Wednesday,
Yerevan Urged To Resume Russian-Mediated Talks With Baku
RUSSIA - People walk on a bridge in the Zaryadye park with a Kremlin's tower and
Russian Foreign Ministry building in the background, Moscow, October 25, 2021.
Russia urged Armenia on Wednesday to agree to resume Russian-mediated
negotiations with Azerbaijan based on earlier understandings reached by the
leaders of the three countries.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin and
the Armenian ambassador in Moscow, Vagharshak Harutiunian, discussed the
normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations “in detail” during a meeting
requested by Harutiunian.
“The Russian side emphasized the urgent need for an early resumption of
trilateral work in this area based on a set of agreements between the leaders of
Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the ministry said in a short statement. It gave
no other details.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry and embassy in Russia did not immediately comment on
the meeting.
Late last year, Moscow repeatedly offered to host high-level
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks as it sought to sideline the West and regain
the initiative in the negotiation process. In early December, the Russian
Foreign Ministry rebuked the Armenian leadership for ignoring these offers. It
warned that Yerevan’s current preference of Western mediation may spell more
trouble for the Armenian people.
The warning came amid unprecedented tensions between Moscow and Yerevan which
rose further after Russian peacekeepers’ failure to prevent or stop Azerbaijan’s
September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. The 2,000 or so
peacekeepers remain deployed in Karabakh in accordance with a Russian-brokered
ceasefire that stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Citing the Azerbaijani offensive, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on January
13 that Baku and Moscow effectively scrapped the truce accord. He also accused
Azerbaijan’s leadership of undermining prospects for an Armenian-Azerbaijani
peace treaty with statements amounting to territorial claims to Armenia.
Pashinian hoped, at least until now, to sign such a treaty as a result of peace
talks mediated by the United States and the European Union.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice cancelled meetings with Pashinian which
the EU planned to host in October. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov
similarly withdrew from a meeting with his Armenian counterpart scheduled for
November 20 in Washington. Baku accused the Western powers of pro-Armenian bias.
It now wants to negotiate with Yerevan without third-party mediation.
Armenian PM Still Hopeful About Peace With Azerbaijan
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is about to answer a question from an
opposition lawmaker in parliament, Yerevan, January 17, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed hope on Wednesday that Azerbaijan is
committed to making peace with Armenia, responding to fresh opposition claims
that his far-reaching concessions to Baku have only created more security
threats to his country.
He came under a barrage of criticism from opposition lawmakers during the
Armenian government’s question-and-answer session in the National Assembly. They
pointed to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest statements which
Pashinian construed on January 13 as territorial claims to Armenia and a “very
serious blow to the peace process.”
“You keep speaking about giving away while Aliyev speaks about taking,” Agnesa
Khamoyan, a parliament deputy from the main opposition Hayastan alliance, told
Pashinian. “You speak about handing over so-called enclaves, roads, Azerbaijani
criminals, and look at what Aliyev says in response to that. So I wonder … where
that process of concessions will end.”
Armenia - Opposition deputy Agnesa Khamoyan attends a session of parliament,
Yerevan, January 17, 2023.
“I hope that the purpose of the statements coming from Baku is not to
deliberately bring the peace process to a deadlock,” replied Pashinian. He
admitted, though, that Armenia and Azerbaijan are now “talking different
diplomatic languages.”
Another Hayastan deputy, Artur Khachatrian, pointed out that Baku did not
recognize Armenia’s borders even after securing Pashinian’s recognition of
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh and recapturing the region as a
result of last September’s military offensive. Khachatrian singled out its
renewed demands for an extraterritorial corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its
Nakhichevan exclave through a strategic Armenian region.
Pashinian reaffirmed Yerevan’s rejection of those demands. He also said that his
administration will first and foremost counter the security threats emanating
from Azerbaijani with “international legitimacy relating to Armenia’s borders,
territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
Tensions on the parliament floor rose after Levon Kocharian, a son of Hayastan’s
top leader and former Armenian President Robert Kocharian, decried Pashinian’s
“pathetic” response to Aliyev.
Armenia - Levon Kocharian (right) attends a parliament session, November 15,
2023.
“Why are you so scared? Don’t you see that false peace is a failed agenda?”
Kocharian Jr. asked, sparking angry cries from some of the pro-government
lawmakers attending the session.
“I want to remind you that you are not at a school party and must behave
properly in the National Assembly,” Pashinian shot back.
Answering a question from another parliamentarian, he said: “If, for example,
Azerbaijan moves away from the peace agenda, it does not mean that we should
also abandon it.”
Pashinian drew strong condemnation from the Armenian opposition after declaring
last May that Armenia recognizes Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. Opposition
leaders say that this policy change paved the way for Azerbaijan’s September
19-20 military offensive that forced Karabakh’s practically entire population to
flee to Armenia. Pashinian’s political allies deny this.
Armenian Opposition Scoffs At Pashinian’s New Offer To Baku
• Shoghik Galstian
Armenia - Oppositon deputy Artur Khachatrian speaks during a parliament session
in Yerevan.
An Armenian opposition leader brushed aside on Wednesday Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s calls for an arms control treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
saying that Baku will not even discuss the idea.
Pashinian voiced the proposal on January 13 just as he accused Azerbaijan of
effectively laying claim to Armenian territory and dealing a “serious blow to
the peace process.” He referred to the latest statements made by Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev and his top aides.
Aliyev last week renewed his demands for Armenia to open an extraterritorial
corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. Also, he again demanded Armenian
withdrawal from “eight Azerbaijani villages” and dismissed Yerevan’s insistence
on using the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Pashinian also complained that Aliyev has rejected a mutual withdrawal of
Armenian and Azerbaijani troops from the border and other confidence-building
measures proposed by him earlier.
“I can make another proposal: let’s sign a treaty on arms control so that
Armenia and Azerbaijan reach concrete agreements on weapons and are able to
verify the implementation of that agreement,” he told members of his Civil
Contract party.
Artur Khachatrian, a senior member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance,
scoffed at Pashinian’s remarks, saying that the premier simply wants to make
Armenians believe that his conciliatory policy on the conflict with Azerbaijan
has not been an utter failure.
“Azerbaijan has never accepted any proposal made by Pashinian,” Khachatrian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “It’s illogical to assume that he will agree to
formally limit his arsenal of weapons.”
“Just a few months ago, he bought $1.2 billion worth of new weapons from
Israel,” he said. “Will Aliyev now agree to let the defeated Pashinian tell him
how many tanks, drones, warplanes or assault rifles he should have? That’s a
joke. Who is Pashinian mocking?”
Pro-government lawmakers pointedly declined to comment on Pashinian’s latest
offer to Aliyev. Baku has still not reacted to it.
Aliyev has repeatedly stated that Azerbaijan’s will continue its military
buildup despite its victory in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku was due to
spend a total of $3.5 billion on defense and national security last year. By
comparison, Armenia’s 2023 defense spending was projected at $1.25 billion.
Aliyev’s latest statements were construed by Armenian opposition politicians and
analysts as a further sign that he plans to ratchet up military pressure on
Yerevan. Some of them suggested that Azerbaijan is gearing up for another
military offensive against Armenia.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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