Friday, Armenia Says Azerbaijan Unblocks Key Road In Syunik A Russian post in the Armenian village of Vorotan in the Syunik region near the new border with Azerbaijan Azerbaijan has unblocked a major Armenian highway in Syunik after keeping it closed for all kinds of travel for nearly two days, citing an alleged stabbing attack on its border-guard in the area. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said on Friday evening that both sections of the Goris-Kapan road, namely Shurnukh-Karmrakar and Goris-Vorotan that were kept closed since late August 25 and August 26, respectively, were now open again. “The Goris-Kapan interstate road is open for all types of vehicles and for free movement of citizens,” the NSS said, adding that Armenia’s border troops and border-guards of the Russian Federal Security Service conducted negotiations with the Azerbaijani side for the reopening of the road. The NSS statement referred to no other details of the negotiations or any conditions on which the road section may have been reopened. The 21-kilometer section of the Goris-Kapan road became disputable between Armenia and Azerbaijan after Baku regained control over much of Nagorno-Karabakh and all Armenian-controlled districts around it as a result of last year’s 44-day war. In December 2020, a month after Russia brokered a ceasefire deal to end the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, it also arranged with Yerevan and Baku that Armenians will continue to use the stretch of the highway passing through Azerbaijani-controlled territory under the supervision of Russian border-guards until Armenia builds another alternative road for all types of transportation to connect two parts of the mountainous region. The highway is also vital for Armenian trade with Iran. Earlier on Friday the Iranian embassy in Yerevan told the state-run Armenpress news agency that Tehran hopes that the latest border crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be resolved peacefully and will not jeopardize commercial ties in the region. During the morning session of the government Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accused Azerbaijan of trying to discredit Armenia’s peace efforts by closing the road, but expressed a hope that the situation will be resolved soon. At the same time, he told his ministers to speed up their efforts on the renovation of alternative roads in Syunik to ensure reliable connection between communities and the regional center, state and interstate highways. “This situation was not unexpected for us and in the meantime we have worked and will continue to work to build new infrastructure. But the reopening of the road in the Eyvazli and Chaizami sections can be a very good symbol of regional stability,” the Armenian prime minister said, referring to the two closed sections of the Goris-Kapan road. Armenia’s Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan also addressed the situation in Syunik, saying that problems with travel in the mountainous region had seriously affected life of the local population, including their access to goods and medical services. He said that trade between Armenia and Iran had also been hampered by the situation. Armenia Condemns Deadly Attacks At Kabul Airport AFGHANISTAN -- Afghans lie on beds at a hospital after they were wounded in the deadly attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Armenia has condemned deadly bombings at Kabul International Airport in which 72 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops were killed on August 26. In his message on Friday Armenian President Armen Sarkissian offered condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the act of terrorism. “We strongly condemn the act of terrorism at Kabul International Airport, which killed many innocent civilians and soldiers. Armenia has always opposed any terrorist act against humanity, especially the involvement of terrorists in hostilities. In the fight against international terrorism, it is necessary to unite forces to prevent such monstrous manifestations of intolerance and contempt for universal values,” Sarkissian said, as quoted by his press office. In his message the Armenian president also wished endurance and courage to the victims’ families and relatives, and a speedy recovery to the injured. The Kabul airport attacks came as U.S. forces were helping to evacuate people desperate to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban took over this Central Asian country earlier this month. The Islamic State, a terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for the attacks. An Armenian peacekeeping contingent that was deployed in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led mission since 2010 ended its service and returned to Armenia in March 2021. Iran Hopes For Peaceful Resolution Of Armenia-Azerbaijan Border Crisis • Heghine Buniatian An Iranian cargo truck bound for Yerevan stuck in the Syunik region of Armenia due to an Armenian-Azerbaijani border crisis. . Iran hopes that border disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the latest one over a road section in the Armenian province of Syunik, will be resolved in a peaceful atmosphere without jeopardizing commercial ties in the region. “We hope that the sides will resolve the latest disagreements in the Syunik province’s border zones and especially the Kapan-Goris road section in a way that the implementation of the goal of reopening of transportation routes and unblocking won’t be disrupted,” the Iranian embassy in Yerevan told the state-run Armenpress news agency on Friday. “Unfortunately, in the past two days we are witnessing a disruption of transit through this road as a result of the latest developments in the Syunik province, which has caused problems not only for the normal life of Armenia’s civilian population, but also a number of Iranian cargo vehicles carrying out shipments from Iran to Armenia,” the embassy added. It stressed that due to the existing difficult situation at the 21-kilometer section of the road “it is required for the sides to make efforts within the framework of goodwill principle in the direction of ensuring normal course of communication and transit, until reaching an exact and concrete situation over this matter.” “We are hopeful that in parallel to the ongoing negotiations over solving the existing