Tuesday, Baku, Tehran Trade Barbs After Iran-Armenia Trade Disruption IRAN -- Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces hold a military exercise involving ballistic missiles and drones in the country's central desert, January 15, 2021 Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has criticized Iran for holding military exercises near Azerbaijan’s borders after Baku began taxing Iranian trucks transporting goods to and from Armenia. Azerbaijani police and customs set up on September 12 a checkpoint on the main highway connecting Armenia with Iran. A 21-kilometer section of the highway passes through Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas along Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province also bordering Iran. The Armenian government controversially ceded it to Azerbaijan following last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani roadblock caused significant disruptions in Iran’s cargo traffic with Armenia, with many Iranian drivers refusing or unable to pay a hefty “road tax” demanded by Azerbaijani officers. Two of them were arrested by Azerbaijani authorities two weeks ago for allegedly travelling to Nagorno-Karabakh without Baku’s permission. The Iranian Foreign Ministry called for the immediate release of the drivers. Meanwhile, the Iranian military reportedly massed troops along the Azerbaijani border and began large-scale military exercises there last week. Aliyev described the exercises as “very surprising” in an interview with the Turkish Anatolia news agency published on Monday. “Every country can carry out any military drill on its own territory. It's their sovereign right … But why now and why on our border?” he said. “Why weren't the drills held when the Armenians were in the Jabrail, Fizuli and Zangelan districts? Why is this being done after we liberated these lands after 30 years of occupation?” he asked. Aliyev expressed hope that Tehran will end its “emotional reactions to our legitimate steps.” He said that Baku set up the roadblock after Tehran ignored repeated warnings to stop Iranian trucks from shipping cargo to Karabakh. That was “disrespectful to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” he said. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, reacted to Aliyev’s remarks on Tuesday, saying that they are “surprising” given the “good relations” between the two states. Khatibzadeh insisted that Iran has always respected Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and that its war games are aimed at “protecting regional security.” The Islamic Republic “will not tolerate the Israeli regime’s presence near its borders,” he added, clearly alluding to Azerbaijan’s military ties with Israel. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed the road crisis with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts during separate meetings held in New York last week. According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Amir-Abdollahian told Azerbaijan’s Jeyhun Bayramov that “some third parties should not be allowed to affect” Azerbaijani-Iranian relations. The friction between Azerbaijan and Iran was also highlighted by bitter verbal exchanges reported between members of their parliaments. The Iranian ISNA news agency reported late last week that some Azerbaijani lawmakers have threatened to “remove Iran from the world map” and “raise Turkish flags in all parts of Iran.” It said Iranian parliamentarian have responded by “warning Baku of the dangers” of picking a fight with the Islamic Republic. Ruling Party, Opposition Disagree On Karabakh War Probe • Gayane Saribekian Armenia - A woman visits one of the graves of Armenian soldiers killed in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and buried in the Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan, . Parliamentary leaders of the ruling Civil Contract party and Armenia’s two leading opposition blocs have reached no agreement so far on practical modalities of investigating the causes and outcome of last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. They both have pledged to launch parliamentary inquiries focusing on the Armenian government’s handling of the six-week war that resulted in sweeping Armenian territorial losses and at least 3,900 deaths. Civil Contract’s Andranik Kocharian signaled the impending creation of a relevant parliament commission as the newly elected National Assembly began its work in early August. The commission has still not been set up. Kocharian, who heads the parliament’s standing committee on defense and national security, on Tuesday declined to give any reasons for the apparent delay. “We are moving forward,” he said vaguely. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stated later in August that the ad hoc commission should comprise not only representatives of the parliamentary forces but also political parties that failed to win any seats in the current legislature as well as representatives of the families of Armenian soldiers killed or missing in action. He held a series of meetings with the leaders of several such parties this month. The parliament statutes stipulate that only serving lawmakers can join such commissions. Reports in the Armenian press have said that the ruling party wants to amend the statutes accordingly. Kocharian said that the authorities are now discussing “legal issues” relating to the work of the commission. He did not elaborate. The idea of expanding the commission is rejected by the main opposition Hayastan alliance. One of its senior lawmakers, Artsvik Minasian, claimed on Tuesday that Pashinian simply wants to involve more of his political allies in the planned parliamentary inquiry to ensure that it covers up his mishandling of the war. “They have said ... that the commission should be expanded, including through the involvement of representatives of extra-parliamentary political forces sympathetic to the authorities,” Minasian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “It is evident that they are not interested in solving apparent crimes committed on their watch. They are interested in the opposite: to cover up, to withhold and not to solve,” he said. Hayastan and other major opposition groups blame Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan. Minasian said that Hayastan will also press for the creation of a separate “fact-finding” body tasked with looking into the causes of the defeat. He said it should consist of an equal number of pro-government and opposition members as well as independent