Author: Albert Nalbandian

                                        Monday, 


U.S. Vows Continued Support For Karabakh Peace Talks


U.S. - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian meet on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session, New York, 
September 22, 2022.


The United States will continue to facilitate peace talks between Armenia and 
Azerbaijan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian in a phone call on Monday.

In a Twitter post on the call, Blinken said Washington remains committed to 
helping the two South Caucasus nations reach a “sustainable peace.”

“Diplomacy is the only way to peace in the South Caucasus,” he wrote.

“Secretary Blinken thanked Prime Minister Pashinian for Armenia’s continued 
commitment to peace and encouraged concrete steps forward in finding solutions 
to outstanding issues,” said Vedant Patel. “He reiterated U.S. support for 
direct talks and diplomacy to support a lasting and sustainable peace in the 
South Caucasus and stressed that there is no military solution.”

An Armenian government statement on the conversation said the two men discussed 
Azerbaijan’s continuing blockade of the Lachin corridor and the resulting 
“humanitarian crisis” in Karabakh. It said Blinken reiterated U.S. calls for the 
immediate lifting of the blockade.

The statement added that Pashinian expressed concern over “Azerbaijan’s 
increasingly aggressive rhetoric.”

Armenian leaders have repeatedly accused Azerbaijan this month of planning a 
“new military aggression” against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

As recently as on February 18, Blinken mediated talks between Pashinian and 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Munich Security 
Conference. The State Department said afterwards that the European Union’s top 
official, Charles Michel, is due to host another Armenian-Azerbaijani summit “in 
the coming days.” However, no such meeting has been announced so far.

Louis Bono, a U.S. special envoy for Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, visited 
Baku and Yerevan earlier this month.




Ruling Party Defends High Court Judge Embroiled In Scandal

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia - The Armenian government nominates Seda Safarian to the Constitutional 
Court, June 30, 2022.


Pro-government lawmakers rejected on Monday opposition calls for Armenia’s 
Constitutional Court to take action against one of its new members accused of 
having illegally worked as a private lawyer after joining the court in December.

Seda Safarian was one of the two new justices nominated by the Armenian 
government and confirmed by the National Assembly in September. Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian’s administration thus all but completed a purge of the 
Constitutional Court that began in 2020 with constitutional changes condemned by 
the Armenian opposition as illegal.

It emerged recently that on at least one occasion Safarian represented a private 
client in another Armenian court after her election. What is more, she sent 
documents to the Court of Appeals on behalf of the client on December 28, two 
weeks after formally taking over as a Constitutional Court judge.

Safarian denied any wrongdoing when she spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last 
month. She said that she only provided the Court of Appeals with additional 
documents on December 28 and that her actual appeal was filed on December 5.

A group of lawyers critical of the government insisted, however, that Safarian 
violated an Armenian law which bans judges from doing any other paid work. They 
said that the Constitutional Court must take disciplinary action or even 
consider ousting Safarian.

The law allows the Armenian parliament to ask the country’s highest court to 
consider such action. The main opposition Hayastan alliance initiated a relevant 
motion early this month. It was discussed by the parliament committee on legal 
affairs at a meeting held on Monday.

Speaking during the meeting, Hayastan’s Artsvik Minasian echoed the lawyers’ 
arguments and also seized upon their revelation that as of the end of January 
Safarian remained listed on a state registry of “individual entrepreneurs” 
working as lawyers.

“Being listed on the Justice Ministry’s state registry of legal entities is 
sufficient evidence of involvement in entrepreneurial activity,” said Minasian.

Committee members representing the ruling Civil Contract party countered that 
Safarian asked the State Revenue Committee to remove her from the registry late 
last year and earned no revenue after that. She must therefore not face any 
punishment, they said.

Although the parliament panel voted against the opposition motion, it will have 
to be debated on the parliament floor. Even so, the pro-government majority in 
the National Assembly is extremely unlikely to back the proposed appeal to the 
Constitutional Court.

Safarian also raised eyebrows when it emerged that she had her husband appointed 
as her driver right after taking the bench. Critics accused her of nepotism. She 
said that she did not break any laws.




West Accused Of Trying To Drive Wedge Between Russia, Armenia


Russia - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets his Armenian counterpart 
Ararat Mirzoyan, Moscow, .


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West on Monday of trying to 
end Russia’s close relationship with Armenia as he met with his Armenian 
counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan amid unprecedented friction between Moscow and 
Yerevan.

