RFE/RL Armenian Service – 08/14/2023

                                        Monday, 


Ankara Urges Yerevan To Back Use Of Agdam Road By Karabakh Armenians


The Turkish national flag


The Turkish Foreign Ministry has called on Armenia to support the idea of the 
use of the Agdam road by Karabakh Armenians who continue to reject Azerbaijan’s 
relevant offer and continue to demand the reopening of the Lachin corridor.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Turkish ministry also called on Yerevan to 
“refrain from provocative steps, recognize the territorial integrity and 
sovereignty of Azerbaijan and support Azerbaijan’s efforts on the integration of 
the [Karabakh] Armenian population.”

Official Ankara said it was closely following the discussions around the Lacհin 
road, emphasizing that it “understands the legitimate concerns of Azerbaijan on 
that issue.”

“Turkey believes that there is no reason to criticize Azerbaijan regarding the 
Lachin road,” it said.

The Turkish statement came after Armenia officially asked the United Nations 
Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the issue of humanitarian 
access to Nagorno-Karabakh that Yerevan and Stepanakert say has been denied for 
months by Azerbaijan that has imposed an “illegal blockade” on the region.

Earlier ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said that the purpose of 
Baku’s proposal to provide humanitarian aid through Agdam without restoring free 
movement through the Lachin corridor was “an attempt to revise” the 
Moscow-brokered 2020 ceasefire agreement under which the vital land connection 
between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia was placed under the control of Russian 
peacekeepers.

“This approach that has persistently been proposed by Azerbaijan violates the 
rights and humiliates the dignity of the people of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – 
ed.] and contradicts international humanitarian law,” Stepanakert said.

Yerevan, likewise, believes that the checkpoint installed by Azerbaijan at the 
Lachin corridor contradicts the terms of the ceasefire agreement and is, 
therefore, illegal. The Armenian government also denies having any territorial 
claims to Azerbaijan or otherwise infringing on its sovereignty. It insists, 
however, that the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians be discussed between 
Baku and Stepanakert in an “internationally visible” dialogue.




Yerevan Calls Azeri Reports On Concentration Of Armenian Troops Along Border 
‘Disinformation’


The national flag of Armenia over a combat position along the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border (file photo).


Military authorities in Yerevan have disproved a statement made in Baku about an 
alleged concentration of a large number of Armenian troops and military hardware 
near the border with Azerbaijan.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that the statement of Azerbaijan’s 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to that account did not correspond to the facts.

“To another false message in the statement of the Azerbaijani Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs, the Defense Ministry of the Republic of Armenia states once 
again that the Republic of Armenia has no army in Nagorno-Karabakh,” it added.

Official Baku stated, in particular, that “armed forces of Armenia illegally 
stationed on the territory of Azerbaijan have intensified military engineering 
works and other military activities in recent weeks”, and “in recent days, a 
large amount of weapons, military equipment and personnel of the armed forces of 
Armenia have been accumulating along the un-demarcated border with Azerbaijan.”

At the same time, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that “Armenia 
has not stopped its territorial claims against Azerbaijan and its verbal 
recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan differs from its actions.”

“Azerbaijan reserves the right to defend its sovereignty and territorial 
integrity,” the ministry underscored.

Meanwhile, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also described the 
Azerbaijani statement as disinformation. “The spread of such false information 
indicates Azerbaijan’s intention to escalate the situation in the region,” it 
charged in a statement.

The kind of rhetoric from official Baku comes amid reports of sporadic 
cross-border shootings that Armenia and Azerbaijan blame on each other. 
Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have also traded 
accusations regarding violations of the ceasefire regime in recent days.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for 
decades. Some 30,000 people were killed in a war in the early 1990s that left 
ethnic Armenians in control of the predominantly Armenian-populated region and 
seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan proper.

Decades of internationally mediated talks failed to result in a diplomatic 
solution and the simmering conflict led to another war in 2020 in which nearly 
7,000 soldiers were killed on both sides.

The 44-day war in which Azerbaijan regained all of the Armenian-controlled areas 
outside of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as chunks of territory inside the Soviet-era 
autonomous oblast proper ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire under which 
Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.

Despite the ceasefire and publicly stated willingness of the leaders of both 
Armenia and Azerbaijan to work towards a negotiated peace, tensions between the 
two South Caucasus nations escalated in June after Azerbaijan tightened its 
blockade at a checkpoint installed in April on the road known as the Lachin 
Corridor, the only link between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Yerevan and Stepanakert view the Azerbaijani roadblock as a violation of the 
terms of the ceasefire agreement that they insist places the vital route solely 
under the control of Russian peacekeepers.

Amid severe shortages of basic foodstuffs, medical and fuel supplies experienced 
by Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians, Armenia last Friday officially asked the United 
Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting regarding the 
deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The move came after the region’s ethnic Armenian leader appealed to the 
international community for “immediate action” to lift the de facto blockade 
imposed by Azerbaijan and prevent what he called “the genocide of the people of 
Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Azerbaijan denies blockading Nagorno-Karabakh and offers an alternative route 
for supplies via the town of Agdam, which is situated east of the region and is 
controlled by Baku.

However, Nagorno-Karabakh’s authorities have rejected that offer amid concerns 
in Stepanakert that the opening of the Agdam road could be a prelude to the 
region’s absorption by Azerbaijan.




13 Parties, 1 Bloc Bid To Compete In Yerevan Municipal Polls


The Yerevan Municipality building


Thirteen political parties and one bloc of parties have submitted their 
applications to the Central Election Commission (CEC) to participate in upcoming 
municipal elections in Yerevan.

The CEC is due to complete the registration process by August 18 and publish 
electoral lists within three days after that.

The vote in the elections to Yerevan’s Municipal Assembly (Council of Elders) is 
due on September 17. It will proceed according to party lists, with the 
four-week campaigns of the political forces and their candidates for mayor 
commencing on August 23.

The ruling Civil Contract party is led in the elections by current Deputy Mayor 
Tigran Avinian who formerly also served as deputy prime minister in the 
government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

Former Yerevan mayor Hayk Marutian, who was removed from office by a vote of no 
confidence in December 2021 after falling out with the ruling party, has also 
announced his participation in the elections with the hitherto little-known 
National Progress party.

Several other political parties and groups, notably Aprelu Yerkir (Country for 
Living), Bright Armenia, the European Party of Armenia and others, have also 
applied for registration to participate in the Yerevan elections.

Two key parliamentary opposition alliances affiliated with former presidents 
Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, Hayastan and Pativ Unem, have not joined 
the local race in the Armenian capital where about a third of the country’s 
voters are concentrated.

It is not clear whether either alliance will support any other political party 
or bloc participating in the elections, including the Mother Armenia bloc, which 
is led by Andranik Tevanian, a former Hayastan faction member who resigned 
recently to focus on the Yerevan elections.




Leading Ukrainian Diplomat Drowns in Armenia


Oleksandr Senchenko


Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Armenia has died in an apparent drowning incident 
at Lake Sevan that was reported by the country’s authorities and confirmed by 
the Ukrainian foreign ministry on Monday.

Armenia’s Interior Ministry said the body of a Ukrainian citizen was recovered 
from the mountain lake on August 13.

Later local media as well as Ukraine’s foreign ministry confirmed that the 
drowned man was Oleksandr Senchenko, who led Ukraine’s embassy in Yerevan for 
the past year or so.

The Armenian rescue service was quoted by local media as saying that on Sunday 
evening lifeguards at a public beach at Lake Sevan spotted a man at a distance 
of 25 meters from the shore who disappeared while swimming.

“Lifeguards swam towards the area and lifted a man from the bottom that was 1.5 
meters deep, taking him to the shore on a rubber motor boat. Ambulance service 
workers registered the man’s death,” a report said.

In reporting the tragic death of Senchenko, Ukraine’s foreign ministry described 
him as an experienced and highly qualified diplomat who had worked in the 
ministry since 2003.

The Armenian police said materials related to the drowning of the Ukrainian 
citizen had been sent to Sevan’s investigation department.

No other details related to the circumstances of Senchenko’s death were reported 
immediately.

According to Armenia’s embassy in Ukraine, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat 
Mirzoyan extended condolences on behalf of the entire staff of Armenia’s 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on his personal behalf to his Ukrainian 
counterpart Dmytro Kuleba on the tragic death of Ukraine’s charge d’affaires 
Senchenko.




11 Killed In Minibus-Truck Collision In Armenia

        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian

Armenia - Firefighters are working on the scene of a major motor vehicle 
collision on the Yerevan-Gyumri highway, .


At least 11 people were killed and nine others injured in an overnight collision 
of a passenger minibus and a truck in Armenia.
The Rescue Service of Armenia’s Interior Ministry said the collision occurred on 
the 90th kilometer of the Yerevan-Gyumri highway just after midnight on August 
14.

It said a Volkswagen van carrying passengers collided with a ZIL truck on the 
section near the village of Lanjik.

Six people injured in the crash were hospitalized in Gyumri, a local medical 
center said, adding that one patient was later transferred to a hospital in 
Yerevan.

Deputy director of the Gyumri Medical Center Armen Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service that said that the five patients were in a critical condition 
and their lives were in danger.

The Health Ministry later said that on person hospitalized in Yerevan was also 
in a serious condition, while three others taken to a medical center in the 
Armenian capital had sustained only light injuries and were discharged from the 
clinic shortly after they had been examined and received treatment.

According to relatives of the victims, they were returning from Turkey where 
they had visited historical Armenian sites.

Investigators were reportedly working on the scene early on Monday to establish 
the circumstances of the traffic collision. No other information was reported 
immediately.

The Investigation Committee said later criminal proceedings had been instituted 
in connection with the case.

Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed condolences to the 
families of all victims.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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