Friday, Armenian General Arrested Armenia -- An Armenian soldier fires a howitzer during Russian-Armenian military exercises at the Alagyaz firing range, September 24, 2020. The former commander of the Armenian army’s artillery units has been arrested in an ongoing criminal investigation into alleged supplies of inadequate ammunition to them. The National Security Service (NSS) claimed on Friday that Major-General Armen Harutiunian abused his position to seal a deal with a private firm that sold $1 million worth of artillery rounds to Armenia’s Defense Ministry. In a statement, the NSS said that the rounds manufactured in the Czech Republic fell short of the firing range of cannons used by the Armenian army, preventing the latter from successfully carrying out “combat tasks” during the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. The ammunition was designed for a more short-range artillery system, it said. The statement said that Harutiunian arranged the deal to “embezzle a large sum from the Defense Ministry.” Investigators have brought corresponding charges against the general and the unnamed company’s owner and chief executive, added the statement. It was not immediately clear whether the suspects will plead guilty to the accusations. Harutiunian was among seven senior generals who were sacked in February through presidential decrees initiated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. They included the chief of the army’s General Staff, Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian. Davtian, two other generals as well as former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan went on trial in January on charges stemming from the purchase of allegedly outdated air-to-surface rockets for the Armenian Air Force. They all deny the charges. Unlike the other defendants, Tonoyan is held in detention. In a January statement, he warned the authorities against scapegoating him for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh. He pledged to make “surprise” revelations in that regard. Opposition politicians and other critics of the Armenian government hold Pashinian primarily responsible for the outcome of the war that left at least 3,800 Armenian soldiers dead. Some of them claim that the criminal cases against the former defense minister and generals are aimed at deflecting blame from Pashinian. Armenia Again Asks Russian-Led Military Bloc For Help Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with top security officials of CSTO member states, Yerevan, . Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Friday renewed his calls for the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to help Armenia deal with what he called serious security threats emanating from Azerbaijan. Citing continuing “aggressive statements” by Baku, Pashinian said the military alliance of Russia, Armenia and four ex-Soviet states should specifically consider dispatching a monitoring mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The Armenian government appealed to the CSTO for help shortly after Azerbaijani troops reportedly crossed two sections of the border and advanced several into Armenian territory in May 2021. It asked the alliance to invoke Article 2 of its founding treaty which requires a collective response to grave security threats facing a CSTO member states. Russia and other member states expressed concern over the border tensions but did not issue joint statements in support of Armenia. Some of their representatives argued that the heavily militarized frontier has not been demarcated. Armenia - Yerevan-based foreign military attaches visit an area in Armenia's Syunik province where Armenian and Azerbaijani troops are locked in a border standoff, May 20, 2021. Pashinian described that argument as “dangerous” when he met with the secretaries of the security councils of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan who gathered for a regular session in Yerevan. “As the holder of the [CSTO] presidency, I want to stress that this issue needs to be discussed in earnest,” he said. “Why? Because we can see that aggressive statements by Azerbaijan are continuing.” Pashinian cited a 2010 document that regulates the deployment of CSTO monitoring missions to crisis spots. The missions are required to recommend concrete joint actions to the member states. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday implicitly threatened to resort to military action if the Armenian side continues to oppose the opening of a land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. Armenia - Nikolay Patrushev (C), secretary of Russia's Security Council, meets his Armenian counterpart Armen Grigorian, . The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, ruled out such an extraterritorial corridor when he spoke at the meeting of the top CSTO security officials on Friday. He said that Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Russia call for only conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states. Grigorian held a separate meeting with his powerful Russian counterpart, Nikolay Patrushev, late on Thursday. His office said he briefed Patrushev on the current station in the Karabakh conflict zone and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in particular. It cited Patrushev as saying that “Moscow supports Armenia in the processes of ensuring regional security.” Russia’s Security Council reported, for its part, that the two men discussed Russian-Armenian cooperation “in the interests of stability in the South Caucasus region.” It said they also spoke about Russian assistance to Armenia’s energy and cyber security. Yerevan Insists On Deal On Karabakh’s Status Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric address media, . A comprehensive peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan should address the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh’s future status, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan insisted on Friday. Mirzoyan discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric during her visit to Yerevan. “I reaffirmed the Armenian government’s readiness to make efforts to establish peace and stability in the region,” he said after their meeting. “In this context, it is fundamental to address the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which should include the key provisions of ensuring the security and all rights of the Artsakh people and determining Nagorno-Karabakh’s status.” Mirzoyan’s comments came the day after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned Armenia against bringing up Karabakh’s status in peace talks with Azerbaijan. Aliyev again said that Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 war with Armenia put an end to the conflict and even Karabakh’s existence as a territorial unit. “If Armenia continues to call into question Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity then Azerbaijan will have no choice but do the same [with regard to Armenia,]” he said. Baku has been pushing for a peace treaty with Yerevan that would commit the two sides to recognizing each other’s territorial integrity. Armenian officials have said that Karabakh’s status and the security of its population should also be on the agenda of planned talks on the treaty. Aliyev on Thursday also implicitly threatened to resort to military action if the Armenian side continues to oppose the opening of a land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, ruled out such an extraterritorial corridor on Friday when he spoke at a meeting in Yerevan with his counterparts from Russia and other ex-Soviet states making up the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization. Grigorian stuck to the official Armenian line that Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Russia and the European Union call for only conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states. 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.