Tuesday,
Russia, Azerbaijan Agree On ‘Allied’ Ties
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev sign a joint declaration on "allied cooperation" between their countries,
Moscow, .
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his visiting Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev on Tuesday pledged to deepen political, economic and military relations
between their countries and strive for the implementation of
Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow.
The two leaders signed a joint declaration on bilateral “allied cooperation”
during four-hour talks held in the Kremlin.
“The Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan build their relations on
the basis of allied interaction, mutual respect for independence, state
sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of the two
countries,” reads the declaration.
It says that the two sides will not only step up Russian-Azerbaijani military
cooperation but may also “consider the possibility of providing each other with
military assistance.”
“The Parties refrain from any actions, including those carried out through third
states, directed against each other,” adds the 7-page document.
“This declaration takes our relation to an allied level,” Aliyev told reporters
after the talks.
Putin similarly emphasized the “strategic” character of the document. He said he
and Aliyev also agreed to closely cooperate in implementing the Russian-brokered
agreements on the opening of economic and transport links between Azerbaijan and
Armenia and the demarcation of their long border.
Moscow will keep helping Baku and Yerevan to settle their “border issues” and
other “acute problems,” added the Russian leader.
Aliyev complained about “very slow” progress towards the opening of a transport
corridor that will connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through
Armenia. He also spoke of the “post-conflict situation in the region,”
effectively standing by his earlier claims that Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020
war with Armenia put an end to the Karabakh dispute.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Putin noted, however, that the conflict
is “not fully resolved.”
Putin spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian by phone on Monday. He
invited Pashinian to pay an official visit to Moscow in April.
Armenia has for decades been Russia’s main regional ally. Its dependence on
Moscow for defense and security deepened further after the 2020 war.
For its part, Azerbaijan has a military alliance with Turkey which proved
critical for the outcome of the six-week war.
Yerevan Vows Action Against Azeri Arrest Warrants For Ex-Presidents
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - The main entrance to the Office of the Prosecutor-General.
Armenian prosecutors on Tuesday pledged to thwart Azerbaijan’s stated attempts
to arrest former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian in a third
country.
Azerbaijani authorities announced arrest warrants for both men on Monday, saying
that they have been indicted for helping to launch in 1988 demonstrations for
Nagorno-Karabakh’s unification with Armenia. They said Sarkisian and Kocharian
are also wanted for their role in the 1991 creation of the self-proclaimed
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
The ex-presidents, who were born in Karabakh and led the territory during its
1991-1994 war of secession with Azerbaijan, shrugged off the accusations. They
also linked the Azerbaijani arrest warrants with what they see as politically
motivated charges leveled against them by Armenian law-enforcement authorities.
Gor Abrahamian, a spokesman for Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General,
dismissed the arrest warrants as baseless and illegal. He said the
law-enforcement agency will press Interpol and other international bodies to
deny Azerbaijan any help in detaining Kocharian and Sarkisian.
Baku already issued international arrest warrants for Karabakh’s current leaders
shortly after the 2020 war with Armenia. Yerevan condemned the move at the time,
saying that it has “taken measures” to prevent them from being placed on
Interpol’s most wanted list.
“These are effective measures that produce results,” Abrahamian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service. “As far as international manhunts are concerned, our efforts
to block those proceedings have been a success.”
In the wake of the 2020 war, Armenian law-enforcement authorities likewise
opened several criminal cases against Azerbaijani government and military
officials accused by them of committing war crimes. But they have still not
named any of those officials.
Azeri Lawmakers Visit Armenia Amid Protests
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - People protest against the participation of Azerbaijani lawmakers in a
session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan, .
Two members of Azerbaijan’s parliament faced angry protests in Yerevan on
Tuesday as they attended a meeting of lawmakers from the European Union and
ex-Soviet states involved in the EU’s Eastern Partnership program.
They were the first Azerbaijani officials to visit Armenia since the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh. One of them, Tair Mirkishili, was among several senior members
of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly received by Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian on Monday.
Speaking at a Euronest session held the following day, Mirkishili repeated
Baku’s claims that the Azerbaijani victory in the six-week war put an end to the
Karabakh conflict.
“Since the conflict is over, Azerbaijan has expressed readiness for a
demarcation and delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” he said. “I am
glad to note that we have received a number of positive signals from Armenia in
this regard.”
