Tuesday,
Armenia Offers ‘Immediate’ Peace Talks With Azerbaijan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a meeting of Armenia's Security
Council, Yerevan,
Armenia said on Monday that it is willing to “immediately” start negotiations on
a peace treaty with Azerbaijan in a bid to prevent fresh Azerbaijani attacks on
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian government’s Security Council also called on the international
community to activate “containment mechanisms” in view of “the possibility of
military clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh and on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.”
“The analysis of the situation shows that Azerbaijan … is preparing the ground
to launch new provocations and attacks in the direction of Nagorno-Karabakh,
including by accusing the Armenia of unconstructive actions on the issue of a
peace treaty,” the council said after a late-night session chaired by Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian.
In a statement, it offered Baku to “immediately start negotiations on a
comprehensive peace treaty” between the two South Caucasus nations.
The statement came four days after the Azerbaijani army captured a village in
eastern Karabakh and surrounding territory, triggering deadly fighting with
Karabakh Armenian forces. Azerbaijani troops partially withdrew from the area
after the intervention of Russian peacekeepers stationed in Karabakh.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov discussed the situation in Karabakh
with the army’s top brass earlier on Monday. He reportedly said that Azerbaijani
forces must be “ready to use modern weaponry and other military equipment at any
moment.”
Meanwhile, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan’s held separate meetings
with the Russian co-chair of the Minsk Group, Igor Khovaev, as well as the
Yerevan-based ambassadors of Russia, the United States and France. The tensions
in Karabakh were high on their agenda.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Mirzoyan told Khovaev that Armenia
is ready to start negotiating with Azerbaijan on the peace treaty “within the
framework of the co-chairmanship of the Minsk Group.”
Earlier this month, Yerevan asked the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the
Minsk Group to mediate such talks after receiving a five-point formal proposal
from the Azerbaijani side. The proposal includes, among other things, a mutual
commitment to recognize each other’s territorial integrity.
Armenian Opposition Unimpressed By Yerevan’s Offer To Baku
• Astghik Bedevian
• Heghine Buniatian
Armenia - Tigran Abrahamian, a parliament deputy from the opposition Pativ Unem
bloc, at a news conference, Yerevan, January 25, 2022.
Opposition lawmakers expressed concern on Tuesday over the Armenian government’s
stated readiness to negotiate a comprehensive “peace treaty” with Azerbaijan
amid heightened tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Yerevan called late on Monday for the “immediate” start of Armenian-Azerbaijani
talks on such a treaty while saying that Baku is “preparing the ground” for
fresh military action in Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani army captured a village in eastern Karabakh and surrounding
territory last Thursday, triggering deadly fighting with Karabakh Armenian
forces. Azerbaijani troops partially withdrew from the area on Sunday.
Artur Khachatrian, a senior lawmaker representing the main opposition Hayastan
alliance, described Yerevan’s response to the escalation as contradictory and
worrying. He claimed that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government signaled
readiness to make “new concessions” to Baku.
“As long as Armenia has not demonstrated what its red lines are, it will be
quite dangerous to start negotiations while being in a weak position,”
Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“They are talking about rising tensions but are not taking any serious
preventive measures,” said Tigran Abrahamian of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc.
Abrahamian accused the authorities of putting Armenia at the mercy of Azerbaijan
and Turkey.
“It’s one thing when you have a modernized and effective army and it’s another
when you pin your hopes on a supposed agenda of peace with Azerbaijan and Turkey
and take no meaningful steps to achieve it,” he said.
Lawmakers from Pashinian’s Civil Contract refused to comment on the offer to
Baku publicized after a late-night session of Armenia’s Security Council.
Responding to the offer, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that
Baku is prepared for talks on the peace treaty but expects the Armenian side to
take unspecified “concrete steps” first.
In a statement, the ministry said that the peace deal must be based on five
elements that were presented to Yerevan on March 10. Those include, among other
things, a mutual commitment to recognize each other’s territorial integrity.
Armenian leaders have said that the five-point Azerbaijani proposal is
acceptable to them in principle. This has fueled renewed opposition claims that
Pashinian’s administration is ready to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over
Karabakh.
Russian Peacekeepers To Boost Presence In Karabakh Hotspot
• Artak Khulian
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A Karabakh Armenian police officer patrols as a truck of
Russian peacekeeping forces moves past him at their checkpoint outside Askeran,
November 20, 2020
The Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh said on Tuesday that it
will deploy more soldiers in and around a local village that was occupied by
Azerbaijani forces last week.
In a social media post, the contingent’s command said the deployment of its
“reserve forces” is aimed at preventing the Azerbaijani army from pushing deeper
into Karabakh’s eastern Askeran district.
Azerbaijani troops captured the Askeran village of Parukh and advanced towards a
strategic mountain to the west of it last Thursday, meeting with stiff
resistance from Karabakh Armenian forces. Deadly fighting there stopped by
Saturday evening following the intervention of the Russian peacekeepers.
The peacekeepers took control of Parukh on Monday after Moscow warned Baku to
leave their “zone of responsibility.” According to Karabakh authorities,
although Azerbaijani forces withdrew from the village itself, they continue to
occupy a section of the Karaglukh mountain.
Karabakh’s Defense Army said on Monday that it is also taking “additional
containment measures” to avert further Azerbaijani advances in the area about 35
kilometers east of Stepanakert.
Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, said, for his part, that the
authorities in Stepanakert keep trying to ensure a full Azerbaijani troop
withdrawal with the help of the Russian peacekeepers.
In what may have a related development, Baku unblocked on Monday supplies of
natural gas from Armenia to Karabakh.
The supplies were cut off on March 8 after a section of a pipeline passing
through Azerbaijani-controlled territory was knocked out by an apparent
explosion, leaving most Karabakh residents without winter heating and forcing
the temporary closure of local schools. Armenian and Karabakh officials say the
disruption was part of Baku’s efforts to compel Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian
population to leave the disputed territory.
Another Western Watchdog Deplores Curbs On Free Speech In Armenia
• Sargis Harutyunyan
The Amnesty International logo is seen in their office in Hong Kong on October,
2021.
Human rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday criticized the Armenian
authorities for “unduly” restricting freedom of speech in the country.
The London-based watchdog singled out their decisions last year to triple
maximum legal fines for “slander” and make it a crime to insult state officials.
The decisions have been condemned by Armenian civic groups.
“The right to freedom of expression continued to be unduly restricted,” Amnesty
International said in an annual report on human rights practices around the
world. “The government introduced several legislative amendments curtailing
independent media and other critical voices.
“In March [2021,] the National Assembly increased the maximum fine for insult
and defamation to 6 million drams (approximately US$12,000). In August, another
set of legislative amendments criminalized insulting public figures, making
repeated insults punishable by up to three months’ imprisonment.”
All forms of slander and defamation had been decriminalized in Armenia in 2010.
The current Armenian government’s decision to restore criminal liability for
such offenses drew criticism from the Armenian opposition and civil society.
U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom House has repeatedly called a repeal of the
corresponding amendments to the Criminal Code, saying that they highlight a
“clear degradation of democratic norms” in Armenia. Political allies of Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian have dismissed the criticism.
Hundreds of people have already been investigated by the Armenian police and
other law-enforcement agencies under the controversial amendments. According to
state prosecutors, 31 of them were formally indicted by January 1. Most of them
are thought to have been accused of offending Pashinian or other officials.
Amnesty International also deplored “trumped-up charges” that were brought
against Yazidi activist Sashik Sultanian after he voiced concerns in 2020 over
the treatment of fellow members of Armenia’s Yazidi community.
“His trial started in August and was ongoing at the end of the year,” reads the
Amnesty report. “If convicted, he could face three to six years in prison.”
The report also says: “The Prosecutor General’s Office and state investigative
bodies failed to effectively investigate attacks and threats against NGOs and
media outlets, including looting of the offices of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty and Open Society Foundations, in the aftermath of the
[Armenian-Azerbaijani] conflict in 2020.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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