Monday, August 8, 2022


Pashinian Ally Downplays Armenian-Russian ‘Differences’ Over Peacekeepers

        • Naira Nalbandian

NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Armored vehicles of Russian peacekeepers move along the road 
towards Agdam from their check point outside Askeran, November 20, 2020.


An Armenian pro-government lawmaker has denied any major differences between 
Yerevan and Moscow over the activities of Russian peacekeepers in 
Nagorno-Karabakh after last week’s deadly fighting in the disputed region.

Vigen Khachatrian, a member of the ruling Civil Contract faction, said on Monday 
that the situation is far from being described as “tensions” or “differences”, 
but rather is a result of a lack of understanding.

Following clashes between ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces along the 
Lachin corridor near Nagorno-Karabakh early last week that reportedly left two 
Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldier dead Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian called for “adjusting details” of the Russian peacekeeping operation 
in the region. He, in particular, suggested giving the Russian contingent a 
“broader international mandate.”

“If we see that solutions are not possible in a trilateral 
[Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] format, we will have to think about activating 
additional international mechanisms,” Pashinian warned on Thursday without 
elaborating.

Moscow effectively dismissed Armenian criticism as Russian Foreign Minister 
Sergei Lavrov said the following day that they had not received any concrete 
proposals which the Armenian prime minister wants to discuss in the context of 
the Russian peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“So I can’t guess now,” the top Russian diplomat said, stressing at the same 
time that the Russian peacekeepers are “making every effort to stabilize the 
situation on the ground.”

Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vahan Hunanian said later on Friday that it 
was still in February 2021 that the Armenian side put in writing and submitted 
to the top Russian leadership its concerns about the activities of the Russian 
peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh in order to raise their efficiency 
and avoid problems in the future.

The exchange between the Armenian and Russian officials gave rise to 
speculations about growing differences between Yerevan and Moscow regarding the 
matter.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry has not yet disclosed details of the 2021 document 
that it says was submitted to Russia.

Vigen Khachatrian

“I suppose the two countries’ foreign ministries will meet to talk it over and 
will come to an understanding,” Civil Contract’s Khachatrian said.

“I don’t think that the Foreign Ministry should publish the contents of every 
document. What was said is as much as could be said,” he added.

Meanwhile, a phone call between Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin 
was reported on Monday.

The Armenian prime minister’s office did not specifically mention the issue of 
peacekeepers as being discussed by the two leaders. It only said that “issues 
related to the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as ensuring security 
on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border were discussed.”

“In this context, the importance of the full implementation of all the 
agreements of the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan of November 9, 2020, 
January 11, and November 26, 2021 was reaffirmed,” the brief statement said.

Talking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last week, political analyst Tatul 
Hakobian, referring to Pashinian’s statements made during a cabinet meeting on 
August 4, described the language used by the Armenian side as “primitive 
blackmail.” But blackmail, he warned, is far from being the best tool in dealing 
with Russia. “We want to get rid of one thing, but have nothing to replace it 
with,” he said.

Gegham Manukian, a member of the opposition Hayastan parliamentary faction, said 
it was not clear to him how the Armenian side sees the way of raising the 
effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh. But he 
outlined his faction’s vision for that: “We should first discuss the issue of 
raising the number of Russian peacekeepers [deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh]. 
Secondly, we should reconsider the way the Russian force is deployed in separate 
directions. The Armenian side’s initiative of mirrored withdrawals, even if 
implemented, should be done in conditions of full control so as to avoid 
situations similar to what happened in the village of Parukh [in March] and in 
the northwestern part of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.] in recent days.”

Manukian would not comment on Pashinian’s statement regarding the possibility of 
considering “additional international mechanisms” if solutions within the 
Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani format fail. He said that the statement was not 
clearly formulated and could be just a “word game”, while there is no official 
information to suggest this is a realistic plan.

Protesters in front of the Russian embassy in Yerevan demand that Russian 
peacekeepers “properly carry out” their mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, August 5, 
2022.

A multination international peacekeeping operation was discussed as part of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process before the 2020 war. But after Russia brokered a 
ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan to put an end to six weeks of bloodshed 
in the conflict zone, the other two OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs – the United 
States and France – welcomed Moscow’s peacekeeping operation, although U.S. 
President Donald Trump talked about the possibility of deploying ‘Scandinavian 
peacekeepers’ in the region during the war itself.

Swedish journalists recently revealed that one week before the Moscow-brokered 
ceasefire was signed, on November 2, 2020, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk 
Group, Andrew Schofer, discussed such a possibility with Swedish officials. 
Though, according to the media investigation, that proposal was rejected by 
Stockholm.

