Monday,
Pashinian Ready For More ‘Guarantees’ To Azerbaijan
• Robert Zargarian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Russia - Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian are seen during a visit to the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg,
December 26, 2023.
Armenia is ready to formally pledge not to have any territorial claims to
Azerbaijan in the future, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said over the weekend.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev demanded such guarantees in early December,
saying that an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty would not be enough to preclude
another war between the two countries. Aliyev did not elaborate on the
safeguards against Armenian “revanchism” that would satisfy him.
Pashinian was understood to express readiness to meet this demand if Baku
recognizes Armenia’s territorial integrity through that treaty “without any
reservations.”
“We expect from Azerbaijan guarantees that Azerbaijan does not want to leave
grounds, between the lines, for future territorial claims to Armenia,” Pashinian
told senior members of his party in southeastern Vayots Dzor province. “We want
such guarantees. But I must also say we are ready to give [Azerbaijan] such
guarantees.”
“This should be a mutual action. It cannot be unilateral for us or for them,” he
said.
Pashinian made the remarks one day after declaring that Armenia must adopt a new
constitution reflecting the “new geopolitical environment” in the region. That
was widely construed as a further indication that he wants to get rid of a
preamble to the current Armenian constitution enacted in 1995.
The preamble makes reference to a 1990 declaration of independence adopted by
the republic’s first post-Communist parliament. The declaration in turn refers
to a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia
and the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. It also calls for international
recognition of the 1915 genocide of Armenians “in Ottoman Turkey and Western
Armenia.”
Five lawmakers representing the main opposition Hayastan alliance issued a joint
statement on Friday night condemning Pashinian’s plans for the new constitution.
“Pashinian is trying to launch a new attack on one of the pillars of the Third
Republic of Armenia, preparing the ground for meeting another of the nonstop
Turkish-Azerbaijani demands,” they charged.
Armenia - Opposition deputy Kristine Vartanian speaks during the government's
question-and-answer session in parliament, April 13, 2022.
“What regional changes have left Armenia needing a change of its constitution?”
one of those lawmakers, Kristine Vartanian, said. “The biggest change is the
establishment of Azerbaijani control over Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
[Pashinian] is openly telling us that our constitution must also reflect this
reality.”
Pashinian recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh months before Baku
recaptured the region as a result of the September military offensive that
forced its population to flee to Armenia. The Armenian opposition says the
recognition paved the way for the assault.
Vartanian and other signatories of the statement were recently allowed by the
Armenian Foreign Ministry to read Azerbaijani proposals regarding the peace
treaty currently discussed by the two sides. They said afterwards that Baku is
seeking the kind of agreement that would leave the door open to future
territorial claims to Armenia.
Some Armenian officials have made the same claims. Foreign Minister Ararat
Mirzoyan spoke on January 10 of “some regression” in the Azerbaijani position on
the treaty.
Earlier this month, Aliyev renewed his demands for Armenia to open an
extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. He also demanded
Armenian withdrawal from “eight Azerbaijani villages” and again dismissed
Yerevan’s insistence on using the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Pashinian on January 13 said Aliyev’s demands amount to territorial claims to
Armenia and accused Baku of undermining prospects for the signing of the peace
accord. Still, a few days later, he expressed hope that Azerbaijan is committed
to making peace with Armenia. He went on to make the latest overtures to Baku.
EU Cocerned About Azeri ‘Territorial Claims’ To Armenia
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, right, speaks with Belgium's
Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in
Brussels, .
The European Union on Monday expressed serious concern at what its foreign
policy chief described as territorial claims to Armenia made by Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev.
“We agreed that Azerbaijan needs to return to substantive peace and
normalization talks with Armenia,” Josep Borrell said after chairing a meeting
of the foreign ministers of EU member states that discussed the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict among other issues.
“The latest territorial claims by President Aliyev are very concerning, and any
violation of Armenia’s territorial integrity would be unacceptable and will have
severe consequences for our relations with Azerbaijan,” he told a news briefing
in Brussels.
