Wednesday, Armenian, Azeri FMs May Meet Again • Sargis Harutyunyan Belgium - The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs meet in Brussels, 11 July, 2018. The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan may meet again soon for further negotiations on reviving the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. Azerbaijan’s Elmar Mammadyarov and his recently appointed Armenian counterpart, Zohrab Mnatsakanian, held their first face-to-face talks in Brussels on July 11. The U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Mins Group, who were present at the talks, said they agreed to meet again “in the near future.” Mammadyarov said on Tuesday that the meeting will likely take place in New York in September. The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not confirm or deny this. The ministry spokesman, Tigran Balayan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that there is no final agreement yet on the date and venue of the next Mammadyarov-Mnatsakanian encounter. Speaking at a news conference in Baku, Mammadyarov seemed satisfied with his first contact with Mnatsakanian. He said that the latter is a “more professional diplomat” than the previous Armenian foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian. A July 12 statement by the mediators said that Mammadyarov and Mnatsakanian discussed “a range of possible confidence-building measures” at their Brussels meeting. Armenia’s current and former governments have said that such measures are essential for making major progress towards a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict. “Unfortunately, with its actions and rhetoric Azerbaijan is undermining an atmosphere conducive to peace and we will be acting accordingly,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday. Pashinian said in that regard that Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan was right to warn over the weekend that the Armenian side will strike back harder if Baku again launches offensive military operations in Karabakh. The commander of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army, went further on Tuesday, warning that the Armenian military could “paralyze Azerbaijan’s economy” with missile strikes. Baku responded by threatening devastating strikes on key facilities in Armenia, including the Metsamor nuclear plant. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev likewise threatened to hit “strategic” Armenian targets during a June 26 military parade in Baku. Still No Candidates For New Yerevan Mayor • Anush Mkrtchian Armenia - A general view of central Yerevan against the backdrop of Mount Ararat, 5Nov2014. Armenia’s leading political groups have not yet nominated candidates for the vacant post of Yerevan’s mayor ahead of fresh municipal elections expected soon. The city’s previous mayor, Taron Markarian, resigned on July 9 under apparent pressure from Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political allies. Markarian, who had been in office since 2011, is a senior member of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). He was reelected by the current city council formed by Yerevan residents in May 2017. The HHK-controlled council deliberately failed to elect a new mayor on July 16. Under Armenian law, the central government can now disband the legislature and call fresh municipal elections. A spokesman for Pashinian said earlier this month that the government will not do that before July 30. That means the polls will not be held before September. Observers believe that Pashinian’s Civil Contract party will be the favorite to win them. At least four members of Civil Contract have expressed their desire to be its mayoral candidate. Those are comedian Hayk Marutian, parliament deputy Alen Simonian, Deputy Labor Minister Zaruhi Batoyan and an aide to Pashinian, Srbuhi Ghazarian. The party’s governing board discussed Marutian’s and Ghazarian’s candidacies late on Tuesday. It will meet with the two other potential candidates in the coming days. It remains unclear whether Civil Contract will contest the elections on its own or jointly with the two other parties making up the Yelk alliance. “Wait for one week and you will find out,” said Eduard Aghajanian, the chief of the prime minister’s staff. The May 2017 vote was boycotted by Pashinian’s coalition partners, the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) of businessman Gagik Tsarukian and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). A senior BHK figure, Naira Zohrabian, said the party will join the mayoral race this time around.“Active discussions” are now underway on who should be its mayoral candidate, said Zohrabian. According to Arsen Hambardzumian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader, the party is “inclined” to participate in the upcoming polls. Meanwhile, a senior HHK member, Ruben Tadevosian, said the former ruling party has not yet decided whether it will also enter the fray. “When the date of the city council election is determined we will discuss that and let you know,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). U.S. Mulls Trump-Pashinian Meeting In September • Nane Sahakian Belgium - U.S. President Donald Trump and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian talk during a NATO summit in Brussels, 11 July 2018. The United States is exploring the possibility of organizing a meeting of President Donald Trump