Friday, July 28, 2023
Armenia Fears Azeri Territorial Claims
July 28, 2023
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Defense Minister Arshak Karapetian visits a disputed section of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border, November 17, 2021.
Azerbaijan remains reluctant to recognize Armenia’s borders despite progress
made in talks on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty, according to a senior
official in Yerevan.
Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian said this is one of the main obstacles
to the signing of the treaty strongly backed by the United States and the
European Union.
“Azerbaijan still does not want to accept a clear border line between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, which leads us to suspect that Azerbaijan has far-reaching goals
and may make territorial claims against the Republic of Armenia in the future,”
Kostanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday.
This is why, he said, Yerevan insists that 1975 Soviet military maps be used as
a basis for delimiting the long Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Baku has rejected the proposed mechanism in delimitation talks with Yerevan held
so far. It stressed earlier this year that Azerbaijan’s borders with other
neighboring states have been delimited and demarcated “on the basis of analyses
and examination of legally binding documents, rather than any specially chosen
map.”
The most recent round of delimitation talks took place on July 12 three days
before the EU chief, Charles Michel, hosted yet another meeting of Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in
Brussels.
Michel said after the meeting that the two leaders reaffirmed their earlier
“understanding that Armenia’s territory covers 29,800 square kilometers and
Azerbaijan’s 86,600 square kilometers.” Aliyev has still not publicly
acknowledged, however, Armenia’s total internationally recognized area cited by
Michel.
Opposition leaders and other critics of the Armenian government note that Baku
is unwilling to do that even after Pashinian pledged in May to recognize
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh through the peace deal. This
means, they say, that even such a far-reaching concession offered by him would
not safeguard Armenian territory from future Azerbaijani attacks.
Following Pashinian’s pledge, Azerbaijan also tightened its crippling blockade
of Karabakh’s only land link with Armenia. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan
warned last week that the region is now “on the verge of starvation.”
Kostanian said that lingering differences between Yerevan and Baku on the
question of the “rights and security” of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population
are also hampering the deal. The official was careful not to speculate about
possible timelines for its signing.
Armenian Officer Dies Years After ‘Unsolved Attack'
July 28, 2023
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - The entrance to a military hospital, July 8, 2021.
An Armenian military officer has died in hospital almost four years after being
badly injured in a violent incident that led to the resignation of a political
ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ara Mkhitarian fell into a coma in September 2019 after
arguing with an assistant to Trdat Sargsian, the then governor of Armenia’s
Vayots Dzor province, in the provincial capital Yeghegnadzor in disputed
circumstances. Mkhitarian never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead
on Thursday.
According to Armenia’s Investigative Committee, Mkhitarian was punched by
Sargsian’s aide, Harutiun Grigorian, and fell to the ground. Grigorian was
arrested and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison.
Mkhitarian’s family and friends dismissed the official version of events. They
said that the officer and three of his colleagues were assaulted by a larger
group of men that may have included Sargsian.
“How can you knock down a 120-kilogram guy and smash his skull with one punch?”
the victim’s father, Samvel Mkhitarian, argued shortly after the incident.
The three other officers testified during the ensuing investigation that
Sargsian, who is a senior member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, was among
the attackers. The Investigative Committee dismissed their claims and charged
them with “false denunciation,” however. It said that Sargsian “was not at the
site of the incident” when it happened.
Armenia - Trdat Sargsian.
Sargsian also strongly denied any involvement despite resigning as Vayots Dzor
governor a week after the violence. He is now a member of the Armenian
parliament.
His jailed aide’s lawyer, Levon Sahakian, on Friday blamed Mkhitarian and the
other officers for the “fight.” He claimed that they were drunk and attacked his
client.
It is not clear whether the officer’s death could lead the investigators to
again examine the ex-governor’s possible role in the 2019 incident. Zhanna
Aleksanian, a veteran human rights campaigner, said they must launch a fresh
inquiry.
“I’m not sure that the [2019] investigation was objective and comprehensive,”
Aleksanian said, adding that there may well have been a cover-up.
Some critics of the Armenian government have openly alleged that Pashinian saved
his loyalist from prosecution. The premier has denied that.
U.S. Again Urges Reopening Of Lachin Corridor
July 28, 2023
• Anush Mkrtchian
• Tigran Hovsepian
Armenia - U.S. diplomat John Allelo (left) inspects an Armenian aid convoy stuck
near the Lachin corridor July 28, 2023.
