Thursday, April 7, 2022 Armenia Sends Ambassador Back To Israel April 07, 2022 Israel - Israeli President Isaac Herzog (right) meets with new Armenian Ambassador Arman Hakobian, April 7, 2022. Armenia has sent its ambassador back to Israel in an apparent effort to mend bilateral relations that soured during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Ambassador Arman Hakobian handed his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday 18 months after his predecessor, Armen Smbatian, was recalled by the Armenian government in protest against continuing Israeli arms supplies to Azerbaijan. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said at the time that the Jewish state did not halt those deliveries even after Azerbaijan launched a full-scale offensive in and around Karabakh on September 27, 2020. Smbatian was recalled to Yerevan in October 1, 2020 just two weeks after inaugurating the Armenian Embassy in Tel Aviv. The envoy was subsequently sacked by the Armenian government after being indicted in a corruption investigation. Hakobian was appointed as Armenia’s new ambassador to Israel in December 2021 one month after a phone call between Foreign Minister Mirzoyan and his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid. The two ministers discussed Armenian-Israeli relations and “prospects for their promotion,” according to the Foreign Ministry in Yerevan. Reports from Israel said that during the Armenian-Azerbaijani war Azerbaijani transport planes frequently carried out flights between Baku and Israeli airfields. Observers suggested that they delivered more weapons to Azerbaijan. According to the Armenian military, Azerbaijani forces heavily used Israeli-made attack drones and multiple-launch rocket systems throughout the six-week hostilities stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November 2020. In an October 2020 report, Human Rights Watch said that the Azerbaijani army used Israeli cluster munitions in the shelling of Karabakh’s civilian areas. The U.S. watchdog said its researchers identified the remnants of these widely banned weapons in the Karabakh capital Stepanakert and the town of Hadrut. “Azerbaijan received these surface-to-surface rockets and launchers from Israel in 2008–2009,” added the report. Yerevan, Baku Still Disagree On Transport Links April 07, 2022 • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - A disused railway leading to Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan region. Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to disagree on practical modalities of restoring their transport links, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday. The issue was on the agenda of his latest talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that was hosted by European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels on Wednesday. “One of the topics of discussion was the issue of opening regional communication lines, on which we recorded some differences and agreed to continue working to find solutions,” Pashinian told his minister during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. He did not go into details. Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to restore Armenian-Azerbaijani rail links during their previous trilateral meeting with Michel held in December. But they failed to patch up their differences on the status of a highway that would also connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province. Aliyev said at the time that people and cargo passing through that “Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Pashinian rejected the demand. “President Michel welcomed the steps towards the restoration of railway lines, while encouraging Armenia and Azerbaijan to also find effective solutions for the restoration of road links,” the European Union said in a statement on the latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit. “The EU is ready to support the development of connectivity links, including in line with its Economic and Investment Plan and by utilizing the proposed economic advisory forum to identify common projects,” added the statement. It did not elaborate on that forum. The Armenian government set up in January a task force coordinating construction of the 45-kilometer railway that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan. The government said afterwards that it needs to sign a legally binding agreement with Baku before it can start building the railway estimated to cost about $200 million. Pashinian explained that Yerevan is seeking formal guarantees that it will be able to use Azerbaijani territory for cargo shipments to Russia and Iran. Armenian Opposition Alarmed By Pashinian’s Agreements With Aliyev April 07, 2022 • Naira Nalbandian Armenia - The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances hold a rally in Liberty Square, Yerevan, April 5, 2022. Representatives of the opposition minority in Armenia’s parliament expressed concern on Thursday over the outcome of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s latest talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, saying that it may herald far-reaching Armenian concessions to Baku. Meeting in Brussels late on Wednesday, Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to start preparing for an Armenian-Azerbaijani “peace treaty” and to set up a bilateral commission tasked with demarcating the border between their countries. European Council President Charles Michel described the four-hour talks hosted by him as “productive,” saying that they yielded “concrete and tangible results.” Lawmakers representing Armenia’s two main opposition alliances pointed out that Michel made no mention of Nagorno-Karabakh, let alone an agreement on its status or the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination. They portrayed this as a further sign that Pashinian is ready to help Azerbaijan regain control over the disputed territory. “Why are these authorities carrying on with that behavior? For the sake of what?” said Aram Vartevanian of the Hayastan alliance. Vartevanian stood by opposition allegations that Pashinian is preparing the ground for further concessions to Baku by scaring Armenians with the prospect of another war with Azerbaijan. “War is not the only alternative to this disgraceful situation,” he said. “Just because there is a possibility of war doesn’t mean that you must act meekly and cowardly. That’s not how things work.” Hayastan and the other opposition bloc, Pativ Unem, rallied thousands of supporters in Yerevan on Tuesday to warn Pashinian against recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh. Belgium - Charles Michel, Nikol Pashinian and Ilham Aliyev begin a trilateral meeting in Brussels, April 6, 2022. Pashinian confirmed on Thursday that he and Aliyev agreed to instruct their foreign ministers to prepare for official negotiations on the peace treaty. He reiterated that Baku’s proposals on the treaty, including mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity, are acceptable to Yerevan but must be complemented with other “issues of the peace agenda,” including Karabakh’s future status and “security guarantees for the people of Karabakh.” “These issues are included in our responses regarding the peace agenda and must become a subject of negotiations,” he said during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. Pashinian also said the OSCE Minsk Group co-headed by the United States, Russia and France should continue to mediate Armenian-Azerbaijani talks. “We need to continue working in that direction,” he said. Michel did not mention the Minsk Group either in his comments on the Brussels talks and planned negotiations on the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry described the Armenian-Azerbaijani summit as an “important step for regional security.” It said Aliyev’s understandings with Pashinian fully correspond to Azerbaijan’s interests. Armenia, Azerbaijan Make Progress Towards Peace Deal April 07, 2022 Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev begin a trilateral meeting in Brussels, April 6, 2022. The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to start drafting a bilateral “peace treaty” and set up a joint commission on demarcating the Armenian-Azerbaijani border during fresh talks in Brussels hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. “We have decided all together to launch a concrete process, to prepare a possible peace treaty and to address all necessary elements for such a treaty,” Michel told reporters on Wednesday night after his trilateral meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that lasted for more than four hours. “I am confident that tonight we took an important step in the right direction,” he said. “It doesn’t mean everything is solved. But it means that we made progress.” In a written statement issued shortly afterwards, Michel said Aliyev and Pashinian pledged to “move rapidly” towards the comprehensive treaty meant to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They will instruct their foreign ministers to “work on the preparation” of such a deal, added the head of the European Union’s main decision-making body. The Armenian government’s press office confirmed these instructions in a statement on the late-night talks. Baku wants the peace deal to be based on five elements, including a mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity. Pashinian has publicly stated that they are acceptable to Yerevan in principle, fuelling Armenian opposition claims that he is ready to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said last week that Yerevan will also raise the issue of Karabakh’s status with the Azerbaijani side. The Armenian government statement on the Brussels talks made no mention of the issue. Michel said after the talks that the two sides now have a better understanding of possible parameters of the deal. But he did not elaborate. The top EU official also announced that Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to “convene a Joint Border Commission by the end of April.” “The mandate of the Joint Border Commission will be to delimit the bilateral border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and ensure a stable security situation along and in the vicinity of the borderline,” he said. The Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders already agreed to set up such a commission during their November 2021 talks in Sochi hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was expected that Russian officials will actively participate in the commission’s work. It was not immediately clear whether Yerevan and Baku decided to exclude any Russian involvement in the border demarcation. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.