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    Categories: 2022

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 01/03/2022

                                        Monday, January 3, 2022


Jailed Former Defense Minister Warns Of ‘Surprise’ Revelations

        • Sargis Harutyunyan


Davit Tonoyan, a former defense minister arrested three months ago, pledged to 
shed more light on the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday as he continued to 
strongly deny corruption charges leveled against him.

Tonoyan warned that he must not be made a scapegoat for Armenia’s defeat in the 
six-week war.

“A visible desire to find the scapegoat is hovering, so to speak, in the 
political scene, but I think that there will be surprises in this regard,” he 
said in written comments to the press circulated by his lawyers. “One thing is 
clear: we are witnessing a fanatical desire to discredit me and the defense 
system.”

Tonoyan, two generals and an arms dealer were arrested by the National Security 
Service (NSS) in September in a criminal investigation into supplies of 
allegedly outdated rockets to Armenia’s armed forces. The NSS charged them with 
fraud and embezzlement that cost the state almost 2.3 billion drams ($4.7 
million). All four suspects deny any wrongdoing.

The NSS said in September that a private intermediary delivered the rockets to 
Armenia in 2011 and that the Defense Ministry refused to buy them after 
discovering that they are unusable.

Seyran Ohanian, Armenia’s defense minister from 2008 to 2016, confirmed 
afterwards that 70 percent of them were not accepted by the military during his 
tenure. The rebuff forced the supplier to store the rockets at a Defense 
Ministry arms depot, he said.

Tonoyan insisted on Monday that the ammunition did not go past its expiration 
and was successfully used during the Karabakh war. He complained that the NSS 
cancelled a planned test-firing of those rockets during the probe described by 
him as “not objective.”


Armenia -- Armenian army Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircrafts fire during a 
military exercise, September 11, 2015

One of Tonoyan’s lawyers, Sergey Hovannisian, also slammed the NSS investigators 
for not carrying out the forensic tests. He said they would have proved that the 
rockets are usable and the investigators would have had “no choice but to close 
the criminal case.”

The NSS declined to comment on that.

In an October 11 statement, Tonoyan’s legal team noted that he possesses “a 
great deal of information” about defense issues but is not publicizing it to 
disprove the accusations because he places Armenia’s national security above his 
personal interests.

Asked whether he thus sent a warning to Armenia’s political leadership, the 
former minister said: “Up until now I have maintained restraint in terms of 
getting involved in political processes … There will still be occasions to 
present to the public my clarifications about the 44-day war through an 
investigative commission to be formed [by the Armenian parliament,] provided 
that it works objectively and impartially.”

“As I said in my November 20 statement, I am ready to bear my share of 
responsibility. But only for what I did, and not for what I did not do.”


Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a meeting with Defense 
Minister Davit Tonoyan (L) and top Armenian army generals, Yerevan, July 18, 
2020.

Tonoyan stopped short of openly accusing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of 
ordering the criminal proceedings against him. He blamed instead other, unnamed 
officials for what he considers baseless charges.

Pashinian appointed Tonoyan as defense minister just days after coming to power 
in May 2018. The latter was sacked in November 2020 less than two weeks after a 
Russian-brokered agreement stopped the devastating war.

Some senior pro-Pashinian parliamentarians blamed Tonoyan for Armenia’s defeat 
in the six-week war. The prime minister faced angry opposition demonstrations at 
the time.



Iran Backs Armenian Control Over Transit Roads


Iran - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi addresses parliament. Tehran, October 30, 
2021.


Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday appeared to back Armenia’s position in 
ongoing negotiations with Azerbaijan on transport links between the two South 
Caucasus countries.

He discussed the matter with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in a phone call 
initiated by the latter, according to the Iranian presidential office.

“One of the key policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to support the 
territorial integrity and sovereignty of countries. In this regard, Tehran 
supports the sovereignty of Armenia over all territories and roads passing 
through that country,” the office quoted Raisi as telling Pashinian.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are to reopen their border to commercial and passenger 
traffic under the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped their 
six-week war for Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020. The deal specifically 
commits Yerevan to opening rail and road links between Azerbaijan and its 
Nakhichevan exclave.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that it envisages an 
exterritorial land corridor that would pass through Armenia’s Syunik province 
bordering Iran. He said on December 14 that people and cargo using that 
“Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls.

