Monday, January 11, 2021 Pashinian Eyes Closer Russian-Armenian Ties January 11, 2021 Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Moscow, January 11, 2021. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed confidence that Armenia and Russia will forge even closer ties after the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. The two men held separate talks after Putin hosted a trilateral meeting with Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that focused on the implementation of a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the war on November 10. In his opening remarks at the talks, Pashinian again praised Putin’s role in halting the six-week hostilities that left thousands of soldiers dead. “Of course, your personal contribution to the [Karabakh] peace process has always been noticeable, especially now, after the known events,” he said. “I am confident that against the backdrop of these events the relations between Armenia and Russia will deepen.” “Russia has been and remains our main strategic ally in the security sphere,” added the Armenian leader. “Our relations certainly were, are and will remain allied in all respects,” Putin said for his part. He noted that despite the coronavirus pandemic and the Karabakh war Russian-Armenian trade grew by almost 4 percent in January-October 2020. Pashinian announced plans to further deepen the Russian-Armenian relationship in a televised address to the nation aired on New Year’s Eve. He said his country needs “new security guarantees” now. Armenia already has close political, economic and military ties with Russia. It hosts a Russian military base and has long received Russian weapons at knockdown prices and even for free. Moscow also deployed 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Karabakh as part of the truce agreement brokered by Putin. In addition, it dispatched Russian soldiers and border guards to Armenia’s Syunik region southwest of Karabakh to help the Armenian military defend it against possible Azerbaijani attacks. Armenian Government Extends Coronavirus Restrictions January 11, 2021 Armenia -- People wear faces masks on a street in Yerevan, August 11, 2020. The government on Monday extended by six months most of its restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus in Armenia. But it scrapped some rules in an apparent response to concerns voiced by Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian and Armenian businesspeople. The government has continued to require people wear face masks in all public areas and kept in place social distancing and hygiene rules set for businesses even after lifting a coronavirus-related state of emergency and introducing a nationwide “quarantine” regime in September. The less stringent regime was due to expire on Monday. The Ministry of Health asked the government late last month to extend it until July 11, citing the continuing large number of coronavirus cases in Armenia. Kerobian criticized the request last week, saying that the restrictions would hurt the Armenian economy hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Some business associations as well as dozens of private firms echoed his concerns. The government sided with the Ministry of Health while making what appear to be concessions to the critics. In particular, it lifted restrictions on indoor and outdoor festive events. Those include a ban on restaurant parties attended by more than 60 people. The government also allowed foreign nationals to enter Armenia through its land border crossings and not just by air. But those travellers will have to produce documents showing that they tested negative for the coronavirus up to three days ago or to self-isolate and take such tests in Armenia. The Armenian authorities largely stopped fining people and businesses to enforce the anti-epidemic rules following the September 27 outbreak of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The daily number of new COVID-19 cases reported by them grew rapidly as a result. But it has been steadily falling since mid-November. According to the Ministry of Health, there were 8,782 active cases in Armenia as of Monday morning, sharply down from 22,850 cases reported on December 1. More than 162,000 coronavirus infections and at least 2,931 deaths caused by them have been officially confirmed in the country of about 3 million to date. The real number of cases is believed to be much higher. Armenia, Azerbaijan Reaffirm Plans For Transport Links January 11, 2021 RUSSIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin (left to right) attend a trilateral meeting in Moscow, January 11, 2020 Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed plans to open the border between their countries for commercial and other traffic during their talks hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. The three leaders met in Moscow two months after Putin brokered an Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire agreement that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. In a joint statement issued after the meeting that lasted for about four hours, they said the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani governments will set up a joint “working group” that will deal with practical modalities of restoring transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to the statement, the group will submit by March 1 a timetable of “measures envisaging the restoration and construction of new transport infrastructure facilities” in line with the November 9 ceasefire deal. The group is to comprise teams of experts who will calculate the cost of these projects. “I am confident that the realization of these understandings will benefit both the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples, the region as a whole and, therefore, the interests of the Russian Federation,” Putin said at a joint news briefing with Aliyev and Pashinian held after the talks. “This is an area which could give a lot of dynamism to the region’s development and reinforce security because the opening of transport links meets the interests of the people of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia and our neighbors,” Aliyev said, for his part. The truce agreement specifically commits Yerevan to opening rail and road links between the Nakhichevan exclave and the rest of Azerbaijan that will presumably pass through southeastern Armenia. The Armenian government has stressed 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. Pashinian indicated in the run-up to the Moscow talks 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. “Unfortunately, we did not manage today to solve the issue of prisoners of war,” Pashinian told the press after the talks. He said that Baku is still not fully complying with another provision of the truce agreement that calls for the exchange of all prisoners of war and civilians held by the conflicting sides. “I hope that we will succeed in finding a concrete solution very soon,” added the Armenian premier. The November 9 agreement locked in sweeping territorial gains made by Azerbaijan during the war that killed thousands of Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers. It also led to the Armenian withdrawal from four other districts around Karabakh. In his opening remarks at the talks, Putin noted with satisfaction that the ceasefire is holding thanks to 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in Karabakh. This, he said, is “creating necessary prerequisites for a long-term and full-fledged resolution” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Pashinian cautioned that the conflicting parties continue to disagree on “many issues,” including the main bone of contention: the status of Karabakh. Armenian President Again Calls For New Government January 11, 2021 Armenia -- Armenian President Armen Sarkissian meets with public figures in Gyumri, December 25, 2020. Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian on Monday renewed his calls for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to hand over power to a new and interim government that would hold snap parliamentary elections. In an article posted on the presidential website, Sarkissian said Pashinian’s administration must be “held accountable” for the Armenian side’s defeat in the recent war with Azerbaijan and the resulting “deep political, economic, social and psychological crisis” in his country. “The country and the people need treatment,” he wrote. “The only logical and civilized prescription is pre-term elections [to be held] within reasonable time frames with necessary amendments to the Electoral Code and the Constitution, which will allow us to start a real process of state building from scratch.” “Until then, a government of national accord must be formed with the help of the institute of the president,” he added, staking a claim to a major role in that process. Sarkissian stressed that the new government must be made up of technocrats tasked with overcoming the post-war crisis. Virtually all Armenian opposition parties demanded Pashinian’s resignation immediately after a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the war in and around Nagorno-Karabakh on November 10. More than a dozen of them joined forces to hold anti-government rallies. Pashinian has rejected the opposition demands while expressing readiness to hold fresh elections soon. He held late last month consultations with the leaders of the two opposition parties represented in the Armenian parliament. The latter insisted that the snap polls must take place after Pashinian’s resignation. Sarkissian held similar consultations earlier in December. The president insisted on Monday that despite his largely ceremonial powers he can “become the irreplaceable platform where the constitutional ways-out and mechanisms for overcoming the crisis will be worked out through a dialogue.” In his article, Sarkissian also portrayed Armenia’s post-Soviet history as a period of missed opportunities and made a case for the “construction of a new state.” In that regard, he took a critical look at the 2018 popular uprising that brought Pashinian to power. “The change of government in 2018 could have been the beginning of a new phase in our history … but it became the end of the previous phase, without offering a new ideology,” he said. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.