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    Categories: 2023

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 03/17/2023

                                        Friday, 


Russia Laughs Off Pashinian’s Comments On Karabakh, CSTO


RUSSIA - Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova attends a 
congress of the International Russophile Movement in Moscow, March 14, 2023.


Russia has reacted scathingly to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s latest 
statements on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Armenia’s increasingly tense 
relationship with the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Pashinian declared on Thursday Russia took on the role of the guarantor of 
Karabakh’s security when it deployed Russian peacekeeping forces there following 
the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. He said that if the peacekeepers are unable 
to protect the Karabakh Armenians against Azerbaijani military attacks Moscow 
should ask the UN Security Council to “activate additional international 
mechanisms” in Karabakh and the Lachin corridor.

“This can be evaluated with one word: a miraculous ride,” Maria Zakharova, the 
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters when asked to comment on 
Pashinian’s statement.

“That phrase is so inexplicable that I’m not going to explain it. This is some 
incredible equilibristics, you know,” she said, grinning and shrugging her 
shoulders.

Zakharova also disputed Pashinian’s claim about the Russian security guarantee 
for Karabakh, implying that it is at odds with the terms of the Russian-brokered 
ceasefire that stopped the 20202 war.

“The Russian peacekeepers are doing everything they can to prevent an escalation 
and to stabilize the situation on the ground in their zone of responsibility,” 
she said.

“We regard the statements of the Armenian leadership as a continuation of the 
line adopted at the October 2022 [Armenian-Azerbaijani] summit in Prague held 
under aegis of the European Union. So we leave on the conscience of the Armenian 
side, I mean the leadership of Armenia, the attempts to lay responsibility for 
the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh on third countries,” added Zakharova.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that Pashinian effectively 
recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh in a joint statement with 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU 
chief Charles Michel issued after that summit. Lavrov said the Armenian leader 
thus all but precluded a different peace deal favored by Moscow. It would 
indefinitely delay an agreement on Karabakh’s status.

Zakharova declined to clarify what Russia will do if Azerbaijani launches a 
military offensive to try to regain full control over Karabakh.

Her scathing reaction underlined growing friction between Russia and Armenia. 
Armenian leaders have repeatedly complained about what they see as a lack of 
Russian support in the conflict with Azerbaijan. They have accused the Russians 
of doing little to get Baku to lift its three-month blockade of Karabakh’s sole 
land link with Armenia.

Yerevan is also unhappy with the Collective Treaty Organization (CSTO), raising 
questions about its continued membership in the Russian-led military alliance. 
Pashinian claimed on Tuesday that it is the CSTO that could “leave Armenia.”

Zakharova laughed off that remark as well, saying that she has trouble 
understanding its meaning.




Yerevan Mayor Resigns

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia - Hrachya Sargsian takes over as mayor of Yerevan, December 22, 2021.


Yerevan’s mayor, Hrachya Sargsian, stepped down on Friday after only 15 months 
in office.

Sargsian gave no clear reason for his resignation when he announced it at a 
meeting with other senior officials from the municipal administration.

“Now that the [next] elections of the city council are approaching and there is 
quite good cooperation between the mayor’s office and the government I want to 
announce my resignation,” he said, adding that he will remain part of Armenia’s 
ruling “political team.”

The elections of a new municipal council empowered to appoint the mayor are due 
to be held September. It was not immediately clear whether Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, which controls the current council, engineered 
Sargsian’s resignation to bring forward the vote.

The ruling party announced a year ago that former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran 
Avinian will be its mayoral candidate in 2023. Avinian was appointed as one of 
the city’s five deputy mayors in September.

The Armenian press has been rife with speculation lately that Avinian has low 
approval ratings and is overshadowed by Sargsian despite leading most official 
ceremonies organized by the municipality.

Isabella Abgarian, an independent member of the city council, said that the 
mayor’s resignation is part of government efforts to boost Avinian’s chances in 
the municipal elections.

“I see only one explanation,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “They want to 
make sure that the city is put under the exclusive control of Tigran Avinian 
ahead of these elections.”

Abgarian said that despite being installed by the country’s leadership Sargsian 
followed “his own line” and relied on “his own people” during his tenure.

In his farewell remarks, Sargsian said that he supports Avinian’s mayoral bid 
and hopes that Pashinian’s party will win the upcoming polls. But he also 
acknowledged differences within the municipal administration.

The current Yerevan council appointed Sargsian as mayor in December 2021 right 
after ousting his predecessor Hayk Marutian, who fell out with Pashinian 
following the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Marutian, who is a former TV 
comedian, has since been coy about his participation in the 2023 polls.

None of Armenia’s major opposition groups have fielded mayoral candidates so far.




Yerevan Again Warns Of ‘Large-Scale’ Azeri Attack

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

A view of Azerbaijani (L) and Armenian army posts on the Armenian-Azerbaijani 
border, June 18, 2021


The Armenian government has again accused Azerbaijan of planning to launch fresh 
military aggression against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, responding to 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest statements.

Speaking during a summit of Turkic nations held in Turkey on Thursday, Aliyev 
said Armenia should be “held responsible” for its refusal to given Azerbaijan an 
exterritorial land corridor to the Nakhichevan exclave.

Aliyev said Yerevan must also allow the return of thousands of Azerbaijanis who 
fled Soviet Armenia following the outbreak of the Karabakh conflict in 1988. He 
described them as the people of “western Azerbaijan” and said they must enjoy 
the kind of “individual rights and security” which Baku is ready to ensure for 
the Karabakh Armenians.

In a statement issued later in the day, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said 
Aliyev’s comments amount to territorial claims to Armenia.

“The bellicose rhetoric of Azerbaijan’s leader is aimed at torpedoing efforts to 
establish stability in the South Caucasus and resorting to the use of 
large-scale force against both the sovereign territory of the Republic of 
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,” it charged.

Yerevan already accused Baku of preparing the ground for another military 
assault on Karabakh following the March 5 shootout near Stepanakert which left 
three Karabakh police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead. It has since 
repeatedly denied Azerbaijani allegations that it illegally ships weapons to 
Karabakh. Baku has threatened to use force to stop the alleged shipments.

The rising tensions in the conflict zone highlight a lack of progress towards 
the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty sought by Baku.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed on Tuesday that the Azerbaijani side is 
rejecting most Armenian proposals regarding the would-be treaty and making more 
demands unacceptable to Yerevan. He said that he will not sign any 
“capitulation” deals with Aliyev.

Aliyev and Pashinian most recently met in Munich on February 18 for talks 
mediated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Aliyev said after the talks 
that he is largely satisfied with their results.

The U.S. State Department announced later in February that the European Union’s 
top official, Charles Michel, is due to host another Armenian-Azerbaijani summit 
“in the coming days.” There have been indications so far that the summit could 
take place soon.

Thomas de Wall, a veteran British journalist and analyst who has written 
extensively about the Karabakh conflict, suggested on Thursday that Michel is 
unlikely to kick-start the peace process as long as Azerbaijan continues its 
blockade of the Lachin corridor.

“So the threat grows of more violence,” de Wall wrote on Twitter.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS