Friday, June 9, 2023 Putin, Pashinian Meet Again Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meet in Sochi, June 9, 2023. Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Friday for the second time in two weeks to discuss bilateral ties and the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. The talks followed Putin’s collective meeting with the prime ministers of several ex-Soviet states who held a regular session in the Russian city of Sochi. “I am very pleased to have the opportunity on the sidelines of today's event to once again talk about the current situation in bilateral terms and in regional areas, which we spoke about in such detail at the previous meeting in Moscow,” Putin told Pashinian in his short opening remarks. Pashinian said, for his part, that they will discuss the “tense humanitarian situation” in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from Azerbaijan’s continuing blockade of the Lachin corridor. “By the way, I must emphasize that now food deliveries to Nagorno-Karabakh are carried out with the help of Russian peacekeepers, and this is a limited amount of food,” he said. The Kremlin and the Armenian government’s press office did not report any details of their ensuing conversation. RUSSIA -- Russia's President Vladimir Putin (C), Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev (L) meet in Moscow, May 25, 2023. Putin held separate and trilateral meetings with Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Moscow on May 25. The talks focused on the restoration of transport links between Armenia and Azerbaijan envisaged by a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 war in Karabakh. The deputy prime ministers of the three states met in Moscow on June 2 to try to settle what Putin called “purely technical” issues hampering the opening of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to commercial traffic. According to an Armenian government statement, they made “substantial progress” on the functioning of a railway that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s Syunik province. Aliyev and Pashinian met again in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on June 1 for further discussions of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty sought by Baku. European Union chief Charles Michel mediated the talks together with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In was announced in Chisinau that the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers will start a new round of negotiations in Washington on June 12 in preparation for yet another Aliyev-Pashinian encounter which Michel will host in July. The Washington talks were delayed this week for unknown reasons. Russia has been very critical of the Western peace efforts. In a televised interview aired on Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin repeated Moscow’s claims that the United States is using the Karabakh conflict to try to drive Russia out of the South Caucasus. He also accused Washington of trying to “subjugate Russia’s partners and allies in a neo-colonial style.” Karabakh Official Warns Of Another Escalation • Karlen Aslanian A view of an Azerbaijani checkpoint recently set up at the entry of the Lachin corridor, Nagorno-Karabakh's only land link with Armenia, by a bridge across the Hakari river, May 2, 2023. Azerbaijan may be preparing the ground for another upsurge in violence, a senior Nagorno-Karabakh official said on Friday, pointing to increased ceasefire violations reported from the Karabakh conflict zone in recent weeks. Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and “the line of contact” around Karabakh have been steadily rising despite major progress reportedly made in peace talks between Baku and Yerevan. The conflicting sides accuse each other of violating the ceasefire on a virtually daily basis. Baku regularly claims that Azerbaijani troops opened fire to stop Karabakh Armenian forces from fortifying their positions. The authorities in Stepanakert dismiss this as a smokescreen for justifying systematic Azerbaijani gunfire at Karabakh farmers and their tractors engaged in agricultural work. Sergei Ghazarian, the Karabakh foreign minister, said the Azerbaijani claims are not borne out by daily news bulletins released by Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh. “This is just an attempt to exert pressure on the Armenian side, the Artsakh side with such false allegations and try to use this for justifying a possible escalation,” Ghazarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Unfortunately, I have to point out that the likelihood of various kinds of tensions and escalations is quite high,” he said. “These new episodes fit into that logic.” Armenian officials and pundits likewise claim that Baku is ratcheting up the tensions in a bid to clinch more Armenian concessions. On May 28, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev threatened the Karabakh Armenians with fresh military action. He said they must dissolve their government bodies and unconditionally accept Azerbaijani rule. “Everyone knows that we can carry out any [military] operation in that territory,” Aliyev warned. Fallen Soldier’s Mother Freed After Suspend Jail Term • Robert Zargarian Armenia - Gayane Hakobian is brought into a courtroom in Yerevan, June 5, 2023. A woman accused of attempting to “kidnap” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s son was freed on Friday after a court in Yerevan gave her a four-year suspended prison sentence at the end of a short trial. Gayane Hakobian, whose son Zhora Martirosian was killed during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, walked free because of pleading guilty to the accusation strongly denied by her until then. She avoided talking to the press after the announcement of the guilty verdict. The final session of the trial took place behind the closed doors. The lawyers who represented Hakobian for the last two weeks said earlier in the day that she has fired them because of disagreeing with their defense tactic. They did not deny that she struck a deal with prosecutors. “There is a conflict between Mrs. Gayane’s and our positions,” one of the lawyers, Hovsep Sargsian, told reporters. “We planned on continuing our defense aimed at her acquittal, but Mrs. Gayane is of a different opinion now.” Hakobian already replaced other lawyers who represented her right after her arrest on May 17, which sparked angry protests by several dozen other parents of fallen soldiers and hundreds of their sympathizers. That move fueled speculation that she is cooperating with what the protesters condemned as a politically motivated investigation into her argument with Ashot Pashinian. Armenia - People demonstrate outside a court in Yerevan during a hearing on Gayane Hakobian's pre-trial arrest, 20 May, 2023. Armenia’s Investigative Committee charged Hakobian with tricking the prime minister’s son 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. The grief-stricken woman insisted at the start of her trial on June 5 that Ashot Pashinian was not forced into her and that she only wanted to talk to him at Yerablur. The high-profile trial began hours after the Court of Appeals moved Hakobian to house arrest. The lower court judge presiding over the trial promptly issued a new arrest warrant demanded by the prosecutors and Ashot Pashinian. The latter told the judge that she committed a “grave crime” and must remain behind bars. Armenian opposition leaders and other critics of the government claim that Nikol 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. Hakobian actively participated in them. The prime minister triggered the regular demonstrations in April 2022 when he responded to continuing opposition criticism of his handling of the disastrous war with Azerbaijan. 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. Key Opposition Groups Still Undecided On Yerevan Elections • Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Senor lawmakers from the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances talk during a parliament session in Yerevan, August 24, 2021. Armenia’s two leading opposition forces said on Friday that they have still not decided whether to run in municipal elections in Yerevan tentatively slated for September 17. Residents of the Armenian capital will to go the polls to elect a new municipal assembly that will in turn appoint the city’s mayor. The last mayor, Hrachya Sargsian, stepped down on March 17 after only 15 months in office. Yerevan has since been effectively run by Tigran Avinian, a deputy mayor nominated by the ruling Civil Contract party for the vacant post. Avinian has kept a high profile for the last three months, chairing meetings with municipal officials, issuing instructions to them and talking to ordinary citizens. Critics accuse him of abusing his position to prematurely conduct his election campaign. The 34-year-old vice-mayor allied to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has dismissed these claims. Armenia - Former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian attends a session of Yerevan's municipal assembly, September 23, 2022. “Convincing the people of Yerevan that you really deserve [to become mayor] is a very difficult task,” he told reporters last month. It remains unclear whether Avinian and the ruling party will be challenged by any of the two opposition alliances represented in the Armenian parliament. Senior members of the Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they have not even discussed their participation in the polls so far. Avinian would also face a serious challenge from Hayk Marutian, whom Pashinian’s political team had installed as mayor after winning the overwhelming majority of seats in the city council in 2018. The council ousted Marutian in December 2021 after he fell out with the prime minister. Armenia - A screenshot of a September 2022 video ad of former Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian's upcoming monodrama. During his ouster Marutian accused Armenia’s current leaders of betraying the goals of the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought them to power. The former TV comedian, who appears to remain popular with many Yerevan voters, has not yet announced plans to join the mayoral race. About a dozen other figures mostly representing fringe parties are expected to enter the fray. One of those parties, Aprelu Yerkir, is reportedly sponsored by Ruben Vardanyan, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist who moved to Nagorno-Karabakh last September. Earlier this week, Aprelu Yerkir nominated Mane Tandilian, its chairwoman and a former labor minister in Pashinian’s government, as its mayoral candidate. Tandilian claimed that she is aiming for “resounding victory” in the municipal elections which she said would amount to a vote of no confidence in Pashinian’s administration. Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.