Monday,
Armenian, Azeri FMs Discuss Peace Talks
Armenia -- Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azeri Foreign Minister
Jeyhun Bayramov.
In a rare phone call, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan discussed
on Monday plans to sign a peace treaty between their countries and demarcate
their border.
The conversation came less than a week after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Brussels for talks
hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. Aliyev and Pashinian agreed
to instruct their foreign ministers to start official negotiations on the
comprehensive treaty and to set up before the end of this month a joint
commission on the border demarcation.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his
Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov “exchanged views on the creation of the
commission on delimitation and border security, preparation of peace
negotiations and humanitarian issues.” It gave no other details.
The call came hours after the conflicting parties traded fresh accusations.
In a statement on the 30th anniversary of mass killings of ethnic Armenian
civilians in the Karabakh village of Maragha, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said
“ethnic cleansing” of the Karabakh Armenians remains “the real goal of official
Baku.” It also said Armenia will continue to defend the Karabakh Armenians’
right to a “free, secure, dignified life in their homeland.”
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry responded by accusing Yerevan of lacking a “real
desire” to make peace with Baku.
Earlier in the day, Mirzoyan met in Yerevan with Brice Roquefeil, the French
co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.
“Ararat Mirzoyan presented Armenia's position on the start of negotiations on
Azerbaijan over the peace agreement, emphasizing in that context the mediation
role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs,” read a separate statement released by
his press office.
Speaking after talks with Mirzoyan in Moscow on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said France and the United States have stopped working with Russia
within the framework of the Minsk Group co-headed by the three world powers.
Lavrov claimed that they have “cancelled the co-chairing troika” of the group.
U.S. and French officials have not publicly confirmed that.
World Bank Sees ‘Significant’ Growth Slowdown In Armenia
U.S. -- An atrium is seen at the World Bank headquarters building during the
IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, U.S., October 14, 2017
Economic growth in Armenia will practically grind to a halt this year due to
fallout from the war in Ukraine, the World Bank said on Monday, echoing a
similar forecast by the country’s Central Bank.
“The impact of the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia is likely to be
significant given Armenia’s strong economic links with Russia,” the bank said in
its latest Europe and Central Asia Economic Update.
“The growth forecast has been downgraded for 2022 from 5.3 percent pre-war to
1.2 percent, with lower remittances and real wages impacting consumption;
heightened uncertainty impacting investment; and exports contracting due to the
projected contraction in Russia and slowing global and regional growth,” it
added.
The Central Bank of Armenia cut its economic growth forecast for 2022 from 5.3
percent to 1.6 percent about a month ago. It too predicted sizable drops in
Armenian exports to Russia and multimillion-dollar remittances from Armenians
working there.
Russia is Armenia’s number one trading partner and export market, with bilateral
trade totaling $2.6 billion last year, a fact emphasized by the World Bank.
“Russia accounted for 28 percent of Armenia’s exports and 30 percent of its
imports on average from 2018-2021 and is the source of all of Armenia’s wheat
and gas imports,” reads the bank’s quarterly report. “In 2021, remittances from
Russia amounted to 5 percent of GDP, 41 percent of net [foreign direct
investment] stock was associated with Russian entities, and Russian tourists
accounted for 40 percent of all tourist arrivals.”
“In addition, Armenia will also be impacted by elevated global food and fuel
prices, with fuel imports accounting for 9 percent of imports in 2021,” it adds.
Food prices in the country rose by an average of 12.1 percent in the first
quarter of this year, government data shows. They already went up by over 11
percent last year, reflecting a global trend.
Aliyev, Pashinian Brief Putin On EU-Sponsored Talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev meet in Sochi, Nov. 26, 2021
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan telephoned Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin at the weekend to brief him on their latest meeting in Brussels that
prompted strong Russian criticism of the European Union’s role in the
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused the EU of trying to
sideline Moscow and use the Nagorno-Karabakh for its “Russophobic line” amid the
conflict in Ukraine. Lavrov said that the 27-nation bloc wants to claim credit
for Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements on border demarcation and transport links
that were brokered by Putin following the 2020 war in Karabakh.
The Kremlin reported that Putin stressed the importance of implementing those
agreements in his separate phone calls with Azerbaijani President Ilham and
Armenian President Nikol Pashinian initiated by the latter on Saturday. It said
they also discussed preparations for an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty which
topped the agenda of Aliyev’s and Pashinian’s trilateral meeting with European
Council President Michel held last Wednesday.
Michel said after the Brussels meeting that Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to start
drafting the comprehensive peace accord and to set up a commission tasked with
demarcating the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“The president of the Russian Federation expressed readiness to fully support
these processes,” the Armenian government’s press office said in a statement on
Pashinian’s conversation with Putin.
Speaking after talks in Moscow with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan,
Lavrov argued on Friday that Aliyev and Pashinian already agreed to create a
commission on border demarcation at their November 2021 meeting with Putin held
in Sochi. He said Mirzoyan assured him that that agreement “remains in force.”
Lavrov also said that the United States and France have stopped working with
Russia in their capacity as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group that has for
decades been spearheaded international efforts to end the Karabakh conflict.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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