and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in New York in September, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday. “We are looking at whether it might be possible for President Trump and the prime minister to meet when they are both in New York around the margins of the UN General Assembly,” U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills told reporters in Yerevan. “I know both sides would like to see a meeting happen, but as you can imagine, the schedules of both the president and the prime minister are very tight,” he said. “So we will have to see if we can find a way to make that happen.” “But no decision has been made yet on whether it will be possible,” added Mills. Trump and Pashinian greeted each other and chatted briefly during a NATO summit held in Brussels two weeks ago. But they have held no talks yet. The Armenian premier took office on May 8 after mass protests organized by him brought down the country’s pervious government. Last week several pro-Armenian members of the U.S. House of Representatives started collecting the signatures of fellow lawmakers on their joint letter to Trump urging him to meet Pashinian in New York. It says that Pashinian led a peaceful revolution that “can be a model for nations seeking democracy around the world.” “As Armenia seeks to bolster government transparency, strengthen democratic institutions, and empower civil society, it is critical for the United States to deepen its ties with this regional partner at every level of government,” reads the letter. “Without question, your meeting with Prime Minister Pashinian would help to further this goal and strengthen dialogue between our countries.” Some of those lawmakers met with Armenia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Washington last week. Pashinian expressed readiness to “strengthen and expand” Armenia’s relationship with the U.S. when he congratulated Trump on America’s Independence Day on July 4. “Your support [to Armenia] is called-for today more than ever before,” he wrote. Afghans Detained On Armenia’s Border With Turkey Armenia -- A border-guard watchtower on the Armenian-Turkish frontier pictured against the backdrop of Mount Ararat. Russian border guards deployed in Armenia said on Wednesday that they have detained five citizens of Afghanistan who crossed into the country from neighboring Turkey. A statement by the guards’ headquarters in Yerevan cited by the Armenpress news agency described the Afghans as members of a “criminal group that tried to illegally enter Armenia.” “The intruders have been handed over to law-enforcement bodies of the Republic of Armenia in a legally defined manner,” it said. “A set of necessary measures are being taken to ascertain all circumstances of the incident.” A photograph released by the Russians showed three blindfolded men lying on the ground. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), which is also charged with protecting the country’s borders with Turkey and Iran, made no statements on the incident. The NSS reported in May that it is investigating possible links with “terrorist groups” of six Bangladeshi men who were detained while crossing into the country from Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave which also borders on Turkey and Iran. It said they claimed to have accidentally strayed into Armenian territory while trying to reach Turkey “for the purpose of finding work.” The men were charged at the time with illegally border crossing, a serious criminal offense in Armenia. Press Review “Zhamanak” says that Armenian officials have made ambiguous statements on Armenia’s participation in an upcoming NATO-led military exercise in Georgia. The paper suggests that Yerevan is wary of a negative reaction from Moscow. “We don’t know yet what its decision will be but there is no doubt that this is the problem and that Yerevan will take a look at it before making a final decision,” it says. “Russia always makes tough statements on NATO presence in Georgia and that is understandable. Moscow does not want to see the alliance expand into an area of its vital interests.” “Zhoghovurd” says that one negative consequence of the democratic revolution in Armenia is the emergence of more “one-man parties” with disproportionate ambitions. There are already about 100 parties registered in the country. The paper says that the vast majority of them violate provisions of an Armenian law on political parties, including a requirement to hold conventions at least once in two years. And they get away with that, it complains. “Aravot” reacts to a decision by Echmiadzin’s municipal council to strip Manvel Grigorian, a retired general prosecuted on corruption charges, of the title of the town’s honorary citizen. The paper says that while the charges levelled against Grigorian are very serious indeed the council should have waited for a court ruling on the case before making such a decision.It says the council should have also held a discussion on why Grigorian had received the title in the first place. “Hraparak” claims that Russia has made a “political decision” to raise the price of its natural supplied to Armenia. The existing gas price is set by a Russian-Armenian agreement that will expire at the end of this year. The paper quotes an unnamed Russian source as saying that Moscow is “bewildered” by some of the statements and actions of the new Armenian government. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org