RFE/RL Armenian Report – 01/10/2021

                                        Sunday, 

Putin To Host Armenian-Azeri Summit


Russia -- President Vladimir Putin discusses the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with 
senior Russian officials from his Novo Ogarevo residence outside Moscow, January 
10, 2021.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will host talks between the leaders of Armenia 
and Azerbaijan on Monday two months after brokering a ceasefire agreement that 
stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Kremlin said on Sunday that Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will discuss in Moscow the agreement’s 
implementation and “further steps aimed at resolving existing problems in the 
region.”

“Special attention will be paid to providing assistance to residents of areas 
that suffered as a result of the hostilities and unblocking and developing trade 
and transport links,” it said, adding that Putin will also hold separate 
meetings with Pashinian and Aliyev.

Putin discussed the Karabakh conflict with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei 
Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and three top security officials in a 
video conference held later on Sunday. No details of the discussion were made 
public.

Meanwhile, Pashinian’s press secretary, Mane Gevorgian, emphasized the “economic 
character” of the upcoming trilateral meeting, saying that it will focus on the 
opening of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border envisaged by the November 9 agreement.

The truce agreement specifically commits Yerevan to opening a transport link 
between the Nakhichevan exclave and the rest of Azerbaijan, which would 
presumably pass through Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province.

Gevorgian again insisted that that it will not serve as a permanent “corridor” 
and that Armenia will be able, for its part, to use Azerbaijani territory as a 
transit route for cargo shipments to and from Russia and Iran.

She also reiterated that the opening of the transport links will be conditional 
on Baku releasing dozens of Armenians remaining in Azerbaijani captivity and 
facilitating the ongoing search for other soldiers and civilians who went 
missing during the six-week war. “Without a solution to or major progress on 
these issues it will be extremely difficult to discuss the economic agenda,” she 
wrote on Facebook.

Gevorgian went on to dismiss Armenian opposition claims that Pashinian could 
agree to more Armenian territorial concessions to Azerbaijan during his talks 
with Aliyev. “No document on resolving the Karabakh conflict or any territorial 
issue is due to be signed in Moscow,” she said.

An alliance of over a dozen Armenian opposition parties seeking to oust 
Pashinian has expressed serious concern over the upcoming Armenian-Azerbaijani 
talks. One of its leaders, Vazgen Manukian, demanded an urgent meeting with 
Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian, National Security Service Director Armen Abazian 
and Armenia’s top army general, Onik Gasparian.

Ayvazian met with Manukian and two other opposition leaders on Saturday.

“Armen Abazian and Onik Gasparian avoided a meeting, which only deepened our 
concerns and suspicions,” Manukian said in a statement issued on Sunday.

“The [opposition] Homeland Salvation Movement states that any decision [to be 
made in Moscow] against the interests of Armenia and Artsakh will be … rejected 
by the Armenian people and invalidated after regime change,” he warned.

The opposition forces blame Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war 
and want him to hand over power to an interim government that would hold snap 
parliamentary elections within a year. The prime minister has rejected the 
opposition demands.


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