RFE/RL Armenian Report – 08/11/2022

                                        Thursday, 


Jailed Former Top Prosecutor To Be Released On Bail

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Former Prosecutor-General of Armenia Aghvan Hovsepian (standing) during his 
trial in a Yerevan court, May 16, 2022.


A court in Yerevan on Thursday granted bail to former Prosecutor-General Aghvan 
Hovsepian who was arrested last September on a string of corruption charges 
denied by him.

Judge Mnatsakan Martirosian ordered that Hovsepian pay 100 million drams (about 
$245,000) before being released from custody pending trial.

Hovsepian’s lawyers had argued that their client suffered from a number of 
diseases, including severe diabetes, that they insisted were incompatible with 
detention.

Hovsepian, 69, served as Armenia’s chief prosecutor from 1998-1999 and 
2004-2013. He went on to become the first head of a newly created 
law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, in 2014. He ran the 
committee until the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” that brought current Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian to power.

Hovsepian was one of Armenia’s most powerful state officials during his tenure.

The former top prosecutor now stands accused of bribery, money laundering and 
illegal entrepreneurial activity.

The Anti-Corruption Committee claims that he also misappropriated several 
properties while in office.

Hovsepian denied the charges at the start of his trial in early May. He said 
these charges are based on false testimony given by two individuals.



Reports On Next Round Of Turkey-Armenia Talks In September Not Confirmed In 
Yerevan Yet

        • Tatevik Sargsian

The Armenian and Turkish envoys for normalization talks, Ruben Rubinian and 
Serdar Kilic (combination photograph).


Official Yerevan does not yet confirm reports in the Turkish media quoting a 
senior diplomat in Ankara that the next round of talks between special 
representatives of Turkey and Armenia on normalization will take place in 
September.

Vahan Hunanian, a spokesman for Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service on Thursday that “at the moment there is no agreement regarding 
the next meeting.”

He added that officials in Yerevan “in due time inform the public about 
scheduled meetings of the special representatives of Armenia and Turkey engaged 
in the normalization process.”

So far, Armenia’s Ruben Rubinian and Turkey’s Serdar Kilic have met four times 
since the beginning of this year in a fresh bid to achieve rapprochement between 
the two neighbors feuding over historical events, including the Ottoman-era 
genocide of Armenians denied by Turkey.

The first meeting between the two envoys took place in January in Moscow, 
Russia, with the three subsequent meetings taking place in Vienna, Austria.

The unnamed high-ranking Turkish diplomat told the Turkish media that Ankara 
insists that the next rounds of talks take place not in third countries, but in 
Armenia and Turkey, but for this, the diplomat said, a number of clear steps 
must be taken.

After all meetings that have taken place between Rubinian and Kilic the parties 
emphasized their readiness to go for a full settlement of relations without 
preconditions.

Following their latest round of talks on July 1 the two envoys announced 
agreements on enabling the crossing of the land border between Armenia and 
Turkey by third-country citizens as well as on commencing direct air cargo trade 
between the two countries.

The official who talked to the Turkish media also noted that the current process 
is different from the 2009 negotiations, but he said that “one can talk about 
taking clear steps like signing a document when there is a certain maturity in 
the process.” According to him, normalization should be carried forward with 
steps aimed at increasing confidence.



Moscow Rejects Criticism Of Russian Peacekeepers In Karabakh

        • Astghik Bedevian

Russian peacekeepers guard the area in the town of Lachin (file photo).


Russia does not consider “separate criticism” of its peacekeepers in 
Nagorno-Karabakh to be fair, a senior diplomat in Moscow said on Thursday.

During a news briefing Ivan Nechayev, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign 
Ministry, stressed that Russian peacekeepers in the region are engaged in 
efforts to stabilize the situation on the ground.

During last week’s weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan, Armenian Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian strongly criticized the Russian peacekeeping operation in 
Nagorno-Karabakh following the most serious fighting along the line of contact 
that left at least two Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldiers dead.

Pashinian urged Russia to do more to prevent further ceasefire violations, 
charging that Baku has been stepping up such violations despite the presence of 
Russian peacekeeping troops in the region.

“In these circumstances, it is becoming imperative to adjust details of the 
[Russian] peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinian said. “We 
expect that any attempt to cross the line of contact will be stopped by the 
peacekeeping troops of the Russian Federation.”

In an apparent reaction to this criticism, Nechayev said that “along with 
intensive political contacts Russian peacekeepers also continue to be engaged in 
active work, taking necessary efforts for stabilization on the ground.”

“Both Baku and Yerevan have before emphasized the important role of the Russian 
peacekeeping contingent. We do not consider separate criticism of the 
peacekeepers to be fair,” the diplomat added.

