Thursday,
EU Envoy Discusses Armenian-Azeri Transport Links
Armenia -- Toivo Klaar, the European Union’s special representative for the
South Caucasus, meets with Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian, Yerevan,
February 22, 2021.
A senior European Union diplomat has met with deputy prime ministers of Armenia
and Azerbaijan for further discussions on the planned opening of transport links
between the two countries.
Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special representative to the South Caucasus, described
the separate talks as “excellent.”
“Good to see strong commitment from both sides,” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Klaar visited Baku and Yerevan on Wednesday and Thursday respectively as Russia
sought to wrest back the initiative in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process
following an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit organized by the EU in Brussels on
April 6.
Meeting outside Moscow on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian reaffirmed Russia’s key role in the international
peace efforts.
In a joint statement, Putin and Pashinian stressed the importance of
“revitalizing” the work of a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani intergovernmental
commission dealing with practical modalities of reopening regional transport
links.
“The Russian side is ready to take part in projects to restore the railway
infrastructure of Armenia, including the railway in Syunik and other regions of
Armenia,” read the statement.
It was a clear reference to a 45-kilometer railway which is expected to connect
Azerbaijan with its Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik.
The EU indicated after Pashinian’s April 6 talks with Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev that it is ready to finance the restoration of Armenian-Azerbaijani
rail and road links.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted on April 8 that it was Putin who
had brokered Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings on these and other
confidence-building measures. Lavrov accused the EU of seeking to sideline
Moscow and use the Karabakh conflict in the standoff over Ukraine.
An Armenian government statement noted that the “unblocking of regional
transport links” discussed by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian and Klaar is
envisaged by a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the war in Karabakh in
November 2020.
Pashinian spoke with European Council President Charles Michel by phone on the
eve of his visit to Russia.
Armenia May Ease Gun Restrictions
• Anush Mkrtchian
Ukraine -- A customer checks his rifle in a gun shop in Lviv
A group of pro-government parliamentarians have drafted legislation that should
make it easier for Armenians to acquire firearms.
Armenia has traditionally had strict restrictions on gun ownership. This is a
key reason why only a small percentage of its population legally possesses
weapons.
The Armenian police have the exclusive right to issue a firearm license. Only
members of the national Hunting Association can apply for one.
Under an Armenian law on gun ownership, association members are at first allowed
to possess only hunting rifles. They must wait for at least five years to get a
permit to buy more potent firearms.
Amendments to the law drafted by the lawmakers representing the ruling Civil
Contract party would scrap these requirements.
They also stipulate that a firearm license would be valid for ten years, as
opposed to just five years required by the current law. In addition, they would
increase from five to ten the maximum number of guns that can be possessed by a
single person.
One of the authors of the bill, Vilen Gabrielian, claimed on Thursday that it is
meant to improve gun control in the country, rather than loosen the existing
restrictions.
“Under our model, you need to pass an exam in order to get firearms,” he told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “The current law is much more liberal than what we
are proposing.”
Gabrielian said at the same time that the proposed amendments would expand gun
ownership in the country by making weapons more affordable for citizens. Rifles
and handguns are now mostly owned by wealthy Armenians because they are
expensive, he said.
It is not clear when the Armenian parliament will debate the bill. The Armenian
government’s position on the proposed changes to the gun law is not known either.
Nina Karapetiants, a human rights activist, questioned the wisdom of those
changes, saying that they could increase the country’s violent crime rate that
has long been quite low.
“[Gun control] is a complex mechanism,” she said. “I’m not sure the authorities
will make it work properly.”
The vast majority of residents of Yerevan randomly interviewed by RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service in the streets said they want no guns in their homes.
“We don’t need weapons now,” said one man. “That would create a dangerous
situation because we are hot-tempered people.”
“I wouldn’t like my husband or other family members to have guns,” said a young
woman.
Ashot Avetisian, another Yerevan resident, has owned a hunting rifle for the
last ten years. He believes that “everyone must know well how to use weapons and
ammunition.”
“For me, a gun is first of all a means of hunting and also a means of
self-defense,” said Avetisian. He admitted, though, that he has never gone
hunting since obtaining his rifle.
Opposition Leader Predicts Mass Protests
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Opposition leader Artur Vanetsian holds a news conference in Liberty
Square, Yerevan, April 18, 2022.
Opposition leader Artur Vanetsian predicted mass demonstrations against the
Armenian government on Thursday as he continued a nonstop sit-in in Yerevan’s
Liberty Square.
Vanetsian and a group of activists of his Fatherland party began the protest on
Sunday, urging Armenians to thwart what they say are sweeping concessions to
Azerbaijan planned by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Armenia’s other major opposition groups backed the move and pledged to take
coordinated actions aimed at toppling Pashinian. But they have so far given few
details of their promised campaign.
Vanetsian claimed that his sit-in is changing public mood in the country and
setting the stage for massive anti-government protests.
“In the last few days I have seen many people in Liberty Square who were
disappointed, didn’t like us and the authorities, blamed everyone and were ready
to emigrate,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But people have now realized
that they are losing the homeland.”
“Believe me, in a short period of time there will be lots of people in the
streets and squares of Armenia who will voice demands and … definitely defend
Armenia and Artsakh (Karabakh),” he said.
Vanetsian’s party and the former ruling Republican Party (HHK) make up the Pativ
Unem bloc, one of the two opposition forces represented in the Armenian
parliament. Pativ Unem and the other parliamentary opposition bloc, Hayastan,
rallied thousands of supporters in Liberty Square on April 5 to warn Pashinian
against agreeing to restore Azerbaijan’s control over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinian met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels the following
day for talks hosted by European Council President Charles Michel.
Speaking in the parliament on April 13, the prime minister said the
international community is pressing Armenia to “lower a bit the bar on the
question of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status” and recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. He signaled Yerevan’s intention to make such concessions to Baku,
fuelling more opposition allegations that he has agreed to recognize Azerbaijani
sovereignty over Karabakh.
Some pro-government lawmakers insisted afterwards that Pashinian did not call
for the restoration of Azerbaijani control of Karabakh. But they did not say
what exactly “lowering the bar” on the territory’s status means.
Armenian Authorities Accused Of Blocking Hearings On Turkey
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Opposition deputies arrive for a parliament session on Turkey
boycotted and thwarted by the pro-government majority in the National Assembly,
Yerevan, February 23, 2022.
Opposition lawmakers on Thursday accused Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party
of obstructing parliamentary hearings on Turkish-Armenian relations in order to
avoid upsetting Turkey.
The hearings initiated by the main opposition Hayastan alliance were due to take
place on Thursday, three days before the 107th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide in Ottoman Turkey. The leadership of the Armenian parliament controlled
by Civil Contract said on Wednesday that they will not be held as planned for
“technical reasons.”
Artsvik Minasian, a senior Hayastan lawmaker, said he and his opposition
colleagues were told that the parliament staff cannot organize the hearings
because it is now busy preparing for a session of a Russian-Armenian
inter-parliamentary commission slated for Friday.
Minasian dismissed the official explanation as unconvincing and illegal. He
argued that the parliamentary statutes do not allow the leadership National
Assembly to block or delay such discussions demanded by the parliament’s
factions.
“We realized then that their decision is political,” said Minasian. “As we can
see from their recent behavior on Armenia-Turkey relations, they are afraid of
any thoughts containing demands [to Turkey.]”
“This once again shows that we are dealing with a government which is not only
inept but also shows its readiness to cater for Azerbaijani-Turkish interests,”
he told reporters.
Turkey - Foreign Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia and Mevlut Cavusoglu of
Turkey meet in Antalya, March 12, 2022.
Special envoys named by Ankara and Yerevan held earlier this year two rounds of
negotiations aimed at normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations. They are expected
to meet again in the coming weeks and months.
Armenian opposition leaders claim that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is ready
to make sweeping concessions to Ankara in return for the opening of the
Turkish-Armenian border and establishment of diplomatic relations between the
two nations. In particular, they say, the Armenian government could agree to
stop seeking a greater international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide
vehemently denied by Ankara.
Pashinian’s government and political allies maintain that Yerevan stands for an
unconditional normalization of Turkish-Armenian ties.
Turkey has for decades made the normalization conditional on a resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Turkish Foreign Minister
Cavusoglu has repeatedly made clear Ankara is coordinating its ongoing dialogue
with Yerevan with Baku.
In February, the pro-government majority in Armenia’s parliament rejected an
opposition proposal to condemn a joint declaration adopted by the Turkish and
Azerbaijani presidents during a visit to Karabakh last year. Lawmakers
representing Pashinian’s party said that it would complicate the
Turkish-Armenian talks.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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