Monday,
Aliyev Insists On Azeri Terms Of Peace With Armenia
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Turkey -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets his Azerbaijani
counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Ankara, February 19, 2024.
Armenia has no choice but to accept Azerbaijan’s terms of a peace deal,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Monday ahead of fresh talks between
the two nations.
“Armenia, which is trying to find a new master and is throwing itself into
others’ arms, should realize that its only option is to accept all the
conditions of Azerbaijan and give up its territorial claims to Azerbaijan,” he
said during a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh recaptured by Baku last September.
The warning came just over a week after Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian met in Munich for talks hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The
two leaders agreed that their foreign ministers will meet soon for further
discussions on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the ministers
will meet in Berlin on Wednesday and Thursday. It did not say whether German
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will attend the talks.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said earlier in the day that
Armenian and Azerbaijani officials will negotiate “in the coming days.” He noted
that despite a lack of face-to-face contacts between them, the two sides have
continued to exchange written proposals on the peace treaty in recent months.
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian said last week that they still
disagree on some key terms of the treaty. Pashinian complained, meanwhile, that
the Azerbaijani leadership remains reluctant to recognize Armenia’s borders
“without ambiguity.”
Pashinian went on to accuse Azerbaijan of planning military aggression against
Armenia. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry rejected the claim as “absolutely
baseless.”
“The last five months have been the calmest period along the presumptive border
between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Bayramov said on Monday. He accused the
European Union and France in particular of seeking to whip up tensions there.
Bayramov specifically reiterated Baku’s discontent with an EU monitoring mission
deployed on the Armenian side of the border and denounced France for continuing
to support Armenia in the conflict.
Meeting with Pashinian in Paris last Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron
said Azerbaijan should explicitly recognize Armenia’s territorial integrity. His
defense minister, Sebastien Lecornu, delivered a new batch of French military
equipment acquired by Armenia during an ensuing visit to Yerevan. Lecornu
stressed that Armenia will use that hardware only if it is attacked by one of
its neighbors.
Armenian Church Also Opposes New Constitution
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - The Supreme Spiritual Council of the Armenian Apsotolic Church starts
a meeting in Echmiadzin, February 20, 2024.
The Armenian Apostolic Church has added its voice to opposition criticism of
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s plans to try to enact a new constitution
demanded by Azerbaijan.
The issue was on the agenda of a five-day session of the church’s Supreme
Spiritual Council that drew to a close in Echmiadzin at the weekend.
“The Supreme Spiritual Council found the initiative to adopt a new Constitution
very bewildering, especially given that it is widely perceived in public circles
also as a consequence of external coercion,” read an official statement on the
session chaired by Catholicos Garegin II.
“It was noted that the discourse of various high-ranking Armenian officials as
well as the president of Azerbaijan regarding the adoption of the new
Constitution only deepens existing suspicions,” it said.
Pashinian declared last month that Armenia needs a new constitution reflecting
the “new geopolitical environment” in the region. Analysts believe that he first
and foremost wants to get rid of a preamble to the current constitution that
makes reference to a 1990 declaration of independence adopted by the republic’s
first post-Communist parliament. The declaration in turn cites a 1989
unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on February 1 that Armenia should remove
that reference if it wants to cut a peace deal with his country. Armenian
opposition leaders portrayed Aliyev’s statement as further proof that Pashinian
is planning to change the constitution at the behest of Baku. Pashinian has
denied the opposition claims while saying that Armenia “will never have peace”
as long as it sticks to the 1990 declaration.
The church council defended the country’s existing constitution, saying that it
is anchored in “the cherished past of our people” and their “national
aspirations.” It also condemned Azerbaijan’s “expansionist ambitions” and
“continuing encroachments” on Armenian territory.
Armenia - Catholicos Garegin II leads Christmass mass at the St. Gregory the
Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan, January 6, 2024.
Pashinian’s relationship with the ancient church, to which the vast majority of
Armenians belong, has increasingly deteriorated since the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh. Garegin and other senior clergymen joined the Armenian
opposition in calling for Pashinian’s resignation following Armenia’s defeat in
the six-week war.
Pashinian and other senior Armenian officials have boycotted Christmas and
Easter liturgies led by Garegin for the past three years. In May 2023, the
premier accused the church of meddling in politics, prompting a scathing
response from Garegin’s office.
Tensions between the government and the church rose further last October when
Garegin blamed Pashinian for Azerbaijan’s recapture of Karabakh and the
resulting mass exodus of the region’s ethnic Armenian population. The church had
repeatedly condemned Pashinian for recognizing Azerbaijani sovereignty over
Karabakh before Baku’s September 19-20 military offensive.
The Supreme Spiritual Council concluded its session as over 200 supporters of
Garegin gathered at the church’s Mother See following reports that an obscure
group of Armenians planned to hold the same day a rally in Echmiadzin to demand
his resignation.
The town’s municipal administration sanctioned the rally, slated for February
24, late last month but revoked the permission shortly afterwards amid an uproar
from vocal critics of the Armenian government. They claimed that Pashinian is
behind the attempted rally.
The crowd that gathered on Saturday to show support for the church’s supreme
head included several opposition figures, notably Levon Kocharian, a parliament
deputy from the opposition Hayastan alliance led by his father and former
Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
Another senior Hayastan member, Ishkhan Saghatelian, last week warned Pashinian
against pressing ahead with his plans for the new constitution. He said that the
Armenian opposition would “do everything” to turn a possible constitutional
referendum on into a popular vote of no confidence in the premier.
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Said To Visit Armenia
• Artak Khulian
• Shoghik Galstian
Spain - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian talks to Ukraine's President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a European summit in Granada, October 5, 2023.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is planning to visit Armenia next week
amid the South Caucasus country’s mounting tensions with Russia, a diplomatic
source told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The visit will likely take place on March 4, the source said, adding that
Zelenskiy will also travel to Azerbaijan in that case.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry pointedly declined to confirm or deny the
information, saying only that it informs the public about the visits of foreign
leaders “in due course.”
Ukraine’s charge d‘affaires in Yerevan, Valeri Lobach, was also coy about the
possibility of such a trip. “The spring will bring positive events to Armenia,”
he told reporters on Friday.
News of Zelenskiy’s possible trip followed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
recent visits to Germany and France during which he stepped up his criticism of
Russia. In particular, Pashinian for the first time denounced the Russian
invasion of Ukraine, saying that it violated a December 1991 declaration in
which newly independent Soviet republics recognized each other’s Soviet-era
borders.
Lawmakers representing Pashinian’s ruling Civil Contract party on Monday gave
more indications that the Ukrainian president, who has not visited any
non-Baltic ex-Soviet state since the outbreak of the war with Russia, is due in
Yerevan.
“After all, the president of Ukraine is the elected leader of his country, and
just like other heads of state, can visit Armenia unless there are some special
hurdles,” one of them, Babken Tunian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during 'Ukraine. Year 2024'
conference, in Kyiv, .
“We don’t care about how Russia will or will not react [to Zelenskiy’s visit,]”
said another pro-government lawmaker, Gagik Melkonian.
There has been no such reaction from Moscow yet. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said on February 19 that Russia and Armenia now have “diametrically opposite
views” on the war in Ukraine.
Relations between the two longtime allies have further deteriorated in recent
months, with the Russian Foreign Ministry accusing Pashinian of “destroying”
them.
Dmitry Suslov, a senior analyst with Russia’s Kremlin-linked Council on Foreign
and Defense Policy, told the Sputnik news agency on Monday that Zelenskiy’s
visit to Armenia could mark “the point of no return” in the erosion of bilateral
ties. Suslov claimed that it would be part of the West’s efforts to reorient
Armenia towards the United States and the European Union.
Armenian opposition leaders have expressed serious concern about the
far-reaching change in Armenia’s traditional foreign policy, saying that it is
reckless in the absence of security guarantees or military aid offered by
Western powers.
Pashinian embarked on the apparent rapprochement with Ukraine last year despite
Kyiv’s strong support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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