Pashinian rejected the demand voiced just hours before his talks with Aliyev 
held in Brussels. He and other Armenian leaders have since continued to maintain 
that Armenia must have full control over all roads and railways passing through 
its territory.

Syunik connects the rest of Armenia to Iran through mountainous roads used not 
only for Armenian-Iranian trade but also cargo shipments to and from other parts 
of the world. Armenia lost control over one of those roads after a controversial 
troop withdrawal ordered by Pashinian following the Karabakh war.

In September this year, Azerbaijan set up checkpoints there to tax Iranian 
vehicles. The move triggered unprecedented tensions between Tehran and Baku.

Some Iranian officials accused Aliyev of seeking to effectively strip the 
Islamic Republic of a common border with Armenia. Iranian Foreign Minister 
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian likewise warned in October that any “changes in the 
region’s map” are unacceptable to his country.


Iranian trucks stuck on the main road leading to Armenia, October 7, 2021.
Raisi spoke with Pashinian five days after his government decided to open an 
Iranian consulate in Syunik’s administrative center, Kapan.

Armenian pundits and politicians welcomed the decision. Vartan Voskanian, one of 
the country’s leading Iran experts, said it shows “just how important Syunik is 
to official Tehran in the context of Armenian-Iranian relations.”

Raisi on Monday hailed “progress” made in Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations 
mostly mediated by Russia. “We hope that other issues between the two countries 
will be resolved peacefully within the framework of international principles and 
law,” he said.

A statement issued by Raisi’s office said Pashinian briefed the Iranian 
president on the talks with Baku.

It also cited both leaders as stressing the need to deepen commercial ties 
between Armenia and Iran. An Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on 
economic cooperation should take “big steps” in that direction, Raisi said, 
according to the statement.

A much shorter readout of the phone call released by the Armenian government 
said Pashinian and Raisi discussed bilateral ties and “processes taking place in 
the region.” It made no explicit mention of the Armenian-Azerbaijani transport 
issues.



Russia Upbeat On Armenian-Azeri Transport Links


RUSSIA - Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Rudenko at a meeting 
between the foreign ministers of Russia and Belarus June18, 2021.


Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are putting the finishing touches on a 
comprehensive agreement to restore transport links between the two South 
Caucasus states, according to a senior Russian diplomat.

The leaders of the three countries reported decisive progress towards opening 
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to passenger and cargo traffic after talks held 
in the Russian city of Sochi on November 26. Russian President Vladimir Putin 
said a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force will formalize their 
understandings in the coming days.

However, the trilateral task force announced no agreements after meeting in 
Moscow on December 1.

On December 6, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev renewed his threats to 
forcibly open a land “corridor” connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave 
via Armenia. He said afterwards that people and cargo passing through that 
“Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Armenian Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian rejected the demand.

Aliyev and Pashinian met in Brussels on December 14 and December 15. They 
reportedly reached an agreement on rail links between their countries but failed 
to iron out their differences on the Nakhichevan road link sought by Baku.

Pashinian said later in December that he hopes for a “real compromise solution 
to this issue.” But he did not comment on parameters of that compromise.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko was asked about the possibility 
of such a deal in a weekend interview with the TASS news agency. He cited in 
that regard “important” preparations for the cross-border transport connections 
made by the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force.

“A single ‘package’ is being ‘polished’ [for that purpose] at the moment,” he 
said. “This approach will ensure the sustainability of decisions made.”

Rudenko added that Moscow is aiming for a quick “completion of the elaboration 
of the parameters of joint infrastructure initiatives.” He did not give further 
details.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the matter with his Azerbaijani 
counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in a December 30 phone call. The Russian Foreign 
Ministry said they “agreed to work towards the speedy and full implementation of 
the decisions” made by Putin, Aliyev and Pashinian.


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