armenian commissions on the delimitation of the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The corresponding resolution of the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov has been published on the website of the country's government, which reads as follows:
“To approve the regulations on the organization and holding of meetings and joint working meetings between the State Commission on the Delimitation of the State Border between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia and the Commission on the Delimitation of the State Border and Border Security between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
Prime Minister Pashinyan highly appreciates US efforts in the process of normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations
15:31,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Kristina Quinn, the Prime Minister's Office said in a readout.
According to the source, the Prime Minister emphasized with satisfaction the dynamic nature of Armenian-American relations and noted that active bilateral dialogue contributes to the consistent development of interaction. Nikol Pashinyan highly appreciated the US efforts in the process of normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, attaching imortance to its continuity.
During the meeting, issues related to the Armenian-American cooperation agenda, as well as other issues of mutual interest were discussed.
Armenian Government’s vision significant from perspective of regional development, says Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister
16:17,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. In his address at the Ministerial Meeting of Landlocked Developing Countries held in Yerevan, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Lasha Darsalia said that the Armenian government's vision and initiatives related to the development of the Caucasus region are very valuable.
Darsalia noted that Georgia supports its good friend and partner, Armenia, lauding Armenian government’s efforts, which are important for the entire region.
"We are waiting for an important decision, according to which, we hope, Georgia will receive EU candidate status. The Foreign Minister of Georgia is on an important working visit to Europe, therefore, he instructed me to attend this meeting. Georgia is definitely in favor of regional cooperation,” said Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Lasha Darsalia said.
“The Armenian Government also has many important initiatives. The South Caucasus is becoming an increasingly important region from the perspective of communications and the Middle Corridor. In this context, the approaches of the Armenian government are important,’’ Darsalia said, adding that Armenia can expect Georgia’s support in this regard.