disputes regarding the use of the Kapan-Goris route, the improvement and development works of alternative routes will swiftly take place, so that the conditions return to normal both from the perspective of Armenia’s citizens and our commercial relations with Armenia,” the Iranian embassy said. Citing a stabbing attack against its border guard earlier this week, Azerbaijan closed two sections of a key Armenian interstate highway that partly passes through territory that Baku regained after last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia’s National Security Service said that negotiations with Azerbaijan with the participation of the Russian side were underway to achieve the reopening of the strategic road also used for vital trade with Iran. On Friday, two days after Azerbaijan closed the road, Armenia’s Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said that problems with travel in Syunik had seriously affected life of the local population, including their access to goods and medical services. He said the situation also seriously limited trade between Armenia and Iran. An RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent on August 27 talked to one Iranian truck driver stuck in Syunik who complained about the uncertain situation with the road. The Iranian still said that he preferred waiting for the main road to reopen than using an alternative dirt road that he said was difficult to drive. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian told his government earlier on Friday to speed up efforts on the renovation of alternative roads in Syunik to ensure reliable connection between communities and the regional center, state and interstate highways. Pashinian claimed that by closing the road in Syunik Azerbaijan sought to discredit Armenia’s peace agenda for the region, but expressed a hope that the situation will be resolved soon. “Such a situation was not unexpected for us and in the meantime we have worked and will continue to work to build new infrastructure. But the reopening of roads in the Eyvazli and Chaizami sections can be a very good symbol of regional stability,” Pashinian said. Armenia To Reciprocate ‘Positive Signals’ From Turkey A general view of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, against the backdrop of Mount Ararat, which is located in the territory of modern-day Turkey Armenia will evaluate positive signals coming from Turkey and will respond in kind, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said at the start of his cabinet’s meeting in Yerevan on Friday. “There have been certain public positive signals from Turkey. We will evaluate those signals and respond to those signals with a positive signal,” the Armenian prime minister said. During a meeting with foreign ambassadors accredited to Turkey earlier this week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that if Armenia takes positive steps to establish peace in the region, Turkey will respond adequately. “After the recent Karabakh war, new opportunities have been created for progress in that direction,” he said. “We have already stated that if Armenia responds positively to these opportunities, we will take the necessary steps.” Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations. In 1993, Turkey reacted to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh by closing its border with Armenia out of support for its regional ally Azerbaijan. Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian (L) and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu sign protocols to normalize relations between Yerevan and Ankara in a ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland, October 10, 2009. In 2009, Yerevan and Ankara attempted to normalize their relations, signing protocols to establish diplomatic relations and re-open the border. But the protocols were never ratified, while the brief rapprochement came to a close in the subsequent years. Armenia has pursued international recognition of the 1915 mass killings and deportations of over a million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide. Over two dozen governments of the word recognize the Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians as genocide today. The U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed resolutions in 2019 recognizing the Armenian genocide, as did U.S. President Joe Biden when he used the word “genocide” in his April 24, 2021 speech on the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Turkey refuses to recognize that the Ottoman government pursued a policy of exterminating Armenians, maintaining that hundreds of thousands of Turkish Muslims and Armenian Christians died in intercommunal violence around the bloody battlefields of World War I. Turkey also disputes Armenia’s count of the numbers killed, putting it at 300,000. Last year Armenia also accused Turkey of directly assisting Azerbaijan in its war against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh in September-November 2020. Yerevan also accused Ankara of deploying terrorist fighters from Syria in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone during the 44-day conflict in which Azerbaijan regained much of the former autonomous region’s territory as well as all seven surrounding districts that had been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s. Turkey has denied any involvement in the conflict, but has repeatedly voiced support for Azerbaijan in its actions against Armenians. Still during the war in October 2020 Armenia announced a temporary ban on the import of Turkish goods beginning in 2021. It extended the ban for another six months in July. In its five-year action plan approved in the parliament this week the Armenian government said, however, that it supports the establishment of relations with Turkey without any preconditions. Pashinian Raps Azerbaijan For ‘Discrediting’ Armenia’s Peace Agenda Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (archive photo) Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian believes Azerbaijan has closed a major road that connects two parts of Armenia’s southern Syunik province in an attempt to discredit Armenia’s peace agenda. Speaking at a government session in Yerevan on Friday Pashinian observed that Azerbaijani soldiers blocked sections of the Goris-Kapan that lie in the territory currently