Tuesday,
Deadly Fighting Reported On Armenian-Azeri Border (UPDATED)
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - An Azerbaijani military post is seen from the Armenian border village
of Nerkin Hand in November 2022.
Four Armenian soldiers were killed and another wounded when their positions on
Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan came under cross-border fire early on Tuesday.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry said its outposts around the border village of Nerkin
Hand in southeastern Syunik province were targeted for four hours. The gunfire
stopped at 9:30 a.m., it said in a statement.
The head of the village administration, Khachatur Baghdasarian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service that he heard intense gunshots at around the same time.
Azerbaijan confirmed that its troops deployed in the area opened fire early in
the morning. Its State Border Service claimed to have destroyed an Armenian army
post which fired at its positions and wounded one of its servicemen the previous
evening.
For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry accused Armenian forces of also
violating ceasefire at another section of the long border late on Monday. The
Defense Ministry in Yerevan denied the “disinformation.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned the Azerbaijani “provocation,” saying
that Baku is “looking for pretexts” to heighten tensions on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border and trying to torpedo international efforts to
kick-start talks on a peace treaty between the two South Caucasus nations.
“This use of force followed bellicose statements made by Azerbaijan’s
military-political leadership and its propaganda preparations of the last few
days,” read a ministry statement. It urged Baku to “return to negotiations.”
Tuesday’s fighting was the most serious truce violation reported from the border
in the last five months. The situation there was relatively calm amid growing
fears that Azerbaijan will also invade Armenia after recapturing
Nagorno-Karabakh in September.
Last month, the European Union twice warned Baku against taking such military
action in response to renewed Azerbaijani demands for Yerevan to open an
extraterritorial corridor to the Nakhichevan exclave.
On Monday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry summoned the EU ambassador in Baku
to denounce a monitoring mission launched by the 27-nation bloc along Armenia’s
border with Azerbaijan a year ago.
Russia, which has also been very critical of the EU mission, was quick to
express concern at the latest fighting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called
on Armenia and Azerbaijan to show “restraint” and avoid “provocative” actions.”
“We will be watching [the situation on the ground] very closely,” Peskov told
reporters in Moscow.
Azerbaijan In No Mood For Peace, Says Pashinian
Russia - Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan are seen during a visit to the Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg,
December 26, 2023.
Azerbaijan has no intention to end its conflict with Armenia, Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian said on Tuesday, reacting to the latest Azerbaijani ceasefire
violation that left four Armenian soldiers dead.
“According to our assessment, this is Azerbaijan's policy aimed at disrupting
the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan by all possible means,”
Pashinian told a group of visiting British parliamentarians. “This is also
evidenced by the aggressive rhetoric of Azerbaijan’s official representatives,
spiced with open territorial claims to Armenia.”
“Of course, we should do everything to achieve concrete results in the peace
process, and we are doing it,” he said. “But unfortunately, it is not possible
to do this without the political will of the other side. And today's incident
that claimed the lives of four soldiers testifies not only to the absence of
political will for peace but also to Azerbaijan's intentions to deepen the
enmity and resort military escalation.”
The soldiers were killed early on Tuesday by heavy fire from Azerbaijani
positions across the border between the two states. Azerbaijan said its forces
retaliated against the wounding the previous evening of an Azerbaijani
serviceman serving in that area. The Armenian military pledged on Monday to
investigate the shooting incident reported by the Azerbaijani side.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry accused Baku on Tuesday afternoon of “looking for
pretexts” to heighten tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry denied that and insisted that Baku is “committed to
the peace process.”
Pashinian claimed the opposite after signaling in recent weeks his readiness to
make more concessions to speed up the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace
treaty discussed by the two sides. His political foes and other critics regard
his recent calls for the adoption of a new Armenian constitution as one such
concession. They say that Pashinian’s appeasement policy will not lead to a
lasting peace.
Armenian Foreign Ministry Blocks Access To Karabakh Section Of Its Website
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - A screenshot of the Karabakh-related section of the Armenian Foreign
Ministry website, .
Armenia's Foreign Ministry has blocked access to background information about
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict posted on its official website following
complaints voiced by a senior Azerbaijani official late last week.
