Monday,
Iran Reaffirms Opposition To ‘Geopolitical Changes’ In Caucasus
Switzerland - Foreign Ministers Hossein Amir-Abdollahian of Iran and Ararat
Mirzoyan of Armenia meet in Geneva, .
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reaffirmed Iran’s strong
support for Armenia’s territorial integrity and praised “expanding” ties between
the two neighboring states when he met with his Armenian counterpart Ararat
Mirzoyan in Geneva on Monday.
According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s readout of the meeting,
Amir-Abdollahian emphasized “Tehran’s rejection of geopolitical changes in the
borders of regional countries.”
“We have announced this policy openly and also informed different sides,” he was
quoted as telling Mirzoyan.
Iranian leaders, including President Ebrahim Raisi, have repeatedly made such
statements over the past year amid Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on
restoring transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Such links are envisaged by the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the 2020
war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The deal specifically commits Yerevan to opening rail
and road links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has claimed that it calls for an
exterritorial land corridor that would pass through Syunik, the sole Armenian
province bordering Iran. Armenian leaders deny this, saying that Azerbaijani
citizens and cargo cannot be exempt from Armenian border controls.
Iran is also strongly opposed to the corridor. It has repeatedly warned
Azerbaijan against attempting to strip the Islamic Republic of the common border
and transport links with Armenia.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry indicated that “regional security and stability”
was high on the agenda of the Geneva talks. It said Mirzoyan briefed
Amir-Abdollahian “on the latest developments in the process of normalizing
relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
A statement released by the ministry said the two ministers also discussed
Armenian-Iranian economic ties and, in particular, bilateral projects on energy,
transport and public infrastructures.
“Fortunately, we are moving toward implementing the roadmap of the two countries
to expand bilateral relations,” Amir-Abdollahian was reported to say.
At the same, he said, Tehran and Yerevan should “step up joint efforts” to boost
bilateral trade in line with recent understandings reached by Raisi and Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Armenian government data shows the total volume of Armenian-Iranian trade rising
by 41 percent to over $710 million in 2022. Meeting with Pashinian in Tehran
last November, Raisi said the two sides want to help increase it to $3 billion
in the near future.
Military Property Selloff Comes Into Question
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia- The main entrance to the building of the Armenian Defense Ministry,
Yerevan.
The Armenian government has come under fire from opposition and civil society
figures over its plans to privatize more than 70 mostly disused facilities
belonging to the country’s military.
The properties include a former military base located in the center of Yerevan
as well as plots of land and buildings outside the capital that used to house
various army units and services. The government decided to put them up for sale
in April 2022, saying that their maintenance is meaningless and costly and that
proceeds from their sale will be used for the Armenian army’s needs.
Some civic activists dismiss this explanation as too vague. They are also
concerned about a lack of transparency in the planned privatizations.
“They must better substantiate the need for privatizing those properties,” Artur
Sakunts, a human rights campaigner, said on Monday.
Sakunts also said that the government has failed to explain how it will go about
setting the right price for the facilities.
Varuzhan Hoktanian, who heads the Armenian branch of the anti-graft watchdog
Transparency International, also stressed the importance of “maximum
transparency, professionalism and impartiality” in the planned selloff. The
market value of the properties in question must be evaluated by independent
experts, he said.
Armenia - Seyran Ohanian, a leader of the main opposition Hayastan alliance,
speaks at a news conference, Yerevan, January 19, 2023.
The government plans came under the spotlight earlier this month as the
pro-government majority in Armenia’s parliament allowed prosecutors to bring
criminal charges against Seyran Ohanian, the parliamentary leader of the main
opposition Hayastan alliance.
Ohanian, who served defense minister from 2008-2016, was charged with having
illegally allowed the privatization of four abandoned properties that belonged
to the Defense Ministry. He and his political allies reject the accusations as
politically motivated.
Gegham Manukian, another Hayastan parliamentarian, said on Monday that the
government is intent on doing what Ohanian authorized during his tenure.
Deputies representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract voiced
support for Ohanian’s indictment during a February 8 session of the National
Assembly which discussed lifting the opposition leader’s immunity from
prosecution.
As one of those lawmakers, Gevorg Papoyan, put it: “Can you imagine what an
outcry some corrupt journalists, analysts or editors would make today if it
turned out that a particular military base in Armenia is shut down or put up for
sale?”
EU ‘Working On’ More Armenian-Azeri Talks
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - EU envoy Toivo Klaar (left) meets with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian, Yerevan, February 24, 2023.
A senior European Union diplomat confirmed over the weekend that the EU is
trying to organize further high-level negotiations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said last Wednesday that the
EU’s top official, Charles Michel, is due to host such talks “in the coming
days” in a bid to build on “significant progress” made by the conflicting
parties in recent months.
“There are no specific dates,” Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special envoy to the South
Caucasus, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Saturday. “But we are working on
that and this is the reason why I’m here in Yerevan.”
Klaar confirmed that the EU hopes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will meet again in Brussels soon.
“That is obviously the aspiration,” he said, citing the need to reinvigorate the
“Brussels process.”
Michel held a series of trilateral meetings with Aliyev and Pashinian last year.
Klaar met with Pashinian on Friday. An Armenian government statement on the
meeting, said the two men discussed, among other things, “the process of
normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” It said nothing about the
Armenian-Azerbaijani talks planned by the EU.
Aliyev and Pashinian met in Munich as recently as on February 18 for talks
organized by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. They reportedly
concentrated on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty discussed by the two sides
for the past year.
Aliyev spoke after the Munich summit of “progress” in Armenia’s position on the
treaty which he hopes will help to restore full Azerbaijani control over
Nagorno-Karabakh. He also expressed readiness to negotiate with the Karabakh
Armenians over their “minority” rights.
Klaar said he is encouraged by Aliyev’s remarks. The EU supports “real dialogue
between Baku and Stepanakert,” added the diplomat.
UN Chief Urges Compliance With Court Order On Karabakh Corridor
Egypt - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the COP27 climate
summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, November 7, 2022.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Azerbaijan to comply with a
UN court order to restore “unimpeded” traffic through the sole road connecting
Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
“He recalls that decisions of the International Court of Justice (IJC) are
binding and trusts that the parties will implement its Orders, including the
Order related to measures to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and
cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions,” a spokeswoman for Guterres,
Stephane Dujarric, said in a weekend statement.
“The Secretary-General expresses the hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan will
continue working to improve their bilateral relations and strongly encourages a
constructive dialogue,” added Dujarric.
In a “provisional measure” requested by Armenia, the ICJ acknowledged last
Wednesday that the land link was “disrupted” by Azerbaijani protesters more than
two months ago. It said Baku should “take all measures at its disposal to ensure
unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in
both directions.”
Guterres, who already urged an end to the Azerbaijani blockade of the corridor
in December, spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian by phone hours
after the announcement of the ICJ order.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov reiterated on Saturday Baku’s
claims that traffic through the lifeline road was never blocked.
The blockade has led to severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential
items in Karabakh. They have been compounded by Baku’s disruption of Armenia’s
electricity and natural gas supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh.
An Azerbaijani-controlled section of the high-voltage transmission line
supplying the electricity was knocked down on January 9. There have been daily
power cuts in Karabakh since then.
According to the authorities in Stepanakert, Azerbaijani officials promised on
Friday to unblock the energy supplies during a rare meeting with Karabakh
Armenian representatives mediated by Russian peacekeepers. Baku did not comment
on the information.
The meeting came one day after the Karabakh president, Arayik Harutiunian,
announced the dismissal of his chief minister, Ruben Vardanyan, which was
demanded by Baku throughout the blockade.
Vardanyan was appointed to the second-highest post in Karabakh’s leadership last
November two months after renouncing his Russian citizenship. Baku condemned his
appointment, saying that it was engineered by Russia. Moscow denied that.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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