Author: Boris Nahapetian

Armenpress: PM Pashinyan invites opposition forces to hold consultations on snap elections in 2021

Boris Nahapetian

PM Pashinyan invites opposition forces to hold consultations on snap elections in 2021

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 21:27,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan invites parliamentary and extra-parliamentary forces to hold consultations over the issue of holding snap elections in 2021, ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page.

''Dear people, dear compatriots, it's now obvious that the process initiated by the opposition demanding the resignation of the PM did not enjoy people's support. The opposition had all the opportunities to generate the people's support – it possesses huge financial, media, organizational resources, it had wide opportunities to organize protests and rallies, but the movement was not only unable to secure popular support for its demands, but also the number of its supporters has been reduced to a minimum, the street process is nearly extinguished'', Pashinyan wrote.

According to the PM, no one can say that the authorities kept the power by using harsh force.

'' On the contrary, we are accused of being unnecessarily mild. But all these do not change the commitment of our political team and personally my commitment to stand in front of the people and be held accountable.

I do not cling to the seat of the Prime Minister, but I cannot have a careless attitude towards the power, the post of the Prime Minister handed over to me by the people. The fate of that position and the future political leadership of the country should be decided by the people, with free _expression_ of their will, and I, as the Prime Minister of Armenia, consider myself the guarantor of that free _expression_ of will’', Pashinyan wrote.

Pashinyan added that he is ready to step down based only on the decision of the people.

''I am also ready to continue leading Armenia in case the people reaffirms trust in this hard period. There is only one method of getting answers to these questions – holding snap parliamentary elections. Based on the mentioned, I invite parliamentary and interested extra-parliamentary forces to hold consultations to discuss the issue of holding snap parliamentary elections in 2021'', PM Pashinyan wrote.

Vazgen Manukyan is the candidate of the opposition movement for the Prime Minister's position. Vazgen Manukyan served as the first Prime Minister of Armenia from 1990 to 1991 under President Levon-Ter Petrosyan. He then served briefly as Defense Minister.

Manukyan was the President of the Public Council from 2009 to 2019.




Exchange process of POWs between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues – Russian foreign ministry

Boris Nahapetian

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 17:48, 16 December, 2020

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. The process of exchange of prisoners of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing, reports RIA Novosti.

She stated that in accordance with the November 9 statement signed by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, an exchange of prisoners of war took place with “all for all” principle. Zakharova added that this was preceded by a major preparation works which were carried out with the participation of the Russian peacekeepers and the representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“From my part I can only add that the exchange process of prisoners of war continues”, the Russian MFA spokesperson said.

On December 14 an exchange of POWs took place by the mediation of the Russian peacekeepers. 44 Armenian POWs have returned from the Azerbaijani captivity.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenian ombudsman: Government must provide proper explanations to public (corrected source)

Boris Nahapetian
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 17 2020

The anxiety and anger of residents of Kapan, Goris and other towns and border villages of Syunik Province of Armenia, including those related to the process of demarcation and delimitation of borders in the region, are justified, Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan said on Thursday.

“We are talking about the right to life and other fundamental rights of the residents of these settlements, their physical safety and security, the opportunities to ensure their livelihood and, finally, the security of Armenia’s state borders,” he wrote on Facebook.

“Along with specialists of my office, I paid a special working visit to Syunik and was convinced of the relevance of these issues. In addition, since early yesterday morning and today, the Office of the Human Rights Defender has been receiving alarming calls and concerns from residents of Syunik border communities over the same issues, and protest actions are being monitored.

“I emphasize that the government of Armenia (not the local authorities of Syunik), the supreme executive body of our country, must provide proper explanations to the public and especially residents of border settlements on issues and developments concerning them and our society as a whole.

“This is a right of citizens granted by the Constitution. The state has a direct obligation to ensure it, period!” the ombudsman said. 


Russian border guards to be deployed at Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Boris Nahapetian

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 14:05,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Armenia has revealed that there is a plan to deploy Russian border guards at the Armenian border with Azerbaijan.

Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan visited the Province of Syunik where he met with the officers of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno Karabakh and discussed the guarding of the Goris-Stepanakert road, the plan on deploying Russian border guards at the Armenian border with Azerbaijan, as well as the search operations for those who are missing in action in the Artsakh war.

Harutyunyan also held a meeting with the Armenian Armed Forces army corps commander, the Syunik Governor and the chief of the NSS regional border guard unit. They discussed issues related to the demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the deployment of the military units and border guards in the new border lines.

Harutyunyan was briefed on the ongoing works in some disputed sections and noted that the border discussions are ongoing.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 14-12-20

Boris Nahapetian

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 17:39,

YEREVAN, 14 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 14 December, USD exchange rate up by 1.84 drams to 522.46 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 4.06 drams to 635.00 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.05 drams to 7.16 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 12.46 drams to 700.46 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 69.63 drams to 30940.95 drams. Silver price up by 0.24 drams to 400.03 drams. Platinum price down by 425.73 drams to 16948.65 drams.