Elchin Amirbayov, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s envoy for special
assignments, complained about the Karabakh-related section of the website when
he spoke to RFE/RL. Amirbayov listed its description of Karabakh as “an integral
part of historical Armenia” among documents and statements which he said testify
to continuing Armenian territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
“The Armenian side acknowledges that this is the fact, but nothing is being
done,” he was quoted as saying in an RFE/RL article published last Thursday.
The website section was no longer accessible on Monday. The Armenian Foreign
Ministry declined to clarify whether access to it was blocked under Azerbaijani
pressure. The ministry spokeswoman, Ani Badalian, said only that the section was
“not removed from the website” and that its content “will be displayed in due
course.”
The Armenian government stopped championing the Karabakh Armenians’ right to
self-determination a year before Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian declared last
May that Yerevan recognizes Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh. Pashinian’s
political opponents believe that this paved the way for last September’s
Azerbaijani military offensive that restored Baku’s control over the territory
and forced its ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia.
A satellite image shows a long traffic jam of vehicles along the Lachin corridor
as ethnic Armenians flee from Nagorno-Karabakh.
They accused Pashinian of planning further far-reaching concessions to Baku
after he declared last month that Armenia needs a new constitution reflecting
the “new geopolitical environment” in the region. Analysts believe that
Pashinian first and foremost wants to get rid of a preamble to the current
Armenia constitution enacted in 1995.
The preamble makes reference to a 1990 declaration of independence which in turn
cites a 1989 unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia
and the then Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Aliyev said on February 1 that
Armenia should remove that reference if it wants to make peace with his country.
Pashinian denied afterwards that he is planning to enact the new constitution at
the behest of Azerbaijan.
Aliyev regularly describes Yerevan and other parts of Armenia as “historical
Azerbaijani lands.” He made clear last month that Baku continues to oppose using
the most recent Soviet maps to delimit the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and
renewed his demands for an extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan
exclave passing through a strategic Armenian region. Armenian and European Union
officials said his comments amount to territorial claims to Armenia.
EU, Armenia To Map Out Closer Cooperation
Belgium - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell meets Armenian Foreign Minister
Ararat Mirzoyan, Brussels, .
The European Union and Armenia have agreed to start working on an “ambitious”
plan to deepen their relations, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on
Tuesday.
Borrell made the announcement after chairing, together with Armenian Foreign
Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, a regular session of the EU-Armenia Partnership
Council in Brussels.
“In October, your prime minister said in the European Parliament that Armenia is
ready to move closer to the European Union,” he told a joint news briefing with
Mirzoyan. “In response, the European Council, the highest political level of the
EU, tasked me and the [European] Commission to explore ways to strengthen our
relations in all dimensions. And in this context, today we decided to launch
work on an ambitious new EU-Armenia partnership agenda.”
“Today’s meetings showed that EU-Armenia relations are stronger than ever, and
there is a mutual interest to advance them further,” added Borrell.
“Armenia is willing to further deepen the partnership with the European Union,”
Mirzoyan said for his part.
In his speech at the European Parliament, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stated
that “Armenia is ready to get closer to the EU as much as the EU finds it
possible.” But he did not indicate a desire to seek Armenia’s eventual
membership in the 27-nation bloc or an alternative to the Comprehensive and
Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by Brussels and Yerevan in 2017.
France - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses the European
Parliament in Strasbourg, October 17, 2023.
Mirzoyan stressed on Tuesday that the CEPA “remains the cornerstone of our
relations.” Neither he nor Borrell gave details of the closer partnership
planned by the two sides.
Borrell called for “enhancing our cooperation in the areas of security and
defense.” But he did not promise that the EU will provide military assistance to
Armenia under its European Peace Facility (EPF) designed to boost EU partners’
defense capacity. He pointed instead to the ongoing expansion of an EU
monitoring mission along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
Nor did Borrell give any dates for the start of a “visa liberalization dialogue”
that would eventually lead to the lifting of the EU’s visa requirements for
Armenians. He urged the Armenian government to “further step up reforms in order
to progress on this issue.” By contrast, Mirzoyan insisted that Yerevan has
already met “all the necessary requirements” set by the bloc.
Pashinian’s government is seeking closer ties with the EU amid Armenia’s
widening rift with Russia, its longtime ally. Addressing EU lawmakers, Pashinian
effectively accused Moscow of using the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict to try to
topple him. A Russian official responded by saying that the Armenian premier is
helping the West “turn Armenia into another Ukraine.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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