In the wake of the recent escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh a small group of 
Armenians displaced from the region by the 2020 war and its consequences 
picketed the Russian embassy in Yerevan demanding that Russian peacekeepers 
“properly carry out” their mission. They also staged rallies in front of the 
embassies of France and the United States as well as the United Nations office 
in Yerevan, calling for an international peacekeeping operation in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.



Armenia Rejects Claims Of Involvement In Greek Surveillance Scandal

        • Gevorg Stamboltsian

Armenian Ambassador to Greece Tigran Mkrtchian (file photo).


Armenia has categorically denied any involvement in a surveillance scandal in 
Greece that has led to the resignation of the country’s intelligence chief as 
well as top prime minister’s aide.

Reports emerged on Saturday of Panagiotis Kontoleon, the former head of Greece’s 
National Intelligence Service who resigned on Friday, alleging that the Armenian 
and Ukrainian intelligence services had requested the surveillance of Nikos 
Androulakis, leader of the socialist opposition PASOK party.

In response to the claim covered in local media, Tigran Mkrtchian, Armenia’s 
Ambassador to Greece, called it a “shameless lie”, stressing that “Armenia has 
never asked any government to listen to anyone’s phone.”

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Greece Sergii Shutenko also rejected the allegations 
about Kyiv’s involvement.

The most high-profile scandal in Greece’s domestic politics in recent years came 
to light last week after Androulakis, who is also an MEP, revealed that the 
European Parliament’s cyber security service had informed him that a spyware 
called Predator had been installed on his phone.

A few days before that, the head of the Greek special service admitted during a 
closed parliamentary hearing that spyware had been installed on the phone of a 
journalist working for media network CNN Greece.

In an address to the nation on Monday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis 
distanced himself from the scandal, saying that he did not know that the 
National Intelligence Service had bugged the phone of a rival politician.



Turkey Warns Armenia Against ‘New Provocations’

        • Armen Koloyan

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (file photo).


Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has called on Armenia to “refrain from 
new provocations” several days after Yerevan and Baku traded accusations over an 
escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh that left at least three people dead.

Speaking at a gathering of Turkish diplomats in Ankara on Monday, Cavusoglu 
reportedly also reiterated his country’s vision of peace in the South Caucasus 
region.

“After the end of the war [in Karabakh], Turkey is making efforts to ensure 
peace in the region. Now we are talking not about Azerbaijan’s occupied 
territories, displaced people, refugees and a conflict that can start again at 
any moment, but about regional peace and cooperation. We again call on Armenia 
to refrain from participating in new provocations [against Azerbaijan in 
Karabakh],” Cavusoglu said.

On August 3, ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said that two 
Armenian soldiers were killed and nearly two dozen others wounded in what they 
described as an attack by Azerbaijani forces against their military positions 
along the Lachin corridor conducted with the use of drones, mortars and grenade 
launchers.

Baku, for its part, said that an operation codenamed ‘Retribution’ was launched 
by its forces after one Azerbaijani soldier was killed by ethnic Armenian forces 
in the area on August 1.

Azerbaijan also claimed to have captured some strategic heights in the 
mountainous region overlooking the corridor linking Nagorno-Karabakh with 
Armenia that has been controlled by Russian peacekeepers since the end of a 
deadly 2020 war in which Baku managed to regain control of large swaths of 
territories in and around the disputed region.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutiunian ordered a “partial 
mobilization” of army reservists in the wake of the incidents, but the situation 
did not further escalate amid reported agreements that Armenians would be 
leaving several villages along the Lachin corridor that are to be handed over to 
Azerbaijan as part of the 2020 Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Despite what appears to be de-escalation that had also been urged by the United 
States and the European Union, the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh 
still remains relatively tense as Armenians and Azerbaijanis continue to accuse 
each other of regular ceasefire violations.

Armenia said that one of its soldiers was wounded along the border with 
Azerbaijan on Saturday, a claim denied by Azerbaijan, but confirmed by the 
Russian Defense Ministry in its latest news bulletin on the Nagorno-Karabakh 
peacekeeping operation.

Turkey, which is Azerbaijan’s top military and political ally, has been engaged 
in a normalization process with Armenia since late last year. Ankara, however, 
has made it clear that establishing diplomatic relations and opening borders 
with Armenia depends on Yerevan’s accepting Baku’s key demands. Commenting on 
prospects for normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations in July, Turkish Foreign 
Minister Cavusoglu said that Yerevan should specifically negotiate a peace 
accord sought by Baku and open a land corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan 
exclave.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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