experts. Another opposition party, Bright Armenia, already called for the creation of such body early this year. Pashinian’s political team rejected the idea. U.S. Watchdog Deplores ‘Degradation Of Democratic Norms In Armenia’ Armenia - Former Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and senior members of his Civil Contract Party celebrate their election victory at a rally in Yerevan, June 21, 2021. U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom House criticized Armenian authorities on Tuesday for seeking to prosecute a person who allegedly insulted Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on social media. It urged the authorities to stop enforcing recently enacted amendments that criminalized defamation of government officials. The amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code were passed by the country’s former parliament dominated by Pashinian’s loyalists during its final session held in late July. They stipulate that “grave insults” directed at individuals because of their “public activities” will now be crimes punishable by fines ranging from 1 million to 3 million drams ($2,000-$6,000) and a prison sentence of up to three months. Those individuals include state officials, politicians and other public figures. The Armenian police reportedly opened last week the first criminal case under the new articles of the Criminal Code. A police spokesman said that they are now trying to identify the social media user who made an offensive comment under a photograph of Pashinian posted on the prime minister’s Facebook page. It is not clear whether investigators have already tracked down charged that person. Freedom House expressed concern at the investigation. “This comes only two months after the Parliament passed amendments criminalizing ‘serious insults’ against government officials, and signifies a clear degradation of democratic norms in Armenia, including freedom of expression,” the Washington-based group said in a statement. “We call on the Armenian authorities to immediately cease enforcement of this unconstitutional legislation criminalizing defamation,” added the statement. The controversial amendments have also been condemned by the Armenian opposition. Opposition leaders claim that Pashinian himself has relied heavily on slander and “hate speech” since coming to power in 2018. All forms of defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010 during then President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule. Government officials and pro-government lawmakers have denied trying to restrict freedom of expression. One of them said in July that penalties for defamation must be toughened now because verbal abuse in the country has become widespread, especially on social media. Pashinian’s political team already sparked controversy in March this year when it pushed through the National Assembly 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. PACE Urges Azerbaijan To Free Armenian Prisoners FRANCE – A session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, April 25, 2017 The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) has called on Azerbaijan to set free “without further delay” all Armenian soldiers and civilians held by it one year after the outbreak of a war in Nagorno-Karabakh. In a resolution on “humanitarian consequences” of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict adopted late on Monday, the PACE also urged Armenia to provide Azerbaijan with more information about minefields in districts around Karabakh recaptured by Azerbaijani forces. The wide-ranging resolution, opposed by virtually all Azerbaijani and Turkish members of the Strasbourg-based assembly, further says that both sides should investigate allegations of war crimes committed by them the during the six-week hostilities stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire accord last November. The deal calls, among other things, for the unconditional release of all prisoners of war and civilian captives held by the parties. Dozens of Armenians remain in Azerbaijani captivity. They include 48 soldiers taken prisoner when Azerbaijani troops seized in December the last Armenian-controlled portions of Karabakh’s southern Hadrut district. Baku says that they are not covered by the truce accord, a claim rejected by Yerevan. The PACE expressed serious concern about their detention conditions as well as the fate of about 30 other Armenians “allegedly seen, filmed or photographed in captivity, with no indication as to their current whereabouts.” “The Assembly is alarmed at allegations made by Armenia that these persons have been subjected to enforced disappearances and possibly killed,” it said, adding that the Azerbaijani authorities must shed light on their whereabouts and “release all remaining captives and return them to Armenia without further delay.” Baku repatriated 30 other Armenian prisoners this summer in exchange for Armenian maps of about 200,000 landmines laid around Karabakh. The PACE resolution urges Yerevan to release “all mine maps in its possession.” “The Assembly is concerned about the many allegations of crimes, war crimes and other wrongful acts leveled against both Armenia and Azerbaijan during the 6-week war,” reads the resolution. It points to a “substantial number of consistent allegations of inhuman and degrading treatment and torture of Armenian prisoners of war by Azerbaijanis, as well as a number of allegations of similar treatment of Azerbaijani prisoners of war by Armenians.” The two sides, it says, must “fully investigate the allegations and bring to justice anyone, including at command level, found to be responsible for crimes, war crimes or other wrongful acts.” The PACE also stressed the need to help tens of thousands of Karabakh Armenian civilians displaced by the war, protect religious and historical monuments in the conflict zone and de-escalate tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. It called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to start demarcating the border and “examine the possibility of creating a demilitarized zone with the presence of a peacekeeping or military monitoring force.” The head of the Armenian delegation at the PACE, Ruben Rubinian, was quick to welcome the resolution passed by 80 votes to 18, with 3 abstentions. In a long Facebook post, Rubinian listed its provisions, notably the call for the release of the Armenian prisoners, reflecting the Armenian authorities’ position. 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.