The United States renewed its calls for the immediate lifting of Azerbaijan’s
blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday as Armenian trucks carrying food for
Karabakh’s residents remained stuck at the entrance to the Lachin corridor for
the third consecutive day.
The Armenian government sent the aid convoy on Wednesday in an attempt to
alleviate severe food shortages in Karabakh. Azerbaijan, which tightened the
blockade on June 15, condemned the move as a “provocation,” refusing to let 19
trucks loaded with about 400 tons of basic foodstuffs to pass through an
Azerbaijani checkpoint.
John Allelo, the acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Armenia,
joined Yerevan-based foreign diplomats in visiting an adjacent Armenian border
area to inspect the long line of trucks awaiting permission to proceed to
Stepanakert. The diplomats accompanied by Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister
Vahan Kostanian also met with Karabakh Armenian refugees.
In a Twitter post, the U.S. Embassy said Allelo “heard from displaced persons
and regional officials about the suffering caused by continued blockage of the
Lachin corridor.”
“We reiterate [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken’s call for an immediate
reopening of the corridor to commercial and private traffic,” it wrote.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, likewise said on
Wednesday that the Azerbaijani authorities should “guarantee safety and freedom
of movement along the Lachin corridor.” He pointed to “dire consequences” of the
blockade for Karabakh’s population. France and several other EU member states
echoed Borrell’s appeal rejected by Baku.
Armenia - Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian speaks to journalists, July
28, 2023.
“Unfortunately, there have been no positive developments so far,” Kostanian
said, adding that the aid convoy will remain there “as long as it’s necessary.”
“We will try to ensure the reopening of the Lachin corridor by all political
means at our disposal,” he told reporters. “The trucks will stay here for now.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday that Baku’s continued refusal to
let the convoy through would testify to its “intention to commit genocide in
Nagorno-Karabakh.” The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded by saying that the
Armenian side should agree to an alternative, Azerbaijani-controlled supply
route for Karabakh.
Borrell stressed that the proposed route rejected by Karabakh’s leadership
“should not be seen as an alternative to the reopening of the Lachin corridor.”
Meanwhile, Armenia’s Vienna-based ambassador to the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, Armen Papikian, called on the international community
to impose sanctions on Baku to ensure its compliance with a UN court’s February
order to “ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the
Lachin Corridor in both directions.”
Armenian Farmers Hit By Cheaper Russian Grain
July 28, 2023
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - Wheat harvest in Shirak province.
Wholesale prices of wheat mostly imported to Armenia from Russia have shrunk by
half over the past year, taking their toll on Armenian grain farmers.
A significant weakening of the Russian ruble appears to have been the main cause
of the price collapse. The ruble has lost more than 40 percent of its nominal
value against the Armenian dram since June 2022 amid a barrage of Western
sanctions imposed over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to Hunan Petrosian, a wholesale trader from Armenia’s leading
grain-producing region, Shirak, the sanctions have also cut the cost of
transporting Russian wheat to non-Western countries still buying it. This has
made it even cheaper in the local markets, he said.
“Quite cheap wheat is imported from the Russian Federation. This is the main
reason,” Petrosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The downward trend does not seem to have reversed yet by this month’s 15 percent
rise in global wheat prices, which followed Moscow’s decision to quit a deal
allowing Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea.
Russia meets about 70 percent of Armenia’s domestic wheat demand estimated at
500,000 metric tons per annum.
In Petrosian’s words, a kilogram of wheat now costs an equivalent of 40-45 drams
(10-11 U.S. cents) in Russia. The wholesale prices of the essential crop in
Armenia range from 70 to 90 drams per kilogram.
Armenia - Workers at a wheat storage facility in Shirak province.
Farmers in Shirak complain that this is below their current production costs.
One of them, Garnik Marzetsian, has 50 tons of grain left over from last year’s
harvest and expects to harvest another 90 tons this fall.
“I’ll rather let it rot or burn it down than sell [at the current prices,]
Marzetsian warned on Thursday.
The 69-year-old farmer and other residents of the Shirak village of Meghrashen
demanded government intervention. The Armenian government, they said, should set
a higher minimum price.
Last year, the government provided Shirak farmers with more subsidies to
encourage them to grow more grain. As a result, they planted the crop on an
additional 5,000 hectares of land. Many farmers are now thinking about shrinking
their next wheat plantings.
This is an alarming prospect for Petrosian. The grain dealer too called for
urgent government support to the farmers, saying that Armenia must not become
even more dependent on wheat imports.
“This [domestic grain] production is of strategic importance and it should be at
the center of the state’s attention,” he said.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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