Monday, January 3, 2022
Jailed Former Defense Minister Warns Of ‘Surprise’ Revelations
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Davit Tonoyan, a former defense minister arrested three months ago, pledged to
shed more light on the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday as he continued to
strongly deny corruption charges leveled against him.
Tonoyan warned that he must not be made a scapegoat for Armenia’s defeat in the
six-week war.
“A visible desire to find the scapegoat is hovering, so to speak, in the
political scene, but I think that there will be surprises in this regard,” he
said in written comments to the press circulated by his lawyers. “One thing is
clear: we are witnessing a fanatical desire to discredit me and the defense
system.”
Tonoyan, two generals and an arms dealer were arrested by the National Security
Service (NSS) in September in a criminal investigation into supplies of
allegedly outdated rockets to Armenia’s armed forces. The NSS charged them with
fraud and embezzlement that cost the state almost 2.3 billion drams ($4.7
million). All four suspects deny any wrongdoing.
The NSS said in September that a private intermediary delivered the rockets to
Armenia in 2011 and that the Defense Ministry refused to buy them after
discovering that they are unusable.
Seyran Ohanian, Armenia’s defense minister from 2008 to 2016, confirmed
afterwards that 70 percent of them were not accepted by the military during his
tenure. The rebuff forced the supplier to store the rockets at a Defense
Ministry arms depot, he said.
Tonoyan insisted on Monday that the ammunition did not go past its expiration
and was successfully used during the Karabakh war. He complained that the NSS
cancelled a planned test-firing of those rockets during the probe described by
him as “not objective.”
Armenia -- Armenian army Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircrafts fire during a
military exercise, September 11, 2015
One of Tonoyan’s lawyers, Sergey Hovannisian, also slammed the NSS investigators
for not carrying out the forensic tests. He said they would have proved that the
rockets are usable and the investigators would have had “no choice but to close
the criminal case.”
The NSS declined to comment on that.
In an October 11 statement, Tonoyan’s legal team noted that he possesses “a
great deal of information” about defense issues but is not publicizing it to
disprove the accusations because he places Armenia’s national security above his
personal interests.
Asked whether he thus sent a warning to Armenia’s political leadership, the
former minister said: “Up until now I have maintained restraint in terms of
getting involved in political processes … There will still be occasions to
present to the public my clarifications about the 44-day war through an
investigative commission to be formed [by the Armenian parliament,] provided
that it works objectively and impartially.”
“As I said in my November 20 statement, I am ready to bear my share of
responsibility. But only for what I did, and not for what I did not do.”
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a meeting with Defense
Minister Davit Tonoyan (L) and top Armenian army generals, Yerevan, July 18,
2020.
Tonoyan stopped short of openly accusing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of
ordering the criminal proceedings against him. He blamed instead other, unnamed
officials for what he considers baseless charges.
Pashinian appointed Tonoyan as defense minister just days after coming to power
in May 2018. The latter was sacked in November 2020 less than two weeks after a
Russian-brokered agreement stopped the devastating war.
Some senior pro-Pashinian parliamentarians blamed Tonoyan for Armenia’s defeat
in the six-week war. The prime minister faced angry opposition demonstrations at
the time.
Iran Backs Armenian Control Over Transit Roads
Iran - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi addresses parliament. Tehran, October 30,
2021.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday appeared to back Armenia’s position in
ongoing negotiations with Azerbaijan on transport links between the two South
Caucasus countries.
He discussed the matter with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in a phone call
initiated by the latter, according to the Iranian presidential office.
“One of the key policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to support the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of countries. In this regard, Tehran
supports the sovereignty of Armenia over all territories and roads passing
through that country,” the office quoted Raisi as telling Pashinian.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are to reopen their border to commercial and passenger
traffic under the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped their
six-week war for Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020. The deal specifically
commits Yerevan to opening rail and road links between Azerbaijan and its
Nakhichevan exclave.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that it envisages an
exterritorial land corridor that would pass through Armenia’s Syunik province
bordering Iran. He said on December 14 that people and cargo using that
“Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls.
Pashinian rejected the demand voiced just hours before his talks with Aliyev
held in Brussels. He and other Armenian leaders have since continued to maintain
that Armenia must have full control over all roads and railways passing through
its territory.
Syunik connects the rest of Armenia to Iran through mountainous roads used not
only for Armenian-Iranian trade but also cargo shipments to and from other parts
of the world. Armenia lost control over one of those roads after a controversial
troop withdrawal ordered by Pashinian following the Karabakh war.
In September this year, Azerbaijan set up checkpoints there to tax Iranian
vehicles. The move triggered unprecedented tensions between Tehran and Baku.
Some Iranian officials accused Aliyev of seeking to effectively strip the
Islamic Republic of a common border with Armenia. Iranian Foreign Minister
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian likewise warned in October that any “changes in the
region’s map” are unacceptable to his country.
Iranian trucks stuck on the main road leading to Armenia, October 7, 2021.
Raisi spoke with Pashinian five days after his government decided to open an
Iranian consulate in Syunik’s administrative center, Kapan.
Armenian pundits and politicians welcomed the decision. Vartan Voskanian, one of
the country’s leading Iran experts, said it shows “just how important Syunik is
to official Tehran in the context of Armenian-Iranian relations.”
Raisi on Monday hailed “progress” made in Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations
mostly mediated by Russia. “We hope that other issues between the two countries
will be resolved peacefully within the framework of international principles and
law,” he said.
A statement issued by Raisi’s office said Pashinian briefed the Iranian
president on the talks with Baku.
It also cited both leaders as stressing the need to deepen commercial ties
between Armenia and Iran. An Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on
economic cooperation should take “big steps” in that direction, Raisi said,
according to the statement.
A much shorter readout of the phone call released by the Armenian government
said Pashinian and Raisi discussed bilateral ties and “processes taking place in
the region.” It made no explicit mention of the Armenian-Azerbaijani transport
issues.
Russia Upbeat On Armenian-Azeri Transport Links
RUSSIA - Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Rudenko at a meeting
between the foreign ministers of Russia and Belarus June18, 2021.
Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are putting the finishing touches on a
comprehensive agreement to restore transport links between the two South
Caucasus states, according to a senior Russian diplomat.
The leaders of the three countries reported decisive progress towards opening
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to passenger and cargo traffic after talks held
in the Russian city of Sochi on November 26. Russian President Vladimir Putin
said a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force will formalize their
understandings in the coming days.
However, the trilateral task force announced no agreements after meeting in
Moscow on December 1.
On December 6, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev renewed his threats to
forcibly open a land “corridor” connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave
via Armenia. He said afterwards that people and cargo passing through that
“Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian rejected the demand.
Aliyev and Pashinian met in Brussels on December 14 and December 15. They
reportedly reached an agreement on rail links between their countries but failed
to iron out their differences on the Nakhichevan road link sought by Baku.
Pashinian said later in December that he hopes for a “real compromise solution
to this issue.” But he did not comment on parameters of that compromise.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko was asked about the possibility
of such a deal in a weekend interview with the TASS news agency. He cited in
that regard “important” preparations for the cross-border transport connections
made by the Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force.
“A single ‘package’ is being ‘polished’ [for that purpose] at the moment,” he
said. “This approach will ensure the sustainability of decisions made.”
Rudenko added that Moscow is aiming for a quick “completion of the elaboration
of the parameters of joint infrastructure initiatives.” He did not give further
details.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the matter with his Azerbaijani
counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in a December 30 phone call. The Russian Foreign
Ministry said they “agreed to work towards the speedy and full implementation of
the decisions” made by Putin, Aliyev and Pashinian.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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