“We see undisguised attempts by Western countries to estrange Armenia from 
Russia … undermine the regional security architecture while thinking and caring 
not about the interests of the countries located here but about their own vested 
geopolitical interests,” he told reporters after their talks in Moscow.

Lavrov also renewed Russian allegations that the Western powers are seeking to 
hijack Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow during and after the 
2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Russian Foreign Ministry similarly claimed last month that the West wants to 
“squeeze Russia out of the region” when it reacted to the deployment of 100 or 
so European Union observers to Armenia’s volatile border with Azerbaijan. By 
contrast, the Armenian government hailed the deployment, saying that it will 
reduce the risk of fresh fighting along the border.

Earlier this year, Lavrov rebuked Yerevan for refusing a similar mission offered 
by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in November. Armenian 
leaders have repeatedly accused the Russian-led alliance of failing to defend 
Armenia against Azerbaijani “military aggression” in breach of the CSTO statutes.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Lavrov, Mirzoyan did not rule out the 
dispatch of CSTO monitors to Armenia’s border areas, saying that CSTO member 
states keep “working” on such a mission.

Armenia - European Union monitors patrol Armenia's border with Azerbaijan, 
February 20, 2023.

Lavrov sounded more optimistic on that score. He also indicated that a planned 
meeting of the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign minister will take 
place soon after all.

The meeting was originally scheduled for the end of December. Mirzoyan cancelled 
it in protest against Azerbaijan’s blockade of the sole road connecting 
Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

The blockade is another reason why Russian-Armenian relations soured in recent 
months. Yerevan has accused Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh of doing little to 
unblock the Lachin corridor.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said last week that if the peacekeepers are 
unable to protect the Karabakh Armenians against Azerbaijani military attacks 
Moscow should ask the UN Security Council to “activate additional international 
mechanisms.” The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, laughed 
off Pashinian’s statement.

Mirzoyan reiterated on Monday Yerevan’s calls for the dispatch of an 
international fact-finding mission to the Lachin corridor. “We hope to cooperate 
with the Russian side on this issue,” he said.

Lavrov did not back the idea. He again urged the conflicting sides to comply 
with the 2020 ceasefire that placed the corridor under Russian control and 
committed Baku to guaranteeing safe passage through it.

The top Russian diplomat was “sincerely satisfied with the results of today’s 
talks” with Mirzoyan.

“We spoke frankly, as befits between friends,” he said. “I am sure that this 
conversation will contribute to the further growth of mutual understanding and 
deepening of ties between Russia and Armenia.”




Russia ‘Still Key Mediator’ Between Armenia, Azerbaijan

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia -- Parliament speaker Alen Simonian talks to journalists, January 12, 
2023..


Russia continues to play the central role in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, 
parliament speaker Alen Simonian said on Monday.

Simonian said that Armenia and Azerbaijan are specifically using Moscow as their 
main channel of communication on a bilateral peace treaty discussed by them.

“Proposals regarding the treaty are exchanged through various channels and the 
principal way of exchange is through the Russian side,” he told reporters. 
“Russia remains the main actor.”

“But there are also initiatives by the United States, which is quite active, as 
well as France,” he said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
most recently met in Munich on February 18 for talks mediated by U.S. Secretary 
of State Antony Blinken. The U.S. State Department said afterwards that the 
European Union’s top official, Charles Michel, is due to host another 
Armenian-Azerbaijani summit “in the coming days.” There have been indications so 
far that the summit could take place soon.

The U.S., France and Russia had for decades spearheaded the Nagorno-Karabakh 
peace process in their capacity as the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Their 
joint mediation collapsed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has 
since repeatedly accused the West of trying to sideline it and use the Karabakh 
conflict in the standoff over Ukraine.

Aliyev declared at the weekend that he will not sign the peace treaty unless 
Yerevan recognizes Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan and accepts Baku’s terms for 
demarcating the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Armenians will not live in peace in 
the absence of such an accord, he warned.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry responded by accusing Azerbaijan of laying claim 
to Armenia’s entire territory and “doing everything to make peace in the region 
impossible.” It again claimed that Baku is planning a “new military aggression” 
against Armenia and Karabakh.

Simonian insisted that despite Aliyev’s latest threats the talks on the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal are not deadlocked.

“But this doesn’t serve as a deterrent against another Azerbaijani provocation,” 
he said.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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