Wednesday,
Baku, Yerevan Hold Fresh Talks On Border Delimitation
• Artak Khulian
ARMENIA -- Azerbaijani (L) and Armenian army posts on the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border, June 18, 2021.
Senior Armenian and Azerbaijani officials held on Wednesday another round of
direct negotiations on the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, a
key hurdle to a comprehensive peace deal between the two nations.
The sixth joint session of Armenian and Azerbaijani government commissions on
border demarcation and delimitation took place at a relatively peaceful section
of the heavily militarized frontier. It was co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister
Mher Grigorian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Shahin Mustfayev.
The two sides issued very short and identical statements that shed no light on
the agenda of the talks or give other details. Nor did they report any
agreements.
Speaking in Yerevan earlier in the day, parliament speaker Alen Simonian said
that the Armenian side hopes the fresh talks will bring more clarity to the
delimitation issue. He indicated that Baku and Yerevan continue to disagree on a
concrete mechanism for delineating the border.
“We can show, with a deviation of meters, where the border of Armenia and
Azerbaijan passes,” Simonian told reporters. “Not just show some imaginary maps
but maps with legal basis under them.”
Armenia insists on using the most recent Soviet military maps drawn in the
1970s. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reiterated Baku’s rejection of the
idea in early January, saying that it favors the Armenian side.
Aliyev again accused Armenia of occupying “eight Azerbaijani villages” and said
their return will top the agenda of the upcoming delimitation talks. Grigorian
denied this, saying that the Armenian and Azerbaijani government commissions
will compare each other’s maps and discuss procedural issues.
Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials also said that an Armenian-Azerbaijani
peace treaty should be signed before the delimitation and demarcation of the
border. Yerevan insists, however, that the treaty must spell out legally binding
principles of the delimitation process. Armenian analysts and opposition figures
believe that Aliyev wants to leave the door open to Azerbaijani territorial
claims to Armenia.
Armenia ‘Getting Closer To NATO’
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets NATO envoy Javier Colomina,
January 19, 2024.
A senior NATO official has again praised Armenia for moving away from Russia and
seeking closer ties with the U.S.-led alliance, prompting another Russian
warning to Yerevan.
“We are very encouraged by the decisions that Armenia has decided to take in
their foreign policy and defense policy, the shift they have decided to
implement,” Javier Colomina, the NATO secretary general’s special representative
for the South Caucasus and Central Asia, told the Armenpress news agency in an
interview published on Wednesday.
“I know it is a decision that is difficult to implement and will probably take a
long time, but, of course, we encourage our partners to get closer to us and
that is what Armenia is doing,” Colomina said, adding that Armenian leaders
assured him in Yerevan last week that they will continue to “increase the
cooperation” with NATO.
The envoy revealed that the two sides are now close to working out a new
“individually tailored partnership program” that will flesh out Armenia’s closer
partnership with NATO. He gave no details of the action plan, saying only that
it will set “quite ambitious goals.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry was unusually quick to comment on Colomina’s
remarks that came amid Russia’s unprecedented tensions with Armenia. It warned
that closer ties with NATO could only spell more trouble for the South Caucasus
nation.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova attends the Saint
Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 16, 2022.
“We have already seen what proximity to NATO leads some countries to:
involvement in conflicts, loss of sovereignty and independence, submission to
foreign planning in all spheres and, most importantly, the absence of an
opportunity to realize their own national interests,” Maria Zakharova, the
ministry spokeswoman, told a news briefing in Moscow.
“Armenia should probably … open the map and look at the region, the countries
between which it is situated … The West gives promises to everyone, and I just
wonder which of them have been fulfilled and where,” she said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian declared in August that his government is trying
to “diversify our security policy” because Armenia’s long-standing heavy
reliance on Russia has proved a “strategic mistake.” He claimed that Moscow is
“unwilling or unable” to defend its South Caucasus ally. Moscow has since
repeatedly accused Pashinian of “destroying” Russian-Armenian relations at the
behest of the West.
Turkey, one of Armenia’s neighbors mentioned by Zakharova, is a key NATO member
state that provided decisive military assistance to Azerbaijan during the 2020
war in Nagorno-Karabakh. NATO did not criticize the Turkish involvement in the
six-week war.
Ankara is now fully backing Azerbaijani demands for an extraterritorial corridor
to the Nakhichevan exclave and other Armenian concessions. There are lingering
fears in Yerevan that Baku will resort to military to try to clinch those
concessions.
Armenian Deputy Minister Sacked, Detained
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - Deputy Economy Minister Ani Ispirian.
One day after being relieved of her duties, an Armenian deputy minister of
economy was reportedly detained on Wednesday in a corruption investigation
launched by law-enforcement authorities.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economy confirmed that the 32-year-old
official, Ani Ispirian, was taken in for questioning from her office in the
morning. She gave no other details.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee said, meanwhile, that its investigators as
well as officers of the National Security Service (NSS) jointly searched 15
locations, including the ministry building in Yerevan, as part of two criminal
cases opened by them. Its spokesman, Gor Abrahamian, did not confirm that
Ispirian is among seven individuals arrested as a result.
In a statement released later in the day, the committee said that unnamed
Ministry of Economy officials illegally disqualified a private entity from a
procurement tender to make sure that it is won by another bidder. The latter
offered 392 million drams (about $1 million) for the service, or nearly three
times more than its disqualified rival, the statement said, adding that six of
the arrests are related to this case.
In the other case, it went on, a ministry official, also not identified by the
law-enforcement body, abused his or her position to help other individuals
receive 238 million drams in state agribusiness funding in violation of rules
set by the ministry. Those individuals are linked to another person with whom
the official was “on close terms,” said the statement. It said that the
allocation amounted to the embezzlement of public funds.
Another source told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the arrested suspects also
include the head of a Ministry of Economy division.
Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian claimed to be unaware of the reason why his
ministry was raided by the law-enforcement officials.
“Investigative bodies usually raid government agencies in corruption cases,”
Kerobian told reporters. “We attach great importance to fighting against
corruption but also respect the presumption of people’s innocence.”
“And I must point out that there have been no guilty verdicts against Ministry
of Economy employees in the last three years,” he added, referring to his time
in office.
Kerobian insisted that Ispirian’s dismissal and apparent detention are a
coincidence.
“She said one and a half months ago that her husband has found a job in the
Netherlands and that they are going to move there,” the minister said. “She
wrote a resignation letter a few days before the relocation.”
Ispirian lived and worked in Russia before joining the ministry in 2020 through
a government program designed to encourage Diaspora Armenians to relocate to
Armenia and work for its government bodies. She became a deputy minister a year
later.
Less than a month ago, Ispirian was also appointed as head of the governing
board of a state fund tasked with attracting foreign investment in Armenia.
Armenian Government Defends Refusal To Raise Pensions
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisian speaks at a press conference in
Yerevan, .
Finance Minister Vahe Hovannisian insisted on Wednesday that the Armenian
government is right not to raise pensions this year despite planning a 23
percent rise in its overall expenditures.
“The reason why the pensions will not rise in 2024 is our [different] spending
priorities,” Hovannisian told reporters.
The government set the spending target tax late last year as the total amount of
taxes collected by it increased by over 15 percent in 2023 amid continuing
robust economic growth in Armenia. Most of the extra spending projected by the
2024 state budget is to be channeled into infrastructure projects.
“If we raise pensions now as much as we all dream of and then suddenly one day
we can't pay those pensions, it will be a very big disaster for our country,”
said Hovannisian.
The government most recently raised the modest pensions paid to some 500,000
Armenians in June last year. The average monthly pension in the country now
stands at about 50,000 drams ($123). It is well below the per-capita minimum
cost of living. The so-called “consumer basket” calculated by the Armenian
Statistical Committee is worth just over 80,000 drams ($198).
Over the last several years, the pensions have increased by a total of just
6,000 drams per month. These increases have been offset by inflation.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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