Thursday, November 2, 2023
Armenian Authorities Report Another ‘Terror Plot’
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia -- The main entrance to the National Security Service headquarters in
Yerevan.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said on Thursday that it has arrested
five members of an armed group that plotted to seize government buildings and
“disrupt the work of state bodies.”
The NSS did not identify the suspects and gave few details of the alleged plot.
In a statement, it said that they planned to set off an explosion and
assassinate a “civilian.” The latter was not identified either.
Nor did the NSS clarify whether it believes that overthrowing the Armenian
government was the ultimate aim of the “terrorist acts” which it said were
codenamed “Northern Leaf Fall” by the arrested persons.
The security agency released two purported audios of their conversations
secretly recorded by NSS officers. In one of then, a man can be heard saying
that he has many “sponsors from America and Russia” and telling another to
recruit “the ones who came from Ukraine.” The two men also appeared to discuss a
drone attack on an unknown target.
The NSS claimed to have found and confiscated a quadrocopter drone along with
weapons and ammunition during searches conducted in the suspects’ homes and
other locations. It said it also seized handwritten texts detailing the foiled
conspiracy.
A purported screenshot of one such document released by the NSS calls for
attracting members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a pro-Western
fringe group increasingly critical of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The group
led by Zhirayr Sefilian, a prominent nationalist figure, did not immediately
comment on that.
The NSS statement said that the alleged plotters planned to create fake
Ukrainian and Moldovan social media accounts in a bid to drum up popular support
for that they would have called a “national salvation revolt.”
The NSS claimed to have foiled a similar plot in late September when it arrested
eight men accused of conspiring to assassinate Pashinian and seize power. The
suspects include Albert Bazeyan, a once prominent politician who had served as
mayor of Yerevan over two decades ago. Bazeyan denies the accusations.
Azeri Troops Not Massed At Border, Says Armenian Official
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Yerevan-based foreign military attaches visit a border area in Syunik
province, May 20, 2021.
A senior Armenian official on Thursday seemed to downplay the risk of an
Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia, saying that Baku has not amassed a significant
number of troops along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“According to my information, there is no military buildup around Armenia’s
borders at the moment,” deputy parliament speaker Hakob Arshakian told reporters.
“Is there a threat [of Azerbaijani attack] or not?” he went on. “There have been
positive developments lately in terms of a change in [Azerbaijani] rhetoric and
statements by international authoritative bodies, parliaments, governments and
other entities to the effect that Armenia’s territorial integrity cannot be
called into question.”
“I’m not saying that that everything is wonderful and there is no danger,”
Arshakian said, pointing to a joint Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercise held
in Azerbaijan late last month.
The Armenian government said in early September that Azerbaijani troops are
massing along the border and the “line of contact” in Nagorno-Karabakh in
possible preparation for a large-scale attack. About two weeks later, they
launched an offensive in Karabakh that caused a mass exodus of its population
and paved the way for the restoration of Baku’s control over the region.
The Azerbaijani takeover of Karabakh raised more fears in Yerevan that Baku will
also invade Armenia to open an exterritorial land corridor to Nakhichevan. A
senior Armenian diplomat said on October 8 that the attack could be launched in
the coming weeks.
The U.S.-based Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention likewise warned on
Wednesday of the “alarming potential for an invasion of Armenia by Azerbaijan in
the coming days and weeks.”
“Azerbaijan has long coveted Armenia’s southern Syunik Province, which has been
discussed in the recent past as the site of an Azerbaijani-controlled ‘Zangezur
Corridor’ to Nakhichevan,” it said in a “red flag alert” posted on its website.
Commenting to that warning, the U.S. State Department reiterated that an attack
on Armenia “would bring serious consequences.”
“The United States strongly supports Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity,” it told the Voice of America.
Moscow Slams Yerevan Over Fresh ‘Anti-Russian’ Moves
Russia - Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova attends the Saint
Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), June 16, 2022.
Russia accused Armenia on Thursday of continuing to ruin Russian-Armenian
relations when it reacted to a senior Armenian official’s participation in
multilateral peace talks initiated by Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, also charged that
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government is behind what she described as the
“Russophobic” content of Armenian pro-government media.
Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, was among
representatives of more than 60 countries who gathered in Malta last week to
discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s plan to end the war with
Russia. Grigorian also met with Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, on
the sidelines of the two-day meeting condemned by Russia as a “blatantly
anti-Russian event.”
Zakharova said Moscow views Grigorian’s trip to Malta as a “demonstrative
anti-Russian gesture of official Yerevan.” She linked it to Pashinian’s October
6 conversation with Zelenskiy, which took place during a European summit in
Spain, and his wife Anna Hakobian’s September visit to Kyiv.
“In Yerevan, I think, they should be aware that this is a demonstrative
flirtation with those who aggressively oppose our country,” Zakharova told a
news briefing. “It is regrettable that the current leadership of the republic is
purposefully and persistently destroying our allied relations, which not so long
ago it itself called the most important factor in the stability and prosperity
of Armenia.”
Malta - Andriy Yermak, Ukraine's presidential office head, meets Armen
Grigorian, secretary of Armenia's Security Council, October 28, 2023.
Tensions between the two longtime allies rose further following Azerbaijan’s
September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh that forced its ethnic
Armenian population to flee to Armenia. Pashinian accused Russian peacekeepers
of failing to protect the Karabakh Armenians against the “ethnic cleansing.”
In an October 17 speech at the European Parliament, Pashinian also alleged that
Moscow is using the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to try to oust him from power. A
Russian official responded by the telling the official TASS news agency that the
Armenian premier is “following in Zelenskiy’s footsteps” and helping the West
“turn Armenia into another Ukraine.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry handed the Russian ambassador in Yerevan a protest
note on October 24 one day after Russia’s leading state broadcaster, Channel
One, derided and lambasted Pashinian during an hour-long program. For its part,
the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Armenian charge d’affaires the
following day to condemn what it called anti-Russian propaganda spread by
Armenian Public Television and other pro-government media outlets.
Zakharova claimed that what those outlets have been disseminating is “not just
insults but undisguised Russophobia.”
“We do understand who is behind the funding of these [media] resources,” she
said. “If they think over there that we don’t know who pays for it all, we know.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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