Earlier this month, Aliyev renewed his demands for Armenia to open an
extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. He also demanded
Armenian withdrawal from “eight Azerbaijani villages” and again dismissed
Yerevan’s insistence on using the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Borrell issued the same warning to Baku in November as the EU decided to deploy
more observers to Armenia’s volatile border with Azerbaijan. The 27-nation bloc
launched the monitoring mission in February 2023 with the stated aim of
preventing or reducing ceasefire violations there.
Aliyev twice cancelled talks 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.
Government Moves To Allow Minority Rule In Armenia
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a weekly cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, February 9, 2023.
Armenia’s prime minister and their cabinet should no longer necessarily enjoy
the backing of the parliamentary majority, according to constitutional reform
proposed by the country’s Minsitry of Justice.
The current Armenian constitution requires the government to have a “stable
majority” in the National Assembly, meaning that the prime minister has to be
backed by most parliament deputies. It envisages a second round of voting in
cases where up to three parties or blocs fail to form a majority government as a
result of a general election.
A reform “concept” submitted by the Ministry of Justice to Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s office earlier this month would the abolish this requirement and
make it much easier for a political force winning the plurarity of votes to come
to power. It claims that “stability can cause political and economic stagnation.”
The document obtained by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday proposes two ways
of forming a minority government. One option is for the largely ceremonial
president of the republic is to appoint the leader of the political force that
won most votes but fell short of a parliamentarity majority as prime minister.
Alternatively, the parliament itself would pick the premier through a plurality
voting system. A similar system is already in place in Yerevan. It enabled
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party to install its top candidate as mayor following
municipal elections held in September.
In what is widely considered a serious setback, Civil Contract fell well short
of an absolute majority in the city council empowered to appoint the mayor. The
ruling party capitalized on opposition contenders’ failure to quickly agree on a
common mayoral candidate.
Armenian opposition groups refrained from commenting on this proposed
arrangement, saying that they have not yet seen the Ministry of Justice
document. At least some opposition figures are bound to say that Pashinian is
simply trying to make sure that he can cling to power despite a serious decline
in his popularity.
Pashinian said Armenia must have a new constitution when met with senior
Ministry of Justice officials late last week. Commenting on the wisdom of such a
change, he made no mention of domestic politics and cited instead the need to
ensure country’s “external security” in the “new geopolitical environment” in
the region.
Pashinian has repeatedly called for constitutional changes and made conflicting
statements about them during his nearly six-year rule. Two years ago, he set up
a new body tasked with coordinating the constitutional reform process. The body
now headed by Justice Minister Grigor Minasian has still not drafted any
constitutional amendments. It is not clear whether it approves of the document
put forward by Minasian’s ministry.
Russian-Armenian Arms Supply Issues ‘Mostly Settled’
• Shoghik Galstian
Russia - Military vehicles move toward Red Square to attend a Victory Day
military parade in Moscow, May 9, 2023.
The Armenian Defense Ministry signaled on Monday significant progress in the
implementation of multimillion-dollar defense contracts signed by Armenia and
Russia after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a short statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, the ministry said that
“contentious issues” with Russian arms manufacturers have been “mostly settled.”
Some of those issues remain unresolved, though, it added without giving any
details.
The statement did not explicitly refer to the contracts for the delivery of
Russian weapons worth $400 million, according to Armenian officials. The latter
repeatedly complained last year that the Armenian military has still not
received any of those weapons.
Two senior Armenian lawmakers revealed earlier this month that Russia has
shipped the first batch of that military hardware. But they did not specify the
types of weaponry commissioned and/or received by Yerevan.
Russia’s ambassador to Armenia, Sergei Kopyrkin, acknowledged late last month
“issues” in the implementation of Russian-Armenian arms deals. He implied that
Russian defense companies have not fulfilled their contractual obligations on
time because of having to manufacture more weapons for the Russian military
embroiled in the continuing war with Ukraine.
Russia has long been Armenia’s principal supplier of weapons and ammunition. The
South Caucasus nation has acquired them at domestic Russian prices, set below
international market-based levels, and even for free.
With no end in sight to the war in Ukraine and tensions between Moscow and
Yerevan continuing to grow, the Armenian government is increasingly looking for
other arms suppliers. Since September 2022 it has reportedly signed a number of
defense contracts with India worth at least $400 million. In October 2023, it
also signed two arms deals with France.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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