RFE/RL Armenian Report – 01/04/2021

                                        Monday, 

Armenian Security Council Meets On Karabakh


Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a meeting of Armenia's Security 
Council, Yerevan, January 3, 2020.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chaired a meeting of Armenia’s Security Council 
after discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Russia’s visiting Deputy 
Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk on Sunday.
An Armenian government statement said the Security Council meeting focused on 
“issues related to the situation in Armenia and Artsakh, humanitarian affairs 
and security environment.” It gave no details.

Ara Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, also attended the meeting. According to 
his office, Harutiunian, Pashinian, Armenia’s top security officials and other 
members of the council discussed “the security of Karabakh, “protection of the 
population,” prisoner exchanges with Azerbaijan and the ongoing recovery of the 
bodies of Armenian soldiers and civilians killed during the recent war in 
Karabakh.

These issues were also high on the agenda of Pashinian’s talks with Overchuk 
held earlier on Sunday.

Pashinian’s press office said the two men spoke about the “current situation in 
Nagorno-Karabakh, humanitarian assistance to Artsakh, the exchange of prisoners 
and the bodies of the dead as well as a wide range of issues on the agenda of 
Armenian-Russian relations.”

Overchuk was reported to reaffirm Russia’s “support to the friendly Armenian 
people during this difficult period” and commitment to stepping up 
Russian-Armenian “strategic cooperation.”

For his part, Pashinian again praised Moscow’s role in stopping the six-week war 
and described the deployment of Russian peacekeeping troops in Karabakh as an 
“important security factor and guarantee.”

In a televised address to the nation aired on New Year’s Eve, Pashinian 
announced plans to further deepen Armenia’s relations with Russia. He said that 
his country needs “new security guarantees” after the war.


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