Nechayev also announced that Moscow plans to organize high-level trilateral 
contacts by the end of August on different subjects concerning the settlement of 
Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the situation 
around the Lachin corridor should be resolved in accordance with the trilateral 
statement of November 9, 2020.

“Point 6 of the statement stipulates that the plan for the construction of a new 
route through the Lachin corridor, which will ensure a link between Karabakh and 
Armenia, should be determined with the agreement of the parties in the next 
three years, with the subsequent redeployment of Russian peacekeeping troops to 
maintain the security of the route,” he said.

The Armenian prime minister also insisted last week that the ceasefire agreement 
requires Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia to work out before 2024 only a plan for 
the construction of a new Armenia-Karabakh road. He emphasized that no such plan 
had been drawn up yet.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, however, that the three sides did agree 
on the “route” of the new corridor early this year and accused Yerevan of 
dragging out construction work on its Armenian sections.

After the latest escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh the local ethnic Armenian 
authorities ordered the few remaining Armenian residents of villages situated 
along the current route of the Lachin corridor to leave their homes for good 
until August 25.

Incidentally, Azerbaijan announced on August 11 the completion of the 
construction of its section of the road bypassing Lachin. The Armenian side 
launched construction on its section of the road on August 1 and expects the 
work to be completed by spring. Until then, authorities say, people will have to 
fall back on unpaved roads for travel.



Tehran Reassures Yerevan Over Iran-Armenia Border


Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
meet in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, September 17, 2021.


Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reiterated his country’s opposition to any 
attempt to alter borders in the region as he held a phone call with Armenian 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian reported by Yerevan on Thursday.

The reassurance comes a week after a major escalation in the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict zone in which at least two ethnic Armenian and one Azerbaijani soldiers 
were killed on August 3. Both parties blamed each other for the most serious 
fighting since March.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has also accused Armenia of showing ‘unconstructive 
approaches’ in terms of implementing the Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement 
that put an end to a deadly 44-day conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 
2020.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, in particular, charged earlier 
this week that Armenia was dragging out the implementation of the point 
concerning the opening of road and railway links to connect Azerbaijan to its 
Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s southern Syunik province.

The ceasefire that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh commits Armenia to 
opening rail and road links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave. 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that it calls for an 
exterritorial land corridor that would pass through Syunik, the sole Armenian 
province bordering Iran.

At least one of the routes of what Baku calls the ‘Zangezur corridor’, namely 
the railway, should stretch along the river Arax, which marks the border between 
Armenia and Iran.

Armenia publicly supports the idea of unblocking regional transport links, but 
rejects what it calls “the corridor logic” behind such efforts. Armenia insists 
that it must maintain sovereignty over the transport routes in its territory.

A statement issued by Pashinian’s press office today said that during their 
telephone conversation the leaders of Armenia and Iran discussed “issues related 
to regional developments and security challenges.”

“The prime minister of Armenia presented to the president of Iran details about 
the recent border incidents between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the context of 
establishing stability and peace in the region, Pashinian emphasized the 
importance of the full implementation of the trilateral agreements of November 
9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021,” it said.

“Referring to the recent tense incidents in the South Caucasus, the president of 
Iran mentioned the statement made by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution 
Ayatollah Khamenei during the recent meetings with the presidents of Russia and 
Turkey that Iran is sensitive about its borders in the Caucasus region and will 
oppose any attempt to alter them,” the statement added.

Pashinian’s press office said that the parties also “exchanged ideas on 
bilateral ties and emphasized the importance of bringing them closer.”

“Pashinian expressed satisfaction with the development of Armenian-Iranian 
relations and noted that Armenia is ready to maximally promote the transit of 
goods between the two countries and to develop cooperation in the field of 
infrastructure in terms of roads, energy and other directions.

“The president of Iran described the relations between the two countries as 
historical and deep and emphasized the need to raise the level of sustainable 
Armenian-Iranian economic cooperation,” the statement said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned against attempts to block 
Armenia’s border with his country when he held separate meetings with Turkish 
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran 
last month.

Under the 2020 ceasefire agreement, Russia, which protects Armenia’s borders 
with Iran and Turkey, is to oversee the security of the transport links between 
Azerbaijan and its western exclave passing through Armenian territory.

Images of Russian checkpoints set up along several roads in Syunik that appeared 
on the Internet earlier this week fueled speculations among Armenians about an 
imminent deal on the transport links. But Russia’s Federal Security Service said 
the stepped-up security measures were due to increased drug trafficking and 
other illegal cross-border activities in the area.


Reposted 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.