Armenian members of Euronest representing the ruling Civil Contract party
insisted that the conflict remains unresolved.
“You can’t consider the conflict to have been resolved … without eliminating its
causes,” one of them, Arman Yeghoyan, said. “And the causes are still there.
Moreover, they have deepened further. Azerbaijan’s Armenophobic policy is
getting stronger and stronger.”
Armenia - The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly's Bureau holds a meeting in
Yerevan, 22Feb2022
Yeghoyan’s remarks seemed to contrast with Pashinian’s repeated statements to
the effect that transport links with Azerbaijan and Turkey will significantly
benefit the Armenian economy and help to usher in an “era of peaceful
development” in the region.
As the Euronest session began its work at a conference hall in Yerevan hundreds
of angry people rallied outside it protest against the arrival of the
Azerbaijani parliamentarians. The protesters said their visit is an affront to
the memory of at least 3,800 Armenians killed in the 2020 war.
Mutual visits by Armenian and Azerbaijani officials and other citizens of the
two warring nations are extremely rare. They usually take place within the
framework of multilateral events. Baku minimized such contacts in the early
2000s.
Karabakh Leaders Hail Russian Recognition Of Breakaway Ukraine Regions
• Astghik Bedevian
UKRAINE -- Pro-Russian activists react in a street as fireworks explode in the
sky, after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized two Russian-backed
breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent entities, in the
separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, .
Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leadership on Tuesday welcomed Russia’s
recognition of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent republics.
By contrast, Armenia’s government was in no rush to react to the development
that will likely deepen Moscow’s standoff with Ukraine and the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin officially recognized the self-proclaimed
Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic in a lengthy
televised address aired late on Monday. He went on to order the deployment of
Russian forces there to “keep the peace.”
The move, which came after months of Russian military buildup along the
Russia-Ukraine border, drew strong condemnation from the United States and
European powers. They accused Moscow of violating international law and the 2014
Minsk agreements to end the conflict in the wider Donbass region in eastern
Ukraine.
Russia - President Vladimir Putin signs documents, including a decree
recognizing two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as
independent entities, during a ceremony in Moscow, .
“The right of nations to self-determination and building one’s own state is
inalienable for every people and is a fundamental principle of international
law,” Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, said in a statement that
welcomed Putin’s “historic” decision.
“The establishment of an independent state and its international recognition
becomes imperative especially in the face of existential dangers, as it is the
most effective and civilized means of preventing bloodshed and humanitarian
disaster,” he said.
Harutiunian drew parallels with the long-running conflict over Karabakh, saying
that the disputed territory’s predominantly Armenian population deserves
“international recognition of its sovereign state.”
Karabakh had declared itself an independent republic in 1991. Its secession from
Azerbaijan has not been formally recognized by any country, including Armenia.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Russian soldiers of the peacekeeping force man a checkpoint
on a road outside the city of Stepanakert, November 26, 2020
Russian presence in Karabakh increased dramatically after Moscow brokered a
ceasefire agreement that stopped a six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November
2020. The deal led to the deployment of about 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops
in and around Karabakh. The peacekeepers have helped tens of thousands of
Karabakh Armenians, who fled the fighting, to return to their homes.
Official Yerevan did not comment on Putin’s decision as of Tuesday afternoon.
Lawmakers representing Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party also avoided
passing judgment on it.
“I won’t comment on that for now because I have to wait until an [official]
position is formulated,” one of them, Maria Karapetian, told reporters. “I
haven’t been able yet to discuss last night’s geopolitical developments with my
colleagues.”
UKRAINE - Ukrainian soldiers walk along tranches on their position on the front
line with Russia backed separatists in Donetsk region,
There was also no official reaction from the main opposition Hayastan alliance
led by former President Robert Kocharian. Still, one of its senior lawmakers,
Artsvik Minasian, said he believes Yerevan should “at least not speak out
against” the Russian move.
“It’s obvious that we need to take advantage of this situation to advance the
issue of Karabakh’s recognition,” said Minasian.
Putting spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian by phone hours before
announcing the recognition of the breakaway territories. Pashinian’s press
office said they discussed the Karabakh conflict and “the current situation in
Russian-Ukrainian relations.”
The Kremlin made no mention of the Ukraine crisis in its readout of the phone
call.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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