Wednesday, 


U.S. Denies Blocking UN Resolution On Karabakh


Armenia - The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan


The United States strongly denied on Wednesday claims that it is opposed to the 
passage of a UN Security Council resolution condemning Azerbaijan’s blockade of 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Security Council discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Karabakh 
last week during an emergency meeting initiated by Armenia. Speaking at the 
meeting, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan urged it to demand the 
immediate reopening of the Lachin corridor, send a fact-finding mission to 
Karabakh and provide humanitarian aid to the region’s struggling population.

Although most of its members, notably the U.S. and Russia, urged the lifting of 
the Azerbaijani blockade, the Council stopped short of adopting a relevant 
resolution or statement.

“We have not seen a draft resolution, and claims that the U.S. is pressuring 
member countries not to sign a resolution are completely false,” the U.S. 
Embassy in Yerevan told the Armenpress news agency.

“As noted in our statement at the [UN Security Council] session, we remain 
deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and we’re 
encouraging the Azerbaijani government to open the Lachin Corridor to 
humanitarian, commercial and private traffic expeditiously,” it said.

Mirzoyan also dismissed the rumors, circulated by some media outlets, when he 
spoke during a news conference in Yerevan on Tuesday. He said he believes 
Washington realizes that a UN resolution would help to end the crisis in 
Karabakh.

An Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Monday that Armenia is not in a 
position to draft such a document because of not being a Security Council member.

The U.S., the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called on Azerbaijan to 
allow renewed commercial and humanitarian traffic through the Lachin corridor. 
Baku has dismissed their appeals.




Pashinian Critical Of Armenia’s 1990 Independence Declaration


Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a news conference in 
Yerevan, July 25, 2023.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday criticized a 1990 declaration of 
Armenia’s independence, saying that it fomented the conflicts with Azerbaijan 
and Turkey and is now at odds with his “peace agenda.”

The document adopted by Armenia’s first post-Communist parliament stopped short 
of declaring the republic’s immediate secession from the Soviet Union. It 
announced instead “the start of a process of establishing independent statehood.”

The declaration made reference to a 1989 unification act adopted by the 
legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous 
Oblast. It also called for international recognition of the 1915 genocide of 
Armenians “in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.”

In a statement issued on the 33rd anniversary of its passage, Pashinian said 
that he used to view the declaration as a “biblical message” but revised his 
assessment after the 2020 war in Karabakh.

“A critical analysis of the text of the declaration shows that we basically 
chose a discourse and content which is based on the formula that had made us 
part of the Soviet Union. Namely, a confrontational discourse on the regional 
environment that was to keep us in constant conflict with our neighbors,” read 
the statement.

It is the same formula that “had already led to the loss of our independence at 
the beginning of the 20th century,” Pashinian went on. He claimed in this regard 
that only his current “peace agenda” aimed at normalizing Armenia’s relations 
with Azerbaijan and Turkey could prevent a repeat of that scenario.

“As long as we do not have peace, the ghost of the USSR will hover in our sky, 
in the sky of our region,” he added.

Armenia - A copy of the 1990 Declaration of Independence.

Pashinian did not specify which concrete provisions of the 1990 declaration, 
which is mentioned in a preamble to the Armenian constitution, he is unhappy 
with.

Some opposition figures were quick to condemn the premier’s statement as 
pro-Turkish and pro-Azerbaijani. Artur Khachatrian, a lawmaker from the main 
opposition Hayastan bloc, said Pashinian is resorting to “cheap blackmail” in a 
bid to convince Armenians to “abandon Karabakh.”

“I have the impression that Pashinian’s ‘declaration of independence’ message 
was written in Ankara,” Eduard Sharmazanov of the former ruling Republican Party 
charged in a Facebook post.

Other critics have speculated over the last two years that Pashinian is facing 
strong pressure from Baku and Ankara to remove all references to Karabakh and 
the Armenian genocide from the constitution.

Pashinian drew strong condemnation from the Armenian opposition and Karabakh’s 
leadership in May when he pledged to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over 
Karabakh through an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. He caused more outrage by 
declaring that such a deal would give Armenia a “certificate of title” for its 
territory.

However, Pashinian complained on August 3 Azerbaijan is seeking to sign the kind 
of treaty with Armenia that would not prevent it from laying claim to Armenian 
territory.

The premier’s detractors seized upon that statement to assert that even the 
far-reaching concession offered by him to Baku would not safeguard Armenian 
territory from future Azerbaijani attacks. They regularly say that Pashinian 
himself put Armenia’s independence at serious risk by mishandling the 2020 war.




EU Urges Dialogue Between Baku, Stepanakert

        • Heghine Buniatian

Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel arrives for a European Union 
leaders' summit in Brussels, December 15, 2022.


The European Union hopes for the start of direct dialogue between Azerbaijan and 
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership while pressing Baku to end its blockade of the 
Lachin corridor, a senior EU official said on Wednesday.

“[EU Council] President Charles Michel calls for the dialogue meeting between 
Baku and Stepanakert to take place as soon as possible,” the official told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Sources in Stepanakert said last month that Azerbaijani officials and Karabakh 
representatives were due to meet in Bulgaria’s capital Sophia Sofia in the 
beginning of July. The meeting did not take place because the sides did not 
agree on its agenda, according to them.

