Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Karabakh Leadership Chides U.S. Envoy
Armenia - U.S. Ambassador Kristina Kvien gives a speech during an Independence
Day reception at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, June 29, 2023.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership on Wednesday criticized the U.S. ambassador to
Armenia, Kristina Kvien, for saying that the Karabakh Armenians could live
safely under Azerbaijani rule.
In an interview with Armenian Public Television aired on Monday, Kvien disagreed
with a widely held belief in Armenia that Karabakh’s population will have to
flee the region if Azerbaijan regains full control of it. She said “all parties”
to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict have assured the United States that “the
rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh’s residents must be guaranteed.”
“Amid the policy of conquest and ethnic cleansing carried out by Azerbaijan
against the people of Artsakh with an obvious genocidal intention, the ongoing
inhumane blockade, repeated cases of violence and aggression, growing hate
speech and belligerent rhetoric, such statements smack of a policy of appeasing
the aggressor,” the Karabakh foreign ministry said in a statement.
“As historical experience shows, appeasement of the aggressor is perceived by
the latter as encouragement of its destructive policy, which only leads to
further violence and human suffering.”
The statement also said the U.S. and other mediating powers “must not
predetermine the outcome” of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks in the first place.
A senior official in Stepanakert told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday that
Karabakh’s leadership turned down last month a U.S. offer to meet with
Azerbaijani officials in a foreign country for talks on the Armenian-populated
region’s “integration” into Azerbaijan. Washington has not reported such offers.
The Karabakh president, Arayik Harutiunian, made clear last week that the
Karabakh Armenians will continue to assert their right to self-determination
despite mounting pressure from Azerbaijan.
Kvien’s remarks are consistent with other U.S. officials’ positive reaction to
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s recent pledge to recognize Azerbaijani
sovereignty over Karabakh through a comprehensive peace treaty. Pashinian’s
statement was strongly condemned by the authorities in Stepanakert and the
Armenian opposition.
Later in May, the U.S. State Department welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev’s offer of “amnesty” to Karabakh’s leaders conditional on their
“surrender” to Baku. The Karabakh authorities denounced that move, saying that
it amounted to an endorsement of “Baku’s bellicose policy.”
Putin, Pashinian Discuss Lachin Corridor Crisis
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian meet in Moscow, May 25, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin on
Wednesday to discuss Azerbaijan’s eight-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh’s
vital land link with Armenia which was tightened last month.
According to the Kremlin’s readout of the call, the two men focused on “the
situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, including issues of ensuring unimpeded
traffic through the Lachin corridor.”
Putin stressed in that regard the need for “consistent implementation of the
entire set of agreements between the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan
reached in 2020-2022.” He also reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to “provide
practical assistance in the drawing up of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.”
The Armenian government’s press office issued an unusually short statement on
Pashinian’s conversation with Putin. It said they discussed the humanitarian
crisis in Karabakh caused by the “illegal blockade” and “ways of overcoming it.”
The Karabakh president, Arayik Harutiunian, said later in the day that Pashinian
phoned Putin at his request. He discussed the results of the phone call with
other Karabakh officials at a meeting in Stepanakert.
Harutiunian’s office did not disclose those results in a statement on that
meeting. It cited Harutiunian as urging the international community to take
“urgent and effective action” to improve the plight of Karabakh’s population.
“Given the alarming situation we face, the people and the authorities of Artsakh
expect concrete results in the shortest possible time to alleviate the security
and humanitarian situation and lift the blockade,” he said, adding that the
authorities in Stepanakert are ready to “discuss and resolve all issues through
civilized dialogue.”
Yerevan and Moscow traded barbs after Armenian border guards opened fire on June
15 to stop Azerbaijani servicemen from placing an Azerbaijani flag near a
checkpoint controversially set up by them in the Lachin corridor in April. Baku
denied that they tried to cross into Armenian territory and blocked the movement
of humanitarian convoys through the corridor.
Videos of the incident showed that the Azerbaijanis were escorted by Russian
peacekeeping troops as they crossed a bridge over the Hakari river in order to
hoist the flag. The Armenian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in
Yerevan on June 16 to express “strong discontent” with the peacekeepers’ actions.
The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the Armenian criticism as “absolutely
groundless,” pointing to the “absence of a delimited Armenian-Azerbaijani
border.” The Armenian side countered on June 22 that instead of “looking for
excuses,” Moscow should help to ensure the conflicting parties’ full compliance
with a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 war in Karabakh.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin discussed the matter with the
Armenian ambassador in Moscow, Vagharshak Harutiunian, on June 26. It is not
clear whether the Russian Foreign Ministry formally summoned Harutiunian to
again hit back at Yerevan.
The ceasefire agreement placed the only road connecting Karabakh to Armenia
under the control of the Russian peacekeeping contingent and committed
Azerbaijan to guaranteeing safe passage through it. Baku blocked commercial
traffic there last December.
Karabakh Tightens Dining Restrictions Due To Food Shortage
• Narine Ghalechian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Empty shelves at a supermarket in Stepanakert, January 17,
2023.
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have again banned restaurants from hosting large
dinner parties and post-funeral gatherings amid worsening shortages of food
caused by the recent tightening of Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor.
The ban took effect on Wednesday three weeks after Baku blocked emergency
supplies of food, medicine and other essential items to Karabakh through the
sole road connecting the region to Armenia. They had been carried out, in
limited quantities, by Russian peacekeepers since the disruption of commercial
traffic through the corridor last December.
Karabakh restaurants are no longer allowed to serve meals for groups of more
than 50 people, and post-funeral receptions held there can be attended by up to
30 persons. The restrictions are designed to further cut the consumption of
imported food which is now running out.
“There is no sugar, soap and washing powder in shops, and the price of sweets
has increased fivefold,” Silva Khachatrian, a Stepanakert resident, told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. The prices of sunflower oil and drugs have at least
doubled since June 15, she said.
Khachatrian also complained about similar surges in the cost of fruit and
vegetables grown in Karabakh. She blamed them on “shameless” traders buying the
agricultural produce from local farmers.
The Karabakh premier, Gurgen Nersisian, on Tuesday also put the blame on the
farmers, saying that they are trying to cash in on the crisis. The authorities
will “try to settle the problem with the producers,” he said.
Nersisian also announced that Karabakh families having underage members will
receive sugar and cooking oil. The authorities in Stepanakert have rationed
these and other basic foodstuffs since February.
Azerbaijan stopped relief supplies to Karabakh on June 15 following a shootout
near an Azerbaijani checkpoint controversially set up in April by a bridge over
the Hakari river, the starting point of the Lachin corridor.
Armenia said its border guards opened fire to stop Azerbaijani servicemen
manning the checkpoint from placing an Azerbaijani flag on adjacent Armenian
territory. Azerbaijan insisted, however, that they did not cross into Armenia.
Russia and the European Union have urged Baku to lift the blockade regarded by
the Armenian side as a gross violation of a Russian-brokered agreement that
stopped the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. The EU said on June 23 that the
blockade “directly threatens the livelihoods of the local population and raises
serious fears of a potential humanitarian crisis.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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