Friday,
Aliyev Again Rules Out Status For Karabakh Armenians
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (file photo).
Speaking on national television on Friday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
again ruled out any status for ethnic Armenians living in Karabakh, saying that
they will enjoy the same rights as other citizens of Azerbaijan.
Aliyev also reasserted Baku’s right to conduct military operations in Karabakh
similar to the one its armed forces conducted in early August along the Lachin
corridor with the use of drones, mortars and grenade launchers.
Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said two ethnic Armenian
soldiers were killed and 19 others were wounded in the August 3 attack by
Azerbaijani forces that prompted calls from the international community for
de-escalation in the volatile region.
Azerbaijan claimed it had taken retributive action for the killing of an
Azerbaijani servicemen by “Armenian terrorists.”
“Armenians living in Karabakh should take the right steps. They must understand
that their future depends on their integration into Azerbaijani society. We live
in reality. From the geographical, economic and historical points of view
Karabakh is an inseparable part of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev told AzTV.
The Azerbaijani leader claimed that those who populistically talk about some
status or independence for Armenians in Karabakh are “the main enemies of the
Armenian people.”
“Because the Armenians living in Karabakh will not have any status, independence
or advantages. They will live like all citizens of Azerbaijan. Their rights will
be protected the way the rights of Azerbaijani citizens and peoples living [in
Azerbaijan] are protected,” Aliyev said.
In March, Azerbaijan presented Armenia with five elements which it wants to be
at the heart of a peace treaty to be signed by the two South Caucasus nations
that fought a bloody six-week war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020.
The elements include a mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity.
The Armenian government, in principle, agreed to the elements, but said they
should be complemented by other issues relating to the future status of
Nagorno-Karabakh and the security of its population.
In the interview to national television Aliyev also claimed that hundreds of
Armenian soldiers were withdrawn from Karabakh after Azerbaijan’s military
operation on August 3. He stressed that Azerbaijan wants a full withdrawal of
Armenian armed units from Karabakh. “It is Armenia’s commitment. It is reflected
in the act of surrender signed by Armenia on November 10, 2020,” Aliyev claimed.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan on August 4, Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian stressed that there was no serviceman of the Republic
of Armenia in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian side, however, does not share the view that the Moscow-brokered
ceasefire that provided for the deployment of about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers
in the region also stipulates that local Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh should
disarm.
In his interview Aliyev also confirmed that the few remaining Armenian residents
of the town of Lachin and the villages of Sus and Zabux (Aghavno) situated along
the Lachin corridor will leave by the end of the month as a new route for the
corridor linking Karabakh with Armenia is due to be put into use.
Aliyev claimed that Armenians lived in the villages illegally after their
occupation by ethnic Armenian forces in the early 1990s and, therefore, he
warned that those Armenians who will choose to stay might be treated like war
criminals under the Geneva conventions.
“The occupying country cannot carry out illegal settlement of the occupied
lands. This is a war crime. Perhaps the Armenians from Syria and Lebanon living
there do not know this, but the leadership of Armenia is well aware of that. We
hear news coming from there that someone says they will stay and will not leave.
It is their business, but they are war criminals. They should not test our
patience. Let them leave by their own will, we don’t care where they go,” the
Azerbaijani president said.
ICG: Baku Pursues Three Goals It Hopes Will Pressure Armenia To Capitulate In
Negotiations
• Heghine Buniatian
Azerbaijani military trucks are moving along the Lachin corridor near
Nagorno-Karabakh in the presence of Russian peacekeepers deployed there as part
of the Moscow-brokered 2020 ceasefire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia
(file photo).
By escalating the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh Azerbaijan pursues
three goals that it wants to achieve either by force or the threat of force,
which it hopes will pressure Armenia to capitulate in negotiations, an
international think tank says in its latest report on the region.
In its report titled “Warding Off Renewed War in Nagorno-Karabakh” that was
published this week the International Crisis Group (ICG) goes on to list what it
views as these three goals that have to do with the overland connection between
Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia known as the Lachin corridor, the withdrawal of
Armenian troops from the region as well as a treaty with Armenia to end the
conflict that would be to Azerbaijan’s advantage.
The report quotes an unnamed Azerbaijani official as saying that “the Armenian
side is trying to delay the commissioning of the new road this year, thereby
purposely delaying the handover of the city of Lachin and a number of villages
to Azerbaijan.”
Azerbaijan’s second grievance, according to ICG experts, relates to what Baku
says is Armenia’s failure to withdraw forces from Nagorno-Karabakh, as the
ceasefire says it must do. “Yerevan says it has done so. The issue, it says, is
Azerbaijan’s concern that Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto authorities retain an
armed force. Baku argues that this force is illegal, demanding that Russian
peacekeepers disarm it, while Armenia and the de facto authorities say its
disarmament was never part of the ceasefire deal,” the report says.
“Baku seized upon comments Armen Grigoryan, Armenia’s Security Council
secretary, made in an interview in mid-July that Armenia would withdraw forces
by September as evidence of its claims. Yerevan has since furiously tried to
walk back words it says were taken out of context,” writes the ICG, noting that
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian reiterated on August 4 that all Armenian
armed forces have left Nagorno-Karabakh.
An Azerbaijani military official told the ICG that Baku will press ahead with
operations until the area is fully demilitarized.
The report says that, thirdly, Baku appears keen to proceed to talks over a
treaty that it hopes will end the conflict to its advantage. Although in April
the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders in Brussels declared their readiness to
start talks on such an agreement, Azerbaijan has voiced frustration that
subsequent diplomacy has moved too slowly, the authors of the report note.
An Azerbaijani official alleged that Armenian officials are purposely delaying
talks. “They think that, by prolonging the negotiations, they can wait for the
geopolitical situation to change in their favor,” the official quoted by the ICG
said.
For their part, officials in Yerevan blame Baku, saying it is Azerbaijani
officials that are “dragging their feet in EU-mediated talks and hoping to take
advantage of the world’s focus on Russia’s war in Ukraine,” the authors of the
report say.
“From a military standpoint, Armenia and de facto authorities in
Nagorno-Karabakh view Baku’s seizure of Farukh (Parukh) in March, as well as
positions held by the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh forces near the Lachin corridor
and along the front lines in the entity’s north and north west, as an attempt to
gain high ground and, thus, strategic advantage,” the ICG notes.
The authors of the report wonder whether Russian peacekeepers can deter
Azerbaijan and enforce the ceasefire, noting that since early May, they have
been conducting daily patrols on Sarybaba heights close to the Lachin corridor.
“The patrols stopped a couple of days before the Azerbaijani advances, however,
for reasons that are unclear,” the report says.
A senior de facto official in Stepanakert quoted by the ICG said the
peacekeepers often feel powerless. “Everyone understands that Russia is weaker
than ever before in the international arena,” the de facto representative said,
according to the report.
“The clashes have once again highlighted the challenges faced by the Russian
peacekeeping mission without a clear mandate for how it can engage beyond its
monitoring role – a problem made worse by Russia’s loss of standing following
its invasion of Ukraine,” the ICG writes.
In a 2021 report, the ICG called on the sides to hold talks on clarifying the
peacekeepers’ role. “They appear increasingly unlikely to do so, particularly
amid increasing criticism of the mission by both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Such
frustration risks undermining the peacekeepers’ ability to carry out their
existing mandate of observing the ceasefire in the conflict zone. If and when
the time becomes ripe, international mediators must urge the sides to revisit
this issue, which will likely come to a head in any case in 2025 when Baku and
Yerevan must give their assent to the mission’s continuation,” the report says.
According to ICG experts, “most importantly, Western capitals and Moscow should
try to ensure that their standoff over Ukraine does not bleed into mediation
efforts in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“Even distracted, Moscow pays more attention to Armenia and Azerbaijan than does
Brussels or Washington. It remains the only country that has been willing to
dispatch forces to the region and it remains a key trade partner of both
countries. Working with Moscow, distasteful as it may be in European capitals,
improves the odds of bringing peace to the South Caucasus,” the ICG says.
The group’s experts conclude that “concerted diplomacy by all outside actors
might yet avert a return to war and keep nascent talks about an eventual peace
settlement and new trade routes on track.”
Iran Appoints Consul In Southern Armenian Town
• Naira Nalbandian
A general view of the town of Kapan in southern Armenia (file photo).
Iran has appointed a consul general to the town of Kapan in southern Armenia,
the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Yerevan told the Armenian state-run Armenpress
news agency.
Armenian news website News.am, quoting Robert Beglarian, an ethnic Armenian
lawmaker in Iran’s parliament, reported on August 11 that the appointed consul
general, Abedin Varamin, had already taken office and held meetings with
officials in Yerevan.
Tehran made the decision to open a consulate general in Kapan, a strategic town
in Armenia’s Syunik province bordering Iran, last December. Officially the
consulate is likely to open later this year.
Shirak Torosian, a pro-government lawmaker who is a member of the Armenia-Iran
friendship group in the Armenian parliament, described the decision as “another
clear message about Tehran’s red lines in the region.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reassured Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian in an August 11 phone call about his country’s opposition to any
attempt to alter borders in the region.
The reassurance came amid continued statements from Baku that Armenia must
provide Azerbaijan with an extraterritorial land corridor via Syunik to its
western Nakhichevan exclave under the terms of the Russia-brokered ceasefire
that put an end to a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war over
Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.
Armenia publicly supports the idea of unblocking transport links in the region,
but insists that it should maintain sovereignty over all transit roads in its
territory, including in Syunik.
“In Iran’s case it is also a matter of national security,” Torosian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday.
“Opening a consulate general in Kapan means that they consider Syunik to be an
important region for Iran in terms of protecting the interests of Iranian
citizens and protecting the interests of the Iranian state in general,” he added.
The Armenian lawmaker said that Iran’s consulate general in Kapan also means
that Tehran’s repeated statements against geopolitical changes in the region
“now become visible.”
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 in Nagorno-Karabakh, 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 corridor. But Russia’s Federal Security Service,
which is in charge of the protection of Armenia’s state frontier, said that the
stepped-up security measures were due to increased drug trafficking and other
illegal cross-border activities in the area.
Four Killed In Traffic Collision In Karabakh Involving Russian Peacekeepers’
Driver
The scene of the car crash on the Stepanakert-Askeran highway, Nagorno-Karabakh,
.
Four people have been killed in a major traffic collision in Nagorno-Karabakh
where a vehicle operated by a driver of the Russian peacekeeping contingent
deployed in the region collided with another car.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian authorities said the apparent accident
occurred along the Stepanakert-Askeran highway on Friday morning.
They said the 30-year-old driver of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, who was
identified only by his initials, I. Y., drove a full-size SUV, Haval H9, that
collided with a compact Lada sedan VAZ-2107.
The Lada’s driver, who was identified by the local police as a 26-year-old
resident of the village of Sarushen in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Askeran district,
reportedly suffered bone fractures and bruising of the right lung and was taken
to hospital, while his four passengers – all women from the same district aged
from 50 to 56 – were killed on the spot.
No information about the condition of the Haval H9 driver was made available
immediately.
Local investigators are working on the scene, Nagorno-Karabakh’s authorities
said.
Russia deploys nearly 2,000 peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh after brokering a
ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan in November 2020 to end a deadly
six-week war over the region.
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.