Another Karabakh official claimed afterwards that the Western-mediated talks 
were rescheduled for August 1 but then cancelled by the Azerbaijani side. Baku 
wants such negotiations to be held in an Azerbaijani city, he said, adding that 
this is unacceptable to Stepanakert.

The EU official, who did not want to be identified, said it remains unclear when 
and where the two sides could launch the dialogue strongly backed by Armenia.

The deadlock is further complicating the lifting of the Azerbaijani blockade 
that has resulted in a grave humanitarian crisis in Karabakh. The EU has 
repeatedly urged Baku to unblock the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia.

“President Michel has stressed to the Azerbaijani side the urgent necessity to 
unblock the Lachin road in compliance with the relevant [International Court of 
Justice] decision and in order to prevent a further escalation,” the official 
said in thins regard. “He also noted Azerbaijan’s willingness to provide 
humanitarian assistance via other roads, including Aghdam.”

Michel’s team as well as the EU’s special envoy to the South Caucasus, Toivo 
Klaar, have been discussing with Baku, Yerevan and Karabakh Armenian leaders 
“options for unblocking the situation,” added the official. He stressed that the 
EU remains an “honest broker” in ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations.

Karabakh’s leadership has rejected the alternative, Azerbaijani-controlled 
supply route proposed by Baku as a cynical ploy designed to facilitate the 
restoration of Azerbaijani control over the Armenian-populated region. The EU 
foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, stressed late last month that the Aghdam 
route “should not be seen as an alternative to the reopening of the Lachin 
corridor.”




Mayoral Election Campaign Kicks Off In Yerevan

        • Robert Zargarian
        • Anush Mkrtchian

Armenia - A view of the municipal administration building of Yerevan, August 23, 
2023.


Campaigning officially began on Wednesday for municipal elections in Yerevan 
effectively boycotted by Armenia’s main opposition groups.

Yerevan residents will elect on September 17 a new municipal assembly that will 
in turn appoint the mayor of the Armenian capital. Thirteen parties and one bloc 
are vying for the assembly’s 65 seats.

The last mayor, Hrachya Sargsian, stepped down in March 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. Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian expressed confidence about the party’s victory during an 
election campaign fundraiser held late last month.

The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances represented in the Armenian 
parliament have decided not to join the mayoral race. Some of their senior 
members have said that the upcoming elections are not significant given the 
grave security challenges facing Armenia as well as Nagorno-Karabakh.

Andranik Tevanian, a Hayastan parliamentarian, disagreed with the de facto 
boycott, resigning from the National Assembly and cobbling together an electoral 
bloc called Mayr Hayastan (Mother Armenia) to run for mayor. He has said that an 
opposition victory in Yerevan would pave the way for regime change in the 
country.

Armenia - Opposition mayoral candidate Andranik Tevanian (right) starts his 
election campaign in Yerevan, .

Tevanian made the same point as his bloc comprising several other outspoken 
opposition figures launched its campaign with a rally held in the city center.

Another major opposition contender is the Aprelu Yerkir party widely linked with 
Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian-born tycoon and philanthropist who moved to 
Karabakh last year. Its mayoral candidate, Mane Tandilian, too has described the 
Yerevan polls as an opportunity to precipitate the Pashinian government’s ouster.

Tandilian ruled out any post-election power-sharing deals with Pashinian’s party 
as she spoke during her party’s inaugural campaign event. “Our struggle is about 
strengthening our statehood,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Tandilian, 50, served as labor and social affairs minister in Pashinian’s first 
cabinet in 2018.

Civil Contract and Avinian may also face a serious challenge from Hayk Marutian, 
a popular TV comedian whom Pashinian’s political team had installed as mayor 
after winning the last municipal polls in 2018. The city council controlled by 
the ruling party ousted Marutian in December 2021 after he fell out with the 
prime minister.

Marutian tops the list of council candidates nominated by a little-known party 
called National Progress.

Armenia - Opposition mayoral candidate Mane Tandilian speaks at an election 
campaign meeting in Yerevan, .

Avinian was due to hold his first campaign gathering in the city’s southern 
Nubarashen suburb on Wednesday evening. His campaign is thought to have 
unofficially begun months ago, with Civil Contract disseminating videos of his 
speeches and other public appearances on social media.

In a recent report issued earlier this month, Independent Observer, a coalition 
of civic groups that will monitor the September 17, vote accused Avinian of 
having systematically abused his administrative resources to promote his mayoral 
bid.

The coalition also said that the administration of a local community in central 
Armenia comprising the town of Spitak and surrounding villages is drawing up 
lists of its Yerevan-based natives promising to vote for Avinian. It said the 
process is overseen by Gevorg Papoyan, the ruling party’s deputy chairman.

Armenia - Former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian attends a session of 
Yerevan's municipal assembly, September 23, 2022.

The allegations are based on recorded phone calls between local officials and a 
civic activist posing as an aide to Papoyan. Spitak’s deputy mayor and six 
village chiefs could be heard saying that they already have or will soon have 
such lists.

Papoyan strongly denied the allegations. Vahagn Hovakimian, a Pashinian ally 
heading the Armenia’s Central Election Commission, said, for his part, that “the 
audio does not testify to an abuse of administrative resources.”



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