Wednesday, Armenian Citizenship Of Karabakh Refugees Called Into Question • Susan Badalian Armenia - Refugees from Nagorno Karabakh wait at a Karabakh office in Yerevan, October 18, 2023. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian indicated on Wednesday that his government does not regard refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh’s as Armenian citizens despite the fact that virtually all of them hold Armenian passports. Pashinian said that the government will therefore grant the more than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians, who fled their homeland after last month’s Azerbaijani military offensive, “temporary protection” formalizing their status of refugees. This, he said, will increase “the possibilities of protecting their rights in the local and international arenas.” “Right after that decision, our sisters and brothers from Nagorno-Karabakh will have an opportunity to apply for Armenian citizenship and we will solve that issue in the fastest possible way,” he added during the government’s question-and-answer session in the parliament. An Armenian law on refugees stipulates that only foreign nationals and stateless persons are eligible for the “temporary protection status.” Many of some 20,000 other Karabakh residents who took refuge in Armenia prior to the September mass exodus have sought such a status for almost three years in hopes of receiving regular government aid. They say government officials in Yerevan have repeatedly told them that they do qualify because of being citizens of Armenia. “If they have Armenian passports, it means they are citizens of Armenia,” the head of the government’s Migration Service insisted recently. Ara Ghazarian, an international law expert, made the same point when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service hours before Pashinian’s announcement. Ghazarian said that under the law in question, the displaced Karabakh Armenians are formally not refugees. Pashinian’s government sparked controversy earlier this month when it refused to pay Karabakh’s public sector salaries, pensions and other benefits. The decision caused discontent among civil servants, teachers, military and security personnel, pensioners and other socially vulnerable people who made up a large part of Karabakh’s population. They will not be even paid for September. Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatrian said on Monday that these and other refugees will instead receive 50,000 drams ($125) each in November and December in addition to 100,000 drams given to them this month. “I had a monthly salary of 150,000 drams, plus my pension,” complained Seda Sargsian, who worked as an accountant in Karabakh’s northern Martakert district before fleeing to Armenia with her family. “We don’t want alms,” said another Karabakh woman. “My family has lost a member during each war [with Azerbaijan.]” Canada Opens Embassy In Armenia • Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly inaugurates the Canadian Embassy in Yerevan, . Foreign Minister Melanie Joly reaffirmed Canada’s support for Armenia’s territorial integrity when she visited Yerevan and inaugurated the Canadian Embassy there on Wednesday. Joly hoisted a Canadian flag outside an office building in the Armenian capital that will house the embassy. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan also attended the ceremony. The Canadian government announced its decision to open the embassy in June 2022. It said it wants to deepen Canadian-Armenia relations in view of a “profound geopolitical shift” in the world resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It said the diplomatic presence in Armenia as well as four Eastern European states will help Ottawa “counter Russia’s destabilizing activities.” Russia denounced that explanation, saying that it is indicative of the West’s “arrogant attitude towards other countries and peoples.” Mirzoyan as well as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian welcomed the opening of the Canadian mission during their talks with Joly. Pashinian described it as a “remarkable event for our bilateral relations. “I must note with satisfaction that the relationship between Armenia and Canada is based on common values such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law,” Mirzoyan said, for his part. The Armenian leaders also praised the Canadian government’s recent decision to join a monitoring mission launched by the European Union along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan in February. Ottawa said in July that two Canadian experts will be sent to the South Caucasus country in the coming months to act as a “third-party contributor to the mission.” Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Canadian counterpart Melanie Joly meet in Yerevan, . “Canada calls for the full respect of the territorial integrity of Armenia and reaffirms the importance of strict adherence to the principle of non-use of force or threat of it,” Joly told a joint news conference with Mirzoyan earlier on Wednesday. Joly alluded to the risk of an Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia which Armenian officials as well as some analysts believe increased after Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in Karabakh. She did not rule out the possibility of Canadian sanctions against Baku in the event of the invasion. “When it comes to sanctions … I have said that everything is on the table,” stressed the top Canadian diplomat. Joly also reiterated Canada’s condemnation of the Azerbaijani offensive which forced Karabakh’s virtually entire Armenian population to flee to Armenia. Baku must respect “the right to return of the recently displaced Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh,” she said, adding that Ottawa has approved additional humanitarian aid to those refugees. Just days after the outbreak of the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Karabakh, Canada suspended the export of drone technology to Turkey. It banned such exports altogether in 2021 after investigating and confirming reports that Turkish-manufactured Bayraktar TB2 combat drones, heavily used by the Azerbaijani army, are equipped with imaging and targeting systems made by a Canada-based firm. Ankara criticized the embargo and urged the Canadian government to reconsider it. Fresh Armenian-Azeri Summit ‘Delayed’ Again • Anush Mkrtchian Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel hosts talks between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Brussels, May 14, 2023. The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will not meet in Brussels before the end of this month for fresh talks that were due to be hosted by the European Union’s top official, it was confirmed on Wednesday. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had been scheduled to meet, together with European Council President Charles Michel and the leaders of Germany and France, on the fringes of the EU’s October 5 summit in Granada, Spain. However, Aliyev withdrew from the talks at the last minute, citing pro-Armenian statements made by French officials. Michel said afterwards that the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders will likely hold a trilateral meeting with him in Brussels later in October. “We will not have a meeting by the end of October,” Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special envoy to the South Caucasus, told a conference in Yerevan. Speaking via video link from Brussels, Klaar suggested that this is a “slight delay, rather than anything else.” There was not have enough time to organize the summit, he said, adding that the trilateral meeting should take place soon. But he gave no possible dates. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said, meanwhile, that the two leaders will not meet in the coming days because Aliyev “did not find the time” to fly to Brussels. “I hope that the problem was indeed to do with concrete dates and that a new date for the meeting will be agreed upon soon,” he said. “Armenia is ready to participate in that meeting. We remain committed to our peace agenda.” “We have received no new proposals yet regarding [meeting] dates,” Mirzoyan added during a news conference. Spain - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron in Granada, October 5, 2023. Despite last month’s Azerbaijani military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and Baku’s resulting takeover of the region, Pashinian hoped to sign a framework peace deal with Aliyev at Granada. The document would lay out the key parameters of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty discussed since the beginning of last year. One of the main sticking points in those talks has been a mechanism for delimiting the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. In a joint statement with Pashinian issued in Granada, Michel, French President Emmanuel and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz effectively backed the idea of using a 1975 Soviet military map for the border delimitation, which is advanced by Armenia. Azerbaijan continues to oppose it. Klaar said that although the conflicting sides are “moving slowly” towards a peace accord, they will likely sign it in the near future. Russia has been very critical of the EU mediation, saying that it is part of the West’s efforts to drive Moscow out of the South Caucasus. Yerevan appears to prefer Western peace efforts now amid a continuing deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov but not Mirzoyan on the sidelines of a multilateral meeting of the top diplomats of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Turkey held in Tehran on Monday. Lavrov also phoned Bayramov the following day. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the two men “reaffirmed the need to step up efforts to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan” on the basis of agreements brokered by Moscow. 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.