Wednesday,
Armenia Tests Passenger Flight To Syunik
Armenia - An L-410 aircraft operating a test flight successfully lands at Syunik
Airport in Kapan, .
The first passenger flight in decades from the Armenian capital of Yerevan to
the town of Kapan in the country’s southern Syunik province was operated on
Wednesday, Armenia’s civil aviation authorities said.
The Civil Aviation Committee said an Armenia-registered L-410 passenger plane
(made in the Czech Republic) successfully landed at Kapan’s Syunik Airport at
10:58 am local time after a 48-minute flight from Yerevan’s International
Zvartnots Airport.
The flight on the plane designed for 19 passengers took place in a test mode, it
added.
“This is a truly historic flight – the first passenger flight to the Kapan
airport since the 1990s, barring one private flight made in 2017,” the Civil
Aviation Committee said.
The body did not say when regular commercial passenger flights between Yerevan
and Kapan will become available.
Kapan’s Syunik Airport has been renovated in accordance with international
standards and certified by the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia in 2020.
Kapan is situated some 190 kilometers to the southeast of capital Yerevan not
far from the border with Azerbaijan. The runway of its airport stretches along
the border and at one point is situated less than a hundred meters from it.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for
decades. Tensions along their restive border have persisted despite a
Russia-brokered ceasefire that stopped a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani
war in 2020.
Pashinian, Putin Discuss Situation In Nagorno-Karabakh
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, December 27, 2022.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed the situation in
Nagorno-Karabakh in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin reported
by his office on Wednesday.
The phone call came three days after Azerbaijan installed a checkpoint at the
entrance to the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia with
Nagorno-Karabakh, thus tightening an effective blockade around the mostly
Armenian-populated region where Russia deployed its peacekeepers after brokering
a ceasefire in a 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
According to an official statement released by the Armenian prime minister’s
office, issues “related to the Lachin corridor and the humanitarian situation in
Nagorno-Karabakh” were discussed during the phone call.
The Kremlin also reported the phone call, saying that the two leaders discussed
“the developments around Nagorno-Karabakh with an emphasis on solving practical
tasks to ensure stability and security in the region.”
“In the context of the current tensions in the Lachin corridor, the importance
of strict compliance with the entire range of fundamental agreements between the
leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan was reaffirmed,” the Russian
president’s office said, adding that the two leaders agreed that
Russian-Armenian contacts would continue “at various levels.”
The phone call between Pashinian and Putin came amid reports about the
replacement by Moscow of the commander of the Russian peacekeeping force in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to sources in Stepanakert, Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, who has
served as an advisor to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, had already
arrived in the region to replace Major-General Andrey Volkov as the commander of
the peacekeeping contingent.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the appointment of Lentsov later on
Wednesday.
Representatives of ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh do not
conceal in their public remarks that they expect Russia to take more active
steps in unblocking the road to relieve the humanitarian situation in the region
that has already seen restricted supplies since December when a group of
Azerbaijanis calling themselves environmental activists blocked the road at a
junction not far from Stepanakert.
According to Stepanakert, Russian peacekeepers managed to bring some
humanitarian goods to the region late on Tuesday for the first time in nearly
three days of a complete blockade.
Yerevan and Stepanakert insist that the installation by Azerbaijan of a
checkpoint on the Lachin corridor contradicts the terms of the Moscow-brokered
ceasefire agreement that designates the five-kilometer-wide strip of land
connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia as an area of Russian peacekeepers’
responsibility and control.
Official Moscow has also described “unilateral steps” in the Lachin corridor as
“unacceptable.”
The United States and France, which along with Russia have spearheaded
decades-long efforts to broker a solution to the protracted conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh, have voiced their concerns about the developments in the
Lachin corridor, saying that an Azerbaijani checkpoint there undermines efforts
to establish confidence and damages the peace process between Baku and Yerevan.
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep
Borrell also assessed Azerbaijan’s installation of a checkpoint in the Lachin
corridor as an act “contrary to the EU’s call to reduce tensions.”
Incidentally, Prime Minister Pashinian on Wednesday also held a phone call with
President of the European Council Charles Michel.
His office said that “the sides exchanged thoughts on the military-political and
humanitarian situation in the region.”
Pashinian reportedly charged that Azerbaijan’s steps in the Lachin corridor are
aimed “at the consistent implementation of its policy of ethnic cleansing in
Nagorno-Karabakh and complete eviction of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.”
An official statement by the Armenian premier’s office said that “the sides also
exchanged thoughts on the Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiation process” and
“highlighted the importance of consistent efforts aimed at ensuring stability
and peace in the region.”
Azerbaijan brushes aside accusations from the Armenian side, insisting that when
installing the border checkpoint, it acted on its sovereign territory. Baku has
also pledged that “necessary conditions” would be created for “a transparent and
orderly passage of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of
Azerbaijan” in both directions.
Karabakh Expects ‘Active Steps’ From Russia Over Azeri Checkpoint
• Lusine Musayelian
Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov is said to have been appointed new commander
of the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh (file photo).
De facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh expect Russia to take “active steps” in
settling the latest tensions with Azerbaijan over its checkpoint in the Lachin
corridor amid Moscow’s plans to replace the commander of its peacekeeping force
deployed in the mostly Armenian-populated region.
Citing sources in the Russian Defense Ministry, media in Armenia and Russia
suggested on April 25 that Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, an advisor to
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, is a new replacement for Major-General Andrey
Volkov, who had reportedly left his post in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto Foreign Minister Sergey Ghazarian did not deny the
reports when he talked to Armenia’s public television on Tuesday evening.
The reported change is taking place amid increased tensions along the only road
linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, known as the Lachin corridor, after
Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint at its entrance on the border with Armenia.
The move tightened the already existing effective Azerbaijani blockade of the
region where Russia deployed its peacekeepers after brokering a ceasefire to
stop a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November 2020.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s official would not speculate on whether the replacement of
Volkov, who was appointed to the position just over a year ago, was due to the
situation in the Lachin corridor, but instead laid out Stepanakert’s
expectations from the Russian side.
“I still don’t know whether the new appointment is official or not, but the
Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh - ed.] side expects active steps from the Russian
side,” Ghazarian said.
He said that Stepanakert first of all wanted to find out what were the “red
lines” of the Russian side in its relations with Baku.
So far, the Russian peacekeeping force has not given any official explanations
as to why it did not prevent Azerbaijan from deploying military vehicles and
construction machinery to close the Hakari river bridge, which is considered to
be a zone of Russian peacekeepers’ control under the terms of the 2020 ceasefire.
“We see that the Azerbaijani side is pushing the so-called red lines [in its
relations] with the Russian peacekeepers. At the same time, representatives of
various circles on the Russian side say that their attention is focused on
another direction [Ukraine], and the Azerbaijani side is taking advantage of it.
Now we want to understand if there is any boundary to, let’s say, the Russian
side’s patience in this regard,” Nagorno-Karabakh’s diplomat said.
Ghazarian stressed that ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh during the
44-day war in 2020 returned to the region after seeing the deployment of Russian
peacekeepers there. “But now they have found themselves in the status of a
hostage,” he said.
If appointed, Colonel-General Lentsov, who served as deputy commander-in-chief
of Russia’s Ground Forces until 2020 and has an experience of participating in
Russia’s military operation in Syria, will become the fourth commander of the
Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh appointed in the last two and a
half years.
Samvel Babayan, a former Karabakh army commander, confirmed to RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service that Lentsov was already in the region. He said the 66-year-old general
was expected to start negotiations over the Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin
corridor later on Wednesday.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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