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    Categories: 2022

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 09/22/2022

                                        Thursday, 


U.S. To Promote Peace For ‘People Of Karabakh’


UN - U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations 
General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York City, .


President Joe Biden has pledged continued U.S. efforts to facilitate an 
Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement which he said should benefit “the people of 
Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Congratulating Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Armenia’s independence 
anniversary marked on Wednesday, Biden also reaffirmed U.S. support for “the 
Armenian people’s democratic aspiration, sovereignty, and security.”

“The United States stands with Armenia as you continue working to combat 
corruption, develop accountable institutions, strengthen rule of law, and 
advance respect for human rights,” read his congratulatory message publicized by 
Pashinian’s office on Thursday.

Biden also said: “Recent hostilities [on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border] 
underscore the need to redouble our diplomacy so Armenia can look to a 
prosperous and peaceful future, which includes normalization of relations with 
neighbors.”

“We remain committed to working with you and other parties to promote a peaceful 
resolution to the conflict, including for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” added 
the U.S. president.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken similarly stressed the need for a 
“long-term political settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” on August 24 
when he announced the appointment of a new U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk 
Group. The mediator, Philip Reeker, visited Yerevan and Baku last week amid 
deadly border clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry denounced Blinken’s statement, saying that the 
U.S. risks being left out of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process with its 
attempts to “revive” the Minsk Group. It again claimed that Azerbaijan’s victory 
in the 2020 war with Armenia put an end to the Karabakh conflict.

The outgoing U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Lynne Tracy, has repeatedly stated over 
the past year that Washington considers the conflict unresolved because there is 
still no agreement on Karabakh’s status.

Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders remain strongly opposed to any settlement 
that would restore Azerbaijan’s full control over the territory.



Civic Groups Demand Armenian Police Chief’s Resignation

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia- The chief of the Armenian police, Vahe Ghazarian, speaks during a 
cabinet meeting in Yerevan,July 14, 2022.


Over three dozen nongovernmental organizations on Thursday condemned the violent 
break-up of a protest staged by angry parents of Armenian soldiers killed during 
the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and demanded the resignation of the national 
police chief.

The several dozen parents gathered at the main entrance to the Yerablur Military 
Pantheon in Yerevan early on Wednesday to try to prevent Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian from laying a wreath there on the occasion of Armenia’s Independence 
Day. They blame him for the deaths of their sons as well as at least 3,800 other 
Armenian soldiers killed in action.

Riot police dispersed the protesters shortly before senior officials led by 
Pashinian arrived at the military ceremony. At least 37 grief-stricken men and 
women were dragged away, forced into police vehicles and detained in dramatic 
scenes that caused uproar on social media.

The Armenian police defended the crackdown and said it must not be “used for 
political purposes.” They said at the same time that the police chief, Vahe 
Ghazarian, ordered an internal inquiry into his officers’ actions.

Armenia - Police detain the mother of an Armenian soldier killed in the 2020 war 
in Nagorno-Karabakh at the Yerablur Military Pantheon, Yerevan, September 21, 
2022.

In a joint statement, the Armenian civic groups dismissed the official 
justification for the use of force, saying that it was both illegal and immoral. 
They said that Ghazarian must step down.

The statement’s signatories included an NGO headed by Gayane Abrahamian, a 
former pro-government parliamentarian. She said that Pashinian will bear 
responsibility for the violence unless he fires Ghazarian or tells the police 
general to resign.

Abrahamian believes that the prime minister should have personally talked to the 
parents before deciding whether to go ahead with the wreath-laying ceremony.

“I’m sure that it was possible to somehow negotiate with those people,” she told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Neither Pashinian nor his office has commented on the Yerablur incident so far.

The same group of parents has demonstrated regularly in Yerevan since April. The 
protests were sparked by Pashinian’s remarks made in response to continuing 
opposition criticism of his handling of the devastating war with Azerbaijan.

“They [critics] say now, ‘Could they have averted the war?’” Pashinian told the 
Armenian parliament on April 13. “They could have averted the war, as a result 
of which we would have had the same situation, but of course without the 
casualties.”

