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    Categories: 2021

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 06/01/2021

                                        Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Yerevan Keeps Pushing For Release Of Armenian Prisoners
June 01, 2021
        • Artak Khulian

Armenia - Aram Hakobian, deputy director of the National Security Service, 
speaks to journalists, Yerevan, June 1, 2021.

The Armenian authorities are “working around the clock” to secure the release of 
Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan, a senior security official said on 
Tuesday.

Aram Hakobian, a deputy director of the National Security Service (NSS), 
declined to give any details of those efforts or say if they have made any 
progress.

The prisoners include six Armenian soldiers who were captured by Azerbaijani 
forces on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on May 27. The incident heightened 
tensions at several portions of the frontier where troops from the two countries 
have been locked in a standoff for the last three weeks.

The Armenian Defense Ministry initially threatened to take military action to 
free its servicemen. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian indicated, however, that 
Yerevan will continue to exercise caution in the border dispute that has 
prompted serious concern from the international community.

“There must be negotiations, only negotiations, there will be no use of force,” 
Hakobian told reporters. “We have to try to bring back our remaining prisoners 
as a result of negotiations.”

Hakobian said that although Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on the dispute 
were stopped on May 19 relevant officials from the two sides continue to 
communicate with each other. He did not elaborate.

The Armenian and Russian defense ministers met in Moscow on May 28 to discuss 
the dispute. According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, they agreed on 
“necessary steps” to resolve it.

The ministry said on Monday that Defense Ministers Sergei Shoigu and Vagharshak 
Harutiunian discussed ways of implementing that agreement when they spoke by 
phone three days later. It did not give any details.



Pashinian In No Rush To Name New Foreign Minister
June 01, 2021
        • Anush Mkrtchian
        • Naira Nalbandian

Armenia - The Armenian Foreign Ministry building, Yerevan.

The post of Armenia’s foreign minister will likely remain vacant at least until 
the parliamentary elections scheduled for June 20, a government spokesperson 
said on Tuesday.

Its last holder, Ara Ayvazian, stepped down on May 27 following an emergency 
meeting of the country’s Security Council which discussed mounting tensions on 
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Ayvazian was formally relieved of his duties on Monday hours after addressing 
the Armenian Foreign Ministry staff at a farewell meeting. The outgoing foreign 
minister hinted that he decided to quit because of disagreeing with government 
decisions which he believes could put the country’s sovereignty and national 
security at risk. He did not go into details.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian challenged Ayvazian to publicly 
clarify “who, where and how was going to take some steps or to make decisions 
contradicting our country’s national and state interests.”


ARMENIA -- Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian speaks at a meeting with his 
Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Yerevan, May 6, 2021
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian similarly said on Tuesday that Ayvazian 
should elaborate on his concerns.

Grigorian insisted that there are no threats to Armenia’s territorial integrity 
emanating from the Pashinian government’s ongoing or planned talks with 
Azerbaijan. He specifically denied any secret deals on the demarcation of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Grigorian also dismissed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s continuing claims 
about the impending creation of a transport “corridor” that will connect 
Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s Syunik province. He said 
Yerevan and Baku and Yerevan have only discussed the opening of transport links 
between the two states envisaged by a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped 
last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We are talking about our sovereign infrastructures in case of the unblocking 
[transport routes,]” he told reporters.


Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian.

A government spokesperson told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Pashinian is 
unlikely to appoint a new foreign minister before the upcoming elections. The 
ministerial duties will be performed by one of Armenia’s deputy foreign 
ministers in the meantime, the official said without naming him.

Ayvazian had four deputies. One of them, Gagik Ghalachian, also tendered his 
resignation on May 27.

Like other cabinet members, Ayvazian technically held the ministerial post in an 
acting capacity after the government stepped down in April to pave the way for 
the snap polls. Some lawyers believe that Armenian law does not allow the 
replacement of acting ministers.

“Whether or not this is legally permissible, it’s hard to imagine anyone 
agreeing to become acting minister now, especially with only 19 days to go 
before the elections,” said Beniamin Poghosian, a political analyst.

Poghosian suggested that career diplomats like Ayvazian must be especially 
reluctant to replace him even temporarily given his “serious differences” with 
Pashinian.



France’s Macron Insists On Azeri Troop Withdrawal
June 01, 2021

FRANCE -- French President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes Armenian acting Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian before a working lunch at the Elysee Palace in Paris, 
June 1, 2021

French President Emmanuel Macron again demanded that Azerbaijan withdraw its 
troops from Armenia’s border areas when he met with Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian in Paris on Tuesday.

Macron also called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to demarcate their border through 
negotiations and without “any fait accompli on the ground.”

“The Azerbaijani troops must leave Armenia’s sovereign territory,” he said after 
greeting Pashinian at the presidential Elysee Palace. “I am calling on the 
parties to return to the positions held by them on May 11. France is ready to 
facilitate discussions.”

“We stand in solidarity with Armenia and we will continue to do so,” he added in 
a statement to the press made before a lunch meeting with Pashinian.

Macron was quick to voice strong support for Yerevan after Azerbaijani forces 
reportedly crossed several sections of the border and advanced a few kilometers 
into Armenia’s Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces on May 12. “They must withdraw 
immediately,” he tweeted after a May 13 phone call with Pashinian.

The U.S. State Department similarly urged Azerbaijan to “pull back all forces 
immediately and cease further provocation” on May 14.

Baku maintains that its troops took up new positions on the Azerbaijani side of 
the frontier and did not cross into Armenia.

Tensions at the contested border sections rose further after six Armenian 
soldiers were captured by Azerbaijani forces on May 27. Pashinian proposed hours 
later that both sides withdraw their troops from those areas and let Russia 
and/or the United States and France, the two other countries co-chairing the 
OSCE Minsk Group, deploy observers there.

In a joint statement issued the following day, the French, Russian and U.S. 
diplomats co-heading the Minsk Group backed the proposed troop disengagement. 
But they did not specify whether their countries are ready to send observers.

Macron said on Tuesday that France will do its best to achieve a “de-escalation 
and re-establishment of dialogue between the parties.” He indicated that the 
border crisis and the broader situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone 
will be high on the agenda of his meeting with Pashinian.

Pashinian thanked the French leader for having “spoken the language of truth 
since the outset of the crisis.” “This is extremely important for overcoming 
crisis situations in our region,” he told reporters before the talks.


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