controlled by Baku shortly after he presented a five-year action plan of his government in the Armenian parliament pledging that Armenia will do its part to usher in an “era of peace” in the region. “I hope that the situations with roads in Syunik will be settled as soon as possible,” Pashinian said. Azerbaijan established control over several sections of Armenia’s main interstate highway that is also vital for connection with Iran when its forces regained several districts around Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of a 44-day war last fall. In doing so Baku referred to Soviet-era maps showing administrative borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The roads in questions had been controlled by Armenia since the break-up of the Soviet Union and the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s that left ethnic Armenians in control of large swaths of territory outside the former autonomous region proper. Last December Russia, which had brokered a ceasefire deal to end the armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, also arranged with Yerevan and Baku that Armenians will continue to use a 21-kilometer stretch of the highway that passes through Azerbaijani-controlled territory under the supervision of Russian border-guards until Armenia builds another alternative road for all types of transportation to connect two parts of the mountainous region. Pashinian stressed that with its actions these days Azerbaijan breaks the December arrangements. Pashinian again denied that Armenians had any relation to an alleged stabbing of an Azerbaijani border-guard in the area on August 25 that Baku used as a pretext for closing the road. The Armenian leader said Yerevan was ready for a joint investigation of the incident with the participation of representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. “Such a situation was not unexpected for us and in the meantime we have worked and will continue to work to build new infrastructure. But the reopening of roads in the Eyvazli and Chaizami sections can be a very good symbol of regional stability,” Pashinian said. The Armenian prime minister instructed his cabinet to pursue road construction work in Syunik, in particular, complete the reconstruction of the Tatev-Aghvani road until the end of the year as well as work on other roads to ensure reliable connection of communities with the regional center and state and interstate highways. Earlier on Friday, Armenia’s Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said that problems with travel in Syunik seriously affected life of the local population, including their access to goods and medical services. He said the situation also seriously limited trade between Armenia and Iran. Azerbaijani Soldier Detained In Nagorno-Karabakh INFOGRAPHIC: Nagorno-Karabakh after a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have detained an Azerbaijani soldier, whom Baku says escaped from a psychiatric clinic. Prosecutors in Stepanakert said on August 26 that an Azerbaijani soldier identified as Jamil Babayev was detained in an apartment in the town of Martakert. Babayev was charged with espionage, illegal border crossing, and threatening to kill residents of the apartment he was detained in. Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said a probe had been launched against Babayev after he allegedly left a psychiatric clinic in the Azerbaijani city of Ganca without permission. Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian-populated autonomous oblast in Soviet Azerbaijan, declared independence from Baku in 1991, establishing their control over the region and some surrounding districts in a 1992-94 war with Azerbaijani forces. Azerbaijan regained control of parts of the territory and surrounding districts as a result of a 44-day war last fall that ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement signed between Yerevan and Baku. Under the terms of the November 9, 2020 ceasefire agreement around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor linking the Armenian-populated region with Armenia. Ex-President Sarkisian Threatens To Sue Pro-Pashinian Tycoon For Defamation • Artak Khulian Civil Contract MP Khachatur Sukiasian Former President Serzh Sarkisian has threatened to sue Khachatur Sukiasian, a millionaire businessman and member of the pro-government Civil Contract faction in parliament, over what his lawyers describe as defamation damaging his good name. Speaking in parliament on August 25, Sukiasian claimed that during his presidency Sarkisian lost over $100 million in a casino in the German spa town of Baden-Baden and that his debt to the casino was paid from taxpayer money. Sarkisian’s lawyer Amram Makinian said that in court the former president will demand that the pro-government lawmaker publicly refute his statement and offer an apology. Former Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian Sarkisian already answered allegations about his gambling habits during the recent election campaign in June. Reacting to such claims by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, he called it a lie, saying that his friends and other people in his surroundings knew that he did not go to casinos and even avoided streets where casinos were. “They were talking nonsense about Baden-Baden, not realizing that there was a casino in Baden in the 19th century, and it is more a museum than a casino today. As for Monaco, I have not been to Monaco at all during the last 15 years, and it is easy to check this,” the ex-president said. Talking to media on Thursday, Sukiasian doubled down on his accusations and said that he also had lawyers and was ready for litigation with Sarkisian. Sukiasian said that in his remarks in parliament he even mentioned a lower amount of money that was allegedly lost by the former president in a casino to make it more provable. “I even know of a case when our state aircraft flew to where there was a casino and money was taken out from here in sacks to pay [for Sarkisian’s debt], because in casinos you can play and pay later,” he claimed. Sukiasian, who has long been in business, also claimed that there was widespread government corruption during the years of Sarkisian’s presidency and that businesses had to pay money that never went to the state budget. 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.