Thursday, December 2, 2021
Blinken Meets Armenian, Azeri FMs
Sweden - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenian Foreign Minister
Ararat Mirzoyan meet in Stockholm, December 2, 2021.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held separate talks with the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers and called for a “lasting peaceful end to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” on Thursday.
Blinken also discussed the conflict with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
on the sidelines of a meeting of the top diplomats from OSCE member states held
in Sweden’s capital Stockholm.
“We urge all parties to resolve other outstanding issues like border
delimitation and demarcation, the restoration of economic and transport links,
and to continue to engage with the Minsk Group co-chairs for a lasting peaceful
end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Blinken said in his speech at the annual
conference.
He also welcomed the “resumption of direct dialogue between the governments of
Armenia and Azerbaijan.” He called on the conflicting sides to “make progress on
humanitarian issues,” including the release of Armenian prisoners held in
Azerbaijan.
“And I hope there, we can all work together, including with Russia, to continue
to make progress,” added Blinken.
In virtually identical Twitter posts, Blinken said he discussed with Armenian
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov
“our intensified efforts to resolve all outstanding issues related to or
resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
“The United States will stay engaged, including the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair
process,” he wrote.
Sweden - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Jeyhun Bayramov meet in Stockholm, December 2, 2021.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Mirzoyan briefed Blinken on
Azerbaijani troops’ fresh “incursion into Armenia’s sovereign territory” which
triggered deadly fighting on the border between the two South Caucasus states
last month.
“In that context, the interlocutors stressed the importance of taking steps to
deescalate the situation,” read a statement released by the ministry.
Bayramov was reported to have presented Blinken with the Azerbaijani version of
the border clashes that left at least 13 soldiers from both sides dead.
Bayramov and Mirzoyan traded accusations when they addressed the OSCE gathering.
At the same time they both expressed hope that understandings reached by the
leaders of their countries in Russia last week will help to ease tensions in the
conflict zone.
Armenian Speaker Defends Purchase Of New Limo
Armenia - Speaker Alen Simonian chairs a session of the National
Assembly,September 13, 2021.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian on Thursday defended the Armenian government’s
controversial decision to buy a new luxury car for him.
The government allocated 90 million drams ($185,000) for the purchase of the BMW
limousine last week, sparking strong criticism from opposition politicians and
civil society members.
Some critics accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of hypocrisy. They argued
that as an opposition lawmaker Pashinian had himself accused Armenia’s former
government of wasting scarce public funds on expensive cars used by many state
officials.
Simonian told 1in.am that he himself asked the government to buy him a new
limousine. He claimed that his current official car, reportedly manufactured in
2010, frequently breaks down and requires expensive repairs.
“It’s an armored car that was not designed for long-term use. It weighs at least
4.5 tons,” he said.
Asked why he did not opt for a less expensive vehicle, Simonian said: “Because
the National Assembly is a representative body and we receive many [foreign]
guests … We have many official engagements.”
The speaker, who is a leading member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, also
said that the parliament staff has saved this year 600 million drams in
expenditures projected by the state budget.
Armenia Blighted By Populism, Says Ex-President Sarkisian
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Former President Serzh Sarkisian holds a news conference in Yerevan,
August 19, 2020.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian lambasted Armenia’s current leadership and
deplored its track record during an international video conference organized by
Russia’s ruling party on Wednesday.
Sarkisian charged that political scientists can now use his country for a case
study of populist rule and its “ruinous consequences.”
“Before the coronavirus, many countries of the world, including Armenia, were
infected with another extremely dangerous virus, the virus of populism,” he
said. “It pains me to say this because my country is now feeling on its skin the
ruinous consequences of inept rule by amateur populists.”
Sarkisian went on to again blame Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration
for Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war with Azerbaijan.
“The army and the diplomatic corps, which were totally wrecked by the populist
regime for three years, did not manage to cope with the Azerbaijani aggression.
I want to once again reaffirm that this was a defeat of not our people but a
bunch of criminally irresponsible demagogues,” he told the online event chaired
by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Anush Beghloyan, a parliament deputy from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party,
rejected the accusations.
“Armenia’s diplomatic corps and parliamentary diplomacy are doing everything to
protect Armenia’s sovereignty and national interests,” she told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Beghloyan also argued that the ruling political team won snap parliamentary
elections held in June.
Echoing statements by other opposition leaders, Sarkisian insisted that the
elections did not end a post-war political crisis in Armenia. He claimed that
they on the contrary plunged the country into a “new infernal period” marked by
Azerbaijani attacks on its internationally recognized territory.
Sarkisian, 67, resigned in April 2018 during Pashinian-led mass protests sparked
by his attempt to prolong his decade-long rule. Pashinian had long accused him
of corruption and misrule.
The ex-president remains the chairman of the former ruling Republican Party of
Armenia (HHK). The HHK makes up, together with another opposition party, the
Pativ Unem alliance represented in the current Armenian parliament.
Sarkisian’s latest scathing attacks on Pashinian came about two weeks after
law-enforcement authorities brought fresh bribery charges against him. He
rejects them as politically motivated.
No Agreement Reached In Armenian-Azeri Talks On Transport Links
• Astghik Bedevian
• Karlen Aslanian
Russia -- A Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani working group on cross-border transport
issues meets in Moscow, January 30, 2021.
Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to have failed to put the finishing touches on an
agreement to establish cross-border transport connections during the latest
round of negotiations mediated by Russia.
Senior Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani officials making up a trilateral
working group met in Moscow on Wednesday five days after the leaders of the
three states held talks in another Russian city, Sochi.
The latter reported further progress towards opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border to passenger and cargo traffic. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the
working group dealing with the matter will meet this week to announce “decisions
which we agreed today.”
The task force co-headed by deputy prime ministers of Russia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan did not announce any agreements or issue statements after the Moscow
meeting that lasted for several hours.
The office of Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian said on Thursday
that the meeting “will continue in the coming days.”
“We will be able to speak about its results only after the end of the session,”
the office said in a statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. It gave no details
of Wednesday’s talks.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, effectively
confirmed that Baku and Yerevan have not yet hammered out final details of the
deal sought by Moscow.
Speaking at the RFE/RL studio in Yerevan, he said: “I think that Azerbaijan is
not displaying the kind of political will that’s necessary for furthering the
agreements reached in Sochi.”
“If they [the working group] didn’t manage to make progress, then I think that’s
because Azerbaijan was not constructive on this issue,” added Grigorian.
The Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh
commits Armenia to opening rail and road links between Azerbaijan and its
Nakhichevan exclave. Armenia should be able, for its part, to use Azerbaijani
territory as a transit route for cargo shipments to Russia and Iran.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the deal calls
for a special “corridor” that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan
via Armenia’s Syunik province. Commenting on the Sochi talks over the weekend,
he declared that the “Zangezur corridor is becoming reality.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry denied that on Tuesday. Deputy Prime Minister
Grigorian likewise insisted that the three leaders discussed conventional
transport links, rather than “exterritorial roads” implied by Aliyev.
“As we have said before, Armenia has not discussed and will not discuss any
issue with the logic of a corridor,” the Security Council secretary said for his
part.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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