Thursday, Moscow Slams ‘Anti-Russian Campaign’ In Armenia Russia - Russian Foreign Ministry building is seen behind a billboard showing a tactical insignia of Russian troops in Ukraine and reading "Victory is being Forged in Fire," Moscow, October 13, 2022. One day after Russia’s ambassador in Yerevan was handed a rare protest note, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Armenian charge d’affaires on Wednesday to condemn what it called anti-Russian propaganda spread by Armenia’s government-controlled media. The spokeswoman for the ministry, Maria Zakharova, revealed the move during a news briefing in Moscow on Thursday. She said ministry officials protested to the Armenian diplomat against the “unbridled anti-Russian campaign” conducted by Armenian Public Television and other media outlets controlled by the government. “His attention was drawn to the most odious reports directed at the Russian leadership, Russian diplomats and peacekeepers who risk and sacrifice their lives, including for the security of the people of Armenia,” added Zakharova. In the last few years, Armenian Public Television has regularly interviewed and invited politicians and commentators critical of Moscow to its political talk shows. Their appearances in prime-time programs of the TV channel run by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s loyalists have become even more frequent lately amid a further deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations. For its part, Russia’s leading state broadcaster, Channel One, derided and lambasted Pashinian during an hour-long program on Monday. It featured pro-Kremlin panelists who denounced Pashinian’s track record and portrayed him as a Western puppet tasked with ending Armenia’s close relationship with Russia. The Armenian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador on Tuesday to protest against “offensive and absolutely unacceptable statements” made during the program. The unprecedented show, titled “Nikol Pashinian: a harbinger of trouble,” highlighted the mounting tensions between Moscow and Yerevan. It fueled more calls for the Armenian government to ban the retransmission of Channel One and another state-controlled Russian channel. High-Technology Minister Robert Khachatrian again did not rule out such a ban when he spoke in the Armenian parliament on Thursday. He said the Russian broadcasters have repeatedly violated a 2020 Russian-Armenian agreement that allowed them to retain their slots in the national digital package accessible to TV viewers across Armenia. “I can’t tell you at this point what decisions and steps have been taken, but discussions are underway,” Khachatrian said, answering a question from a pro-government lawmaker. Former Official Cleared Of Murder During 2008 Unrest In Yerevan • Naira Bulghadarian Armenia - Gegham Petrosian, a former deputy commander of interior troops. After a more than four-year investigation, Armenian law-enforcement authorities have dropped murder charges against a former senior police official prosecuted over the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. It followed a disputed presidential election in which former President Levon Ter-Petrosian was the main opposition candidate. Scores of his supporters clashed with riot police on March 1-2, 2008 during an opposition rally in central Yerevan led by Nikol Pashinian, then a newspaper editor. Eight protesters and two police servicemen died in the violence that led outgoing President Robert Kocharian to declare a state of emergency and order Armenian army units into the capital. Dozens of people, including Pashinian, were arrested and jailed in an ensuing crackdown on the Ter-Petrosian-led opposition accused of plotting to overthrow the government. Investigators completely changed the official version of events after Pashinian swept to power in 2018. Kocharian and about a dozen former officials were indicted in connection with the crackdown. Some of them, including the ex-president, were acquitted by courts while others fled Armenia. The suspects also included Gegham Petrosian, who was a deputy commander of Armenian interior troops during the 2008 clashes. A law-enforcement agency now called the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) arrested him in June 2019 on charges of killing one of the opposition demonstrators. Petrosian, who denied the accusations, was set free two months later pending investigation. The ACC chief, Sasun Khachatrian, insisted at the time that investigators have sufficient evidence to prosecute him. However, a prosecutor overseeing the protracted investigation cited a lack of such evidence when he decided to clear the former officer of wrongdoing earlier this month. The Office of the Prosecutor-General on Thursday declined to elaborate on the decision. Khachatrian’s agency also did not comment on it. Petrosian is the first and only person indicted in connection with the ten deaths. Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to have those responsible for them identified and brought to justice. His critics have denounced relevant criminal proceedings launched during Pashinian’s rule as politically motivated. Some of them have also accused the premier of inciting the 2008 clashes. Pashinian played a major role in Ter-Petrosian’s 2007-2008 opposition movement. He fell out with the ex-president after being released from jail in 2011. Azerbaijan ‘Not Interested’ In Corridor Through Armenia Azerbaijan - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev welcomes Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan upon his arrival at Nakhichevan airport, September 25, 2023. A senior Azerbaijani official has said that Baku is no longer in interested in a special corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s strategic Syunik province. Since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly demanded such a corridor and implicitly threatened to order his troops to open it forcibly. Armenia has rejected his demands while expressing readiness for conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states. Last month’s Azerbaijani military offensive in Karabakh raised more fears in Yerevan that Baku will also attack Armenia to open the exterritorial “Zangezur corridor.” A senior Armenian diplomat claimed on October 8 that an Azerbaijani attack on Syunik may be “a matter of weeks.” Aliyev’s top foreign policy aide, Hikmet Hajiyev, denied this in an interview with Politico published late on Wednesday. He said that the corridor “has lost its attractiveness for us” and that Baku is now planning to “do this with Iran instead.” “Our agenda was only about building transport linkages and connectivity through the framework of bilateral engagement,” said Hajiyev. “If this is the case, yes, but if not then OK. It’s still on the table but it will require from the Armenian side to show they’re really interested in that.” Earlier this month, Azerbaijani and Iranian officials broke ground on a new road that will link Nakhichevan to mainland Azerbaijan via Iranian territory adjacent to Syunik. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, who has mediated numerous Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on transport links, was reported to say on Thursday that Baku and Tehran have also agreed to build a similar rail link bypassing Armenia. Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrzad Bazrpash attends a session of the Iranian parliament. Syunik is the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. The latter has repeatedly warned against attempts to strip it of the common border and transport links with Armenia. The Islamic Republic views that as a serious threat to its national security. “We have repeatedly said that we disagree with the [idea of the] ‘Zangezur corridor’ and we have made this clear during meetings with various Azerbaijani officials,” Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrzad Bazrpash said during a visit to Yerevan on Monday. Bazrpash spoke as two Iranian companies were formally contracted by the Armenian government to rebuild a 32-kilometer section of Syunik’s main highway leading to the Iranian border. The contracts worth $215 million underscored Tehran’s interest in Armenia’s continued full control over Syunik. GEORGIA - The prime ministers of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Montenegro attend an international forum in Tbilisi, . Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian travelled to Tbilisi to Thursday to attend and address an international conference on reviving the ancient Silk Road. In his speech, Pashinian reaffirmed his government’s commitment to opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to commerce and individual travel. Pashinian reaffirmed the official Armenian line that all regional countries must exercise full control over roads and railways passing through their territory. This means, he said, that travellers and cargo cannot be exempt from national border controls. Baku is understood to have sought such exemptions for the “Zangezur corridor.” Aliyev has repeatedly described Syunik and other parts of Armenia as “historical Azerbaijani lands.” He said last week that ethnic Azerbaijanis who used to live there in Soviet times will eventually return “not in tanks but in cars.” Russia Cautious On Fresh Criticism From Pashinian Russia - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends Russia-Armenia talks on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Union Forum in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 25, 2023. Russia reacted cautiously on Thursday to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s fresh claims that it has failed to protect Nagorno-Karabakh’s population against ethnic cleansing and honor its security commitments to Armenia. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday, Pashinian again blamed Russian peacekeepers for the mass exodus from Karabakh that followed Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive. He said that they were “unable or unwilling to ensure the security of the Karabakh Armenians.” Pashinian also reiterated that contrary to its mission and statutes, the Russian-led Collective Security Organization (CSTO) did not intervene to defend its member state Armenia against Azerbaijani aggression in 2021 and 2022. “We also have a bilateral security treaty with Russia and actions spelled out by that treaty did not happen either, which also raised very serious questions among the Armenian government and public,” he said. This is why Yerevan is now striving to “diversify” its foreign and security policies, added Pashinian. Commenting on his remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We need to understand exactly what Mr. Pashinyan was talking about. In conversations with our Armenian friends, we expect to receive all the information on this matter.” “And, of course, it is not good for Russia and Armenia to communicate through newspapers, especially the Wall Street Journal,” Peskov told reporters. “Therefore, we are continuing the conversation, dialogue with our Armenian friends, and we will keep doing so. We have a very extensive agenda.” Moscow reacted far more strongly to another newspaper interview which Pashinian gave in early September. He told Italy’s La Repubblica daily that he wants to “diversify our security policy” because Armenia’s long-standing heavy reliance on Russia has proved a “strategic mistake.” The rift between Moscow and Yerevan has deepened further since then, raising more questions about their long-standing military, political and economic alliance. The Armenian premier appeared to tone down his criticism of Moscow in his latest interview. He said that Armenia has started a “dialogue” with Russia and other CSTO allies to “try to understand the reason for this situation.” And he again made clear that his government is not considering demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Armenia even if it sees no “advantages” in their presence. 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.