Monday, June 5, 2023
Armenia, Azerbaijan Continue To Disagree On Border Demarcation
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - A view of an area in Armenia's Syunik province where Armenian and
Azerbaijani troops are locked in a border standoff, May 14, 2021. (Photo by the
Armenian Human Rights Defender's Office)
Armenia and Azerbaijan have still not reached an agreement on the key parameters
of delimiting and demarcating their long border, Foreign Minister Ararat
Mirzoyan said on Monday.
Baku insisted, meanwhile, that the two sides made no progress on the thorny
issue during recent peace talks.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev discussed
it at their most recent meeting held in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on Thursday
on the sidelines of a European summit. They were joined by European Union chief
Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf
Scholz.
Pashinian described the talks as “useful.” In particular, he said, Baku now
seems open to accepting an Armenian proposal to use 1975 Soviet maps as a basis
for delimiting the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, likewise said on
Sunday that “progress” was made at Chisinau regarding the use of those maps. The
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry denied that on Monday, however, accusing Grigorian
of misrepresenting the Chisinau summit.
“The Armenian side is well aware that at this and other meetings no agreement
was reached on using any maps as the basis for the border delimitation,” the
ministry said in a statement.
The statement noted that Azerbaijan has demarcated its borders with other
neighboring states “on the basis of analyses and examination of legally binding
documents, rather than any specially chosen map.”
Speaking in the Armenian parliament later in the day, Mirzoyan acknowledged that
Yerevan and Baku still disagree on the border delimitation mechanism. But he too
claimed that during the Chisinau meeting Aliyev “did not seem to object” to
using the 1975 maps.
Aliyev said ahead of that meeting that the demarcation process must be carried
out on Baku’s terms and warned of fresh military action against Armenia.
Ter-Petrosian Aide Also Blasts Pashinian’s Karabakh Policy
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia -- Levon Zurabian, deputy chairman of the Armenian National Congress.
A top political ally of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian joined on Monday a
chorus of condemnation from Armenian opposition leaders of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s effective recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.
Levon Zurabian said that Pashinian has gained nothing in return for meeting
Baku’s key demand.
“We can see that his move was followed not by a softening of Azerbaijan’s
position but by a more aggressive stance [adopted by Baku,]” Zurabian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
He pointed to the recent tightening of Azerbaijan’s six-month blockade of
Karabakh’s land link with Armenia and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s
threats of fresh military action against Karabakh.
Pashinian publicly acknowledged his readiness to sign a peace deal upholding
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh after his May 14 talks with Aliyev held in
Brussels. The statement drew strong condemnation from the Armenian opposition
and Karabakh’s leadership.
Zurabian suggested that Pashinian had naively expected that Baku will
reciprocate by lifting the blockade or come under strong Western pressure to
agree to an international format of negotiations with the Karabakh Armenians. He
described the prime minister’s failure to make his recognition conditional on
such concessions beforehand as a manifestation of gross incompetence.
“What Pashinian is doing is an unprecedented technique in the history of
diplomacy,” said the deputy chairman of Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National
Congress party.
Zurabian insisted that Pashinian has not even secured a formal Azerbaijani
recognition of Armenia’s existing borders. He argued that Azerbaijani troops
show no signs of preparing to withdraw from Armenian border areas occupied by
them after the 2020 war in Karabakh.
Pashinian’s Karabakh policy has been praised by the European Union and the
United States. The U.S. State Department last week also hailed Aliyev’s stated
readiness to grant “amnesty” to Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders if they
resign and “surrender” to Baku.
Ter-Petrosian and his political team have long advocated a compromise solution
to the Karabakh conflict. The 78-year-old ex-president stated last September the
Armenian opposition should help Pashinian accept “painful solutions” backed by
the international community. But he has not yet personally commented on
Pashinian’s latest moves denounced by Zurabian.
Fallen Soldier’s Mother Goes On Trial
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Gayane Hakobian is brought into a courtroom in Yerevan, June 5, 2023.
A grief-stricken woman accused of attempting to “kidnap” Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s son was moved to house arrest and again taken into custody a few
hours later as she went on trial on Monday.
Gayane Hakobian, whose son Zhora Martirosian was killed during the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, was detained last month after an argument with Ashot Pashinian.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee charged Hakobian with tricking the young man
into getting in her car and trying to drive him to the Yerablur Military
Pantheon where her son was buried along with hundreds of other soldiers killed
in action. Pashinian Jr. jumped out of the car on their way to Yerablur.
Hakobian’s arrest sparked angry protests in Yerevan attended by several dozen
other parents of fallen soldiers and hundreds of their sympathizers. Nikol
Pashinian sought to justify it during a May 22 news conference.
Hakobian again strongly denied the accusations at the start of her trial. If
convicted, she will face between four and eight years in prison.
Armenia - Mothers of soldiers killed in the 2020 Karabakh war lead an
anti-government demonstration in Yerevan, May 20, 2023.
“I had no evil intentions. Nobody forced him to get into my car,” she told a
Yerevan court of first instance.
“I just wanted us to go to Yerablur, my home and my holy site,” she said. “Bad
things are not done in holy sites.”
Hakobian’s high-profile trial began hours after Armenia’s Court of Appeals
released her from custody and moved her to house arrest. A trial prosecutor and
Ashot Pashinian protested against that decision during the first lower court
hearing in the case.
They both demanded that the defendant be arrested anew, with the prime
minister’s son saying that she committed a “grave crime” and must remain behind
bars. The judge presiding over the trial promptly satisfied their demands.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's son Ashot speaks during a trial in
Yerevan, June 5, 2023.
One of Hakobian’s lawyers responded by accusing the judge of executing a
“high-level” political order. “The legal problem raised by us is that there is
direct influence on the court from the prime minister and this was proved during
today’s hearing as well,” he told journalists.
Armenian opposition leaders and other critics of the government claim that
Pashinian ordered Hakobian’s arrest in a bid to muzzle the families of deceased
soldiers who have staged demonstrations over the past year to demand his
prosecution on war-related charges.
Pashinian triggered their regular demonstrations in Yerevan in April 2022 when
he responded to continuing opposition criticism of his handling of the
disastrous war. He said he “could have averted the war, as a result of which we
would have had the same situation, but of course without the casualties.” The
soldiers’ families say Pashinian thus publicly admitted sacrificing the lives of
at least 3,800 Armenian soldiers killed during the six-week war with Azerbaijan.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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