Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Armenia-Azerbaijan Summit In Brussels Confirmed
• Artak Khulian
Moldova - European Council President Charles Michel speaks during a news
conference in Chisinau, March 28, 2023.
The European Union confirmed late on Monday that its top official, Charles
Michel, will host on Sunday fresh talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
“The leaders have agreed to convene again on 14 May 2023 in a Brussels
trilateral meeting,” read a statement released by Michel’s office. “Their
discussions will also be flanked by a meeting together with President Emmanuel
Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, in the margins of the
upcoming European Political Community summit in [Moldova’s capital] Chisinau on
1 June 2023.”
“The leaders have also agreed to continue to meet trilaterally in Brussels as
frequently as necessary to address ongoing developments on the ground and
standing agenda items of the Brussels meetings,” added the statement.
It said nothing about the precise agenda of the upcoming summit which will
follow marathon talks held by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers
outside Washington last week. The U.S.-mediated talks focused on an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
The U.S. State Department insisted on Monday that the two ministers “made
significant progress in addressing difficult issues.”
“And we believe that with additional goodwill and flexibility and compromise an
agreement is within reach,” a department spokesman said, echoing U.S. Secretary
of State Antony Blinken’s statements.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, told reporters on
Tuesday that the conflicting sides still disagree on key terms of the would-be
treaty. He said those relate to Azerbaijani recognition of Armenia’s existing
borders, an internationally supervised dialogue between Baku and Karabakh’s
leadership as well as “international guarantees” for the sides’ compliance with
their peace accord.
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovannisian announced, meanwhile, that
the Brussels summit will be followed by Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks in
Moscow. He did not specify whether they will involve Aliyev and Pashinian or
their foreign ministers.
Russia has been very critical of the U.S. and EU peace efforts, saying that the
Western powers are trying to use the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to drive Moscow
out of the South Caucasus. It maintains that Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements
brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin are the only viable blueprint for
settling the conflict.
Pashinian Attends Victory Day Parade In Moscow
Russia - Russian service members take part in a military parade on Victory Day,
which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War
Two, in Red Square in Moscow, May 9, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian joined on Tuesday the presidents of Russia and
six other former Soviet states in attending a military parade in Moscow that
marked the 78th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
They laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin walls
following the annual parade which was scaled back this time around, reflecting
Russia’s continuing war on Ukraine.
Parades in several other Russian cities were canceled and the traditional
"Immortal Regiment" processions, where people carry portraits of relatives who
fought against the Nazis, also were scrapped.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly likened the war in Ukraine to
the challenge Moscow faced when Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
Russia - The leaders of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Turkmenistan take part in a flower-laying ceremony at the Tomb of
the Unknown Soldier after the Victory Day Parade in Moscow, May 9, 2023.
Addressing thousands of soldiers and spectators at the start of the parade in
Red Square, Putin accused "Western globalist elites" of seeking to carve up
Russia and “sowing hatred, Russophobia, aggressive nationalism.”
The anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe has remained a public
holiday, officially called Victory and Peace Day, in Armenia since the breakup
of the Soviet Union.
Some 320,000 residents of Soviet Armenia, then a republic of just 1.3 million
people, were drafted to the Red Army during the bloodiest conflict in the
history of humankind. The total number of its ethnic Armenian participants from
various Soviet republics is estimated at more than 500,000. About half of them
were killed in action.
Armenia - Armenian veterans of World War Two attend Victory Day celebrations in
Yerevan, May 9, 2023.
In a statement issued on the occasion, Pashinian again praised Armenians’
“invaluable” contribution to the defeat of “one of the greatest evils: fascism.”
“About 107 Armenians were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and many
Armenians received high awards from the USSR and allied countries, ensuring the
Armenian people's honorable place in the fight against fascism,” he said.
Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturian led a wreath-laying ceremony at a World
War II memorial located in Yerevan’s Victory Park. Armenian and Russian soldiers
marched past its eternal fire during the ceremony.
Thousands of people, among them elderly war veterans, visited the memorial in
the following hours.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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