The protesting families say Pashinian thus publicly admitted sacrificing 
thousands of lives.



Iranian Army Chief Warns Against Armenian Border Change


IRAN -- Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri 
speaks during an international conference in Tehran, February 23, 2021.


Iran’s top army general warned on Thursday that his country would resist 
attempts to redraw neighboring Armenia’s borders as he commented on recent 
border clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.

“As we have stated many times, we will not tolerate changes in the borders of 
the countries of the region, and we advise Azerbaijan and Armenia to solve their 
problems through dialogue,” Major-General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri said during a 
military parade in Tehran.

“We will not tolerate changes in the borders through war and we will not remain 
silent,” he added in a speech cited by Iranian news agencies.

Bagheri echoed warnings repeatedly issued by Iranian leaders both before and 
after the outbreak on September 13 of large-scale fighting at various the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. One of those sections is close to Iranian territory 
bordering Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province.

Syunik is the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. Baku has been pressuring 
Yerevan to open a special land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan 
exclave through the province.

The Armenian government rejects these demands while expressing readiness to 
restore conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states. 
Tehran also opposes the land corridor, fearing a loss of Iran’s common border 
with Armenia.

“Iran’s border with Armenia is a historical route that must be preserved without 
any change,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reportedly 
stressed in a September 14 phone call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun 
Bayramov.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, likewise warned against “the 
closing of the Iran-Armenia border” when he met with Turkish President Recep 
Tayyip Erdogan in July. Ankara has backed the Azerbaijani demands for the Syunik 
corridor.

A senior Armenian diplomat said on September 15 that Baku is planning another, 
even more-large-scale military offensive in a bid to “realize the unlawful 
ambitions towards establishing an extraterritorial corridor through the 
sovereign territory of Armenia.”



Fresh Skirmishes Reported On Armenian-Azeri Border

        • Astghik Bedevian
        • Tatevik Sargsian

ARMENIA -- Firefighters work among the ruins of a house in the village of Sotk 
hit by Azerbaijani shelling during border clashes, September 14, 2022.


Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of violating the ceasefire that 
stopped heavy fighting on their border last week.

The Defense Ministry in Yerevan said one Armenian soldier was wounded when his 
unit came under cross-border mortar and small arms fire on Wednesday evening.

“The enemy fire was silenced by retaliatory actions,” said Aram Torosian, the 
ministry spokesman.

He clarified afterwards that the skirmish occurred near Sotk, a border village 
in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province which was heavily damaged by Azerbaijani 
shelling last week.

For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that early on Thursday 
Armenian forces opened fire on its troops in the Kelbajar district bordering 
Gegharkunik, using mortars, grenade launchers and automatic weapons. It also 
claimed that an Armenian “sabotage group” tried unsuccessfully to attack their 
Azerbaijani positions in the area.

Torosian dismissed the claims as “disinformation.” No further truce violations 
were registered as of Thursday afternoon, the official told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service.

The fresh skirmishes were reported hours after Azerbaijani President Ilham again 
blamed Armenia for last week’s fighting and threatened it with further military 
action.

“I hope that this [escalation] finally taught them a lesson because they saw 
that nothing can stop us,” Aliyev said during a visit to Lachin, another 
Azerbaijani district sandwiched between Armenia and Karabakh. “Nobody’s phone 
call, no statement or initiative will stop us.”

Meanwhile, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that Azerbaijan is 
trying to force Armenia to fulfill its “maximalist demands.” He charged earlier 
that Baku wants Yerevan to fully accept the Azerbaijani terms of a bilateral 
peace treaty and to open an “exterritorial corridor” connecting Azerbaijan to 
its Nakhichevan exclave.

On Monday, Mirzoyan met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in New 
York for talks hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines 
of the ongoing annual session of the UN General Assembly. Blinken urged the two 
sides to prevent further hostilities and “return to the peace process.”

The United States reportedly helped to stop the September 13-14 border clashes 
which left at least 280 Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers dead.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Jirair Kafian: