Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Iran Ready To Help ‘Strengthen’ Armenia, Says Envoy
Armenia - Iranian Ambassador Mehdi Sobhani speaks to journalists, January 11,
2024.
Iran is interested in seeing Armenia strengthen its position in the region and
ready to provide “any assistance” for that purpose, the Iranian ambassador in
Yerevan said on Tuesday.
Mehdi Sobhani also reaffirmed Tehran’s support for the Armenian government’s
position on transport links with Azerbaijan.
Yerevan proposed late last year a “Crossroads of Peace” project as a blueprint
for opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to travel and commerce. The project
says that Armenia and Azerbaijan should have full control of transport
infrastructure inside each other’s territory. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian praised it during a December visit to the Armenian capital.
Azerbaijan effectively rejected this formula and renewed its demands for an
extraterritorial corridor that would connect it to its Nakhichevan exclave
through Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering Iran. Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev said in early January that people and cargo should be allowed to
move through that corridor “without any checks.”
“We welcome and support the Crossroads of Peace project presented by Mr.
Pashinian,” Sobhani told Armenian journalists and analysts. “That project is
about maintaining peace and stability in the region and respecting the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of regional countries. We consider
Armenia’s position logical and consistent with international norms.”
“We welcome the unblocking of roads but only if that happens on the basis of the
interests and sovereignty of the regional countries,” the envoy said in comments
cited by the Armenpress news agency. “We support the strengthening of Armenia
and the establishment of peace and stability. Only a balance of forces in our
region will contribute to all that. We are ready to provide any assistance that
Armenia will need for further development.”
Sobhani indicated Iran’s opposition to the Azerbaijani demands for the so-called
“Zangezur corridor” backed by Turkey. The Islamic Republic will not tolerate any
“geopolitical changes” in the South Caucasus, he said, echoing statements
regularly made by Iranian leaders.
Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, also made this clear when he visited Yerevan last week. Pashinian and
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan praised Tehran’s stance during their talks with
Kharrazi.
Armenia’s position on the issue has been criticized by not only Azerbaijan and
Turkey but also Russia, its longtime ally. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov complained on January 18 that Yerevan opposes Russian control of a
prospective Syunik road and railway leading to Nakhichevan. Lavrov claimed that
a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh calls
for “neutral border and customs control” there. Armenian leaders deny this.
‘No Decision Yet’ On Armenian Independence Declaration
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - A copy of the 1990 Declaration of Independence.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team has not yet made a final
decision on whether to try to remove from Armenia’s constitution any reference
to a 1990 declaration of independence resented by Azerbaijan, a senior lawmaker
said on Tuesday.
“I want to make clear that we do not have a final conclusion,” Hayk Konjorian,
the parliamentary leader of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, told reporters.
“It’s still too early to make a final conclusion and raise questions from that
standpoint.”
Konjorian at the same time stressed: “We must not regard any text as sacrosanct.”
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 and calls for international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide. It
is cited in a preamble to the current Armenian constitution adopted in 1995.
Pashinian again criticized the declaration last week, claiming that Armenia
“will never have peace” with Azerbaijan as long as it is mentioned by the
constitution. Accordingly, he defended his plans to try to enact a new
constitution that would presumably make no such reference.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on February 1 that Armenia should remove
that reference and amend other documents “infringing on Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity” if it wants to make peace with his country. Armenian opposition
leaders portrayed Aliyev’s statement as further proof that Pashinian wants to
effectively declare the 1990 declaration null and void under pressure from
Azerbaijan as well as Turkey.
Armenia - Opposition deputy Artur Khachatrian speaks in the Armenian parliament,
Yerevan, February 6, 2024.
“Aliyev and Pashinian almost simultaneously … presented the same demands to the
people of Armenia,” one of them, Artur Khachatrian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service. “It is obvious that Aliyev is thus forcing Pashinian to make
concessions.”
Konjorian denied that Pashinian wants to change the constitution at the behest
of Aliyev. Pashinian sounded less categorical on this score in a reportedly
pre-recorded radio interview broadcast on February 1.
Khachatrian is one of several lawmakers from the main opposition Hayastan
alliance who have been allowed by the Armenian Foreign Ministry to see in recent
weeks written proposals regarding an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty exchanged
by Yerevan and Baku. In a joint statement issued on February 2, the lawmakers
insisted that the Azerbaijani terms of the treaty are extremely unfavorable for
the Armenian side.
“I stand by our assertion that the country which presented such proposals to us
has no desire or intention to sign a peace treaty with us,” Khachatrian insisted
on Tuesday.
Edmon Marukian, an Armenian ambassador-at-large and political ally of Pashinian,
likewise charged on February 2 that Baku is not serious about signing the peace
deal. He said Aliyev’s demands for the constitutional change in Armenia amount
to a “new precondition.”
Armenia’s Ruling Party To Plead For Release Of Tech CEO
• Shoghik Galstian
Armenia - Speaker Alen Simonian (left) chairs a session of the Armenian
parliament, Yerevan, February 6, 2024.
Lawmakers representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party
have decided to ask authorities to release the founder and two current and
former employees of a major Armenian software company arrested last week on
corruption charges.
Ashot Hovanesian of the U.S.-registered company Synergy International Systems,
senior company executive Lili Mkrian and her former colleague Ani Gevorgian were
indicted in a criminal investigation into what law-enforcement authorities call
a fraudulent procurement tender organized by the Armenian Ministry of Economy
last summer.
The tender was invalidated by an Armenian court shortly after being won by
Synergy. Investigators say the ministry illegally disqualified another
information technology firm that submitted a much smaller bid. Four ministry
officials were also detained last week. But unlike Hovanesian, Mkrian and
Gevorgian, they were set free or moved to house arrest in the following days.
Synergy on Monday rejected the still unpublicized accusations leveled against
the remaining detainees and demanded their immediate release. The Armenian Union
of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE) also condemned Hovanesian’s arrest
over the weekend. It said that recent “unfounded” detentions of “business
representatives and other prominent persons” are turning Armenia into a “risky
country” for local and foreign tech entrepreneurs.
Hayk Konjorian, the leader of Civil Contract’s party parliamentary group,
announced on Tuesday that it met late on Monday and decided to petition a court
to free the Synergy executives pending investigation. He said the pro-government
parliamentarians will guarantee the suspects’ proper behavior in writing.
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party attend a session of the
National Assembly, Yerevan, March 21, 2023.
Konjorian insisted that the decision was not ordered by or coordinated with
Pashinian. It reflects public reactions to the arrests, rather than the fact
that one of the suspects, Gevorgian, is the wife of parliament speaker Alen
Simonian’s brother, he told journalists. He said the pro-government
parliamentarians also took into account the fact that Gevorgian and Mkrian have
young children.
One of those deputies, Emma Palian, expressed confidence that Simonian’s
sister-in-law will be cleared of any wrongdoing.
“Knowing personally Mr. Simonian but not Ms. Gevorgian, I am sure it will emerge
that the case is baseless and the result of a misunderstanding,” said Palian.
The speaker, who is a senior member of the ruling party, himself has not
commented on the case so far. But he did make a point of posting on Facebook a
photo of himself, his brother and Gevorgian right after her arrest.
The fact that one of the detainees is related to Simonian has fueled speculation
about political motives behind the high-profile case. Some commentators claim
that Pashinian personally sanctioned the young woman’s arrest in a bid to boost
his falling approval ratings by showing Armenians that he is serious about
combatting corruption. Pashinian allies have dismissed such claims.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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