Fridayt, July 30, 2021 Armenia Backs Mediators’ Calls For Renewed Peace Talks July 30, 2021 Armenia -- The U.S. and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and other diplomats meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, December 14, 2020. Armenia backed on Friday international mediators’ fresh calls for the resumption of Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on a “comprehensive” settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group expressed concern on Thursday over fresh fighting that broke out at some portions of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border earlier this week. In a joint statement, they urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to “de-escalate the situation immediately,” avoid “provocative rhetoric and actions” and fully comply with the Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the war in Karabakh in November. “The Co-Chairs reiterate the need for a negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining core substantive issues of the conflict and urge the parties to return to negotiations under the auspices of the Co-Chairs as soon as possible,” added the statement. “They reiterate their proposal to organize direct bilateral consultations under their auspices, in order for the sides to review and agree jointly upon a structured agenda, reflecting their priorities, without preconditions.” The Armenian Foreign Ministry hailed the statement. “The statement of the Co-Chairs once again demonstrates that the key to regional peace and security is a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” it said. The ministry again condemned the “infiltration of the Azerbaijani armed forces into Armenia’s sovereign territory” in May and recent days’ “attacks on Armenian defense positions” at contested sections of the frontier. Baku maintains that its troops did not cross into Armenia in May and that the latest truce violations resulted from Armenian “provocations.” The mediators made a similar appeal to the conflicting parties in April. They said they are ready to facilitate Armenian-Azerbaijani talks focusing on their pre-war peace proposals. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian cited their April statement last week when he disputed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s claim that Azerbaijan’s victory in the six-week war put an end to the long-running dispute. Armenian Parliament Criminalizes ‘Grave Insults’ July 30, 2021 • Tatevik Lazarian Armenia - The outgoing Armenian parliament holds its final session in Yerevan, July 30, 2021. Meeting for its final session on Friday, Armenia’s outgoing parliament approved a bill that makes it a crime to seriously insult government officials and other public figures. A relevant amendment to the Armenian Criminal Code drafted by pro-government lawmakers stipulates that individuals voicing “grave insults” or offending others’ dignity in an “extremely indecent manner” must be fined up to 500,000 drams (just over $1,000). Such insults publicly and repeatedly directed at persons because of their “public activities” will be punishable by fines ranging from 1 million to 3 million drams ($2,000-$6,000) and a prison sentence of up to three months. According to the amendment, those persons include state officials, politicians, civic activists and other public figures. All forms of defamation and slander had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 during then President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule. Vladimir Vartanian, the pro-government chairman of the parliament committee on legal affairs and the main author of the bill, said penalties for such offenses must be toughened now because verbal abuse in the country has since become widespread, especially on social media. “This bill is primarily aimed at not so much punishing individuals resorting to grave insults as having a preventive impact and eliminating insults … from our society,” he said. Vartanian emphasized the fact that the parliament is amending Armenia’s current Criminal Code which will be replaced in 2022 by a new code enacted earlier this year. “If we manage to achieve these results during this year there will be no need to make the same changes to the new Criminal Code,” he said. Opposition lawmakers dismissed this explanation. One of them, Naira Zohrabian, said that the bill is aimed at holding in check the two opposition blocs to be represented in Armenia’s incoming parliament elected on June 20. The blocs have a much tougher anti-government stance than the opposition minority in the outgoing National Assembly. Their supporters believe that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian himself has relied heavily on “hate speech” since coming to power in 2018. The new parliament, also controlled by Pashinian’s political allies, is scheduled to hold its inaugural session on Monday. Sofia Hovsepian, another opposition deputy who defected from Pashinian’s My Step bloc late last year, said the amendment could be used to stifle harsh criticism of the Armenian government. Deputy Justice Minister Kristine Grigorian assured Hovsepian that the authorities will not be cracking down on any “discourse going slightly beyond criticism.” Pashinian’s political team already sparked controversy in March this year when it pushed through the parliament a bill tripling maximum legal fines for defamation. Armenia’s leading media associations criticized the move, saying that it could be exploited by government officials and politicians to stifle press freedom. Consequently, President Armen Sarkissian refused to sign the bill into law and asked the Constitutional Court to assess its conformity with the Armenian constitution. Russia Again Calls For Armenian-Azeri Border Demarcation July 30, 2021 RUSSIA -- A sign at the main entrance to the Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow, July 19, 2018. Russia again offered on Friday to help Armenia and Azerbaijan demarcate their border following the latest upsurge in tensions there. “We are seriously concerned about recent armed incidents at certain sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border which led to casualties,” a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexander Bikantov, said in written comments posted on the ministry’s website. “Unfortunately, the situation along the border remains tense,” he said. “We call on the sides to refrain from any actions fraught with a further degradation of the situation and to resolve problems by diplomatic-political means.” “Russia is prepared to continue to provide necessary support for normalizing the situation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border through de-escalation measures and a quick launch of joint work on delimiting and demarcating the border,” added Bikantov. Tensions have run over the past week at border sections separating Armenia’s northeastern Gegharkunik province from the Kelbajar district handed back to Azerbaijan after the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Three Armenian soldiers were killed and four others wounded there early on Wednesday in what the Armenian military described as a failed Azerbaijani attempt to capture one of its border posts. The Armenian military claimed to have shot down on Thursday night an Azerbaijani surveillance drone in the same mountainous area. It released photographs purportedly showing fragments of the Israeli-manufactured Aerostar unmanned aerial vehicle lying in a field. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied the claim. Armenia - Photographs released by the Armenian Defense Ministry purportedly show fragments of an Azerbaijani army drone shot down in Gegharkunik province July 29, 2021. The Defense Ministry in Yerevan also accused Azerbaijani forces of opening fire on Friday morning at its positions outside an Armenian village bordering Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. It said Armenian troops returned fire. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday Armenia will ask Russia to deploy Russian border guards along the entire frontier. Russian officials responded coolly to the idea. Moscow already proposed in May that Yerevan and Baku set up a commission on the delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his country’s readiness to participate in its activities as a “consultant or mediator.” The offer came days after Azerbaijani troops advanced a few kilometers into Gegharkunik and another Armenian province, Syunik, through several sections of the border. Pashinian said at the time that Yerevan will agree to the proposed creation of an Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on border demarcation only if Baku withdraws its forces from Armenian territory. Azerbaijan has since repeatedly ruled out such a withdrawal, saying that they took up positions on the Azerbaijani side of the frontier. 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.