Aircraft transporting Armenian POWs from Azerbaijan lands in Yerevan

Boris Nahapetian

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 23:01,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Aircraft transporting Armenian POWs from Azerbaijan has landed in Yerevan. ARMENPRESS reports President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan and the relatives of the POWs met them at the airport.

Earlier Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan had informed that the process of exchange of POWs had taken place under the mediation of Russian peacekeepers. 44 Armenians have been transported to Armenia.

Ceasefire breached in Karabakh, says Russian army

Boris Nahapetian
WION News, India
Dec 12 2020
WION Web Team

Russian army on Saturday reported ceasefire violation in Karabakh region. The ceasefire is being maintained between Azerbaijan and Armenia after both countries went to fight each other over Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Russian Defence Ministry, which has deployed peacekeepers to the region.

The Armenian army reported attacks from Azerbaijan on two villages that are under the control of Karabakh forces.

The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said "adequate countermeasures" had been taken against "provocations" from the other side but added that the truce was "currently being respected". 

A spokesman for Russian peacekeeping forces told RIA Novosti press agency that requests to respect ceasefire had been sent to both parties after "exchanges of fire with automatic weapons".  

Earlier in the day, Karabakh forces announced that three of their fighters had been wounded in an attack by Azerbaijani forces. 

Azerbaijani troops attacked Armenian fighters on Friday evening and "three were wounded in the ensuing firefight", the territorial defence ministry said.

Six weeks of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, which left thousands dead on both sides, ended in a rout for the Armenian military.

The Moscow-sponsored deal in November handed territorial gains to Azerbaijan and allowed for some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to be deployed to the region.

(With AFP inputs)

Armenian Separatists Hurt In Skirmish With Azerbaijan

Boris Nahapetian
BARRON's
Dec 12 2020
AFP – Agence France Presse


Separatist officials in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh said Saturday that three fighters were wounded in a skirmish with Azerbaijani forces, undermining a recent peace deal brokered by Russia.

The defence ministry in the ethnically Armenian province said in a statement that Azerbaijani troops attacked Friday evening and that "three Armenian servicemen were injured during the ensuing gunfight".

It added that the fighters were in a stable condition and an investigation into the incident was under way.

Six weeks of fighting between separatists backed by Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region ended last month after the two sides agreed to a peace deal that saw the Armenians cede swathes of disputed territory.

More than 5,000 people including civilians were killed during the fighting in the Caucasus between the ex-Soviet rivals, which fought a war in the 1990s over the mountainous region.

Nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers have deployed to the region and Baku's close ally Turkey has said it will monitor the truce from an observation centre in Azerbaijan.


Putin’s approach played an important role in normalizing situation in NK – Erdoğan

Boris Nahapetian

Putin's approach played an important role in normalizing situation in NK – Erdoğan

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 20:06,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. President of Russia Vladimir Putin played an important role in the normalization of the situation in Nagorno Karabakh, ARMENPRESS reports, citing Anadolu Agency, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a press conference in Baku.

''I cannot put aside the approaches of Mr. Putin. His positive stance contributed to bringing that process to a positive path. I also want to focus on the platform (on regional security) about which my brother (Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev) talked. Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia can join that platform, as well as Armenia, if it wishes'', Erdoğan said.

The Turkish leader also announced that Turkey has no problems with the Armenian people.

Armenian PM releases flurry of FB notes on Karabakh, recounts interactions with ex presidents

Boris Nahapetian
JAM News

Nov 30 2020

    JAMnews, Yerevan

The first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan called Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ‘a national disaster’ earlier today, responding to the Armenian PM’s decision to release a number of Facebook notes pertaining to the Karabakh conflict, interactions he has had in recent months with both Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh presidents and other topics.

More about Pashinyan’s musings on these topics below.

  • Armenian PM Pashinyan on wife’s presence at command post, who’s to blame for war failures
  • More than 11,000 people return to homes in Nagorno-Karabakh

Meeting with former presidents

In one of his Facebook notes, Nikol Pashinyan said that on October 20 the former presidents of Karabakh Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan proposed to organize a meeting of the current and former leaders of Armenia and Karabakh, ‘which would become an _expression_ of national unity during the war.’

Then, according to Pashinyan, a nuance was added to this idea: he was offered to play the role of a ‘mediator’ so that Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov would accept ex-presidents of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan as special envoys, but he did not agree to this.

Pashinyan says he suggested instead of urgently organizing a protocol visit to Moscow for Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan as former presidents, where they would meet with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is also deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.

The ex presidents were not so interested in this proposal, Pashinyan concluded:

“Unexpectedly for me, Sahakyan said that Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan had already agreed on a meeting with Lavrov. What then was needed from me? Let them go to Moscow and meet him. It turned out that Kocharyan’s passport was in court [ed. the ex-president is accused of overthrowing the constitutional order, is currently on bail and the trial is ongoing]. And then I advised they petition the court to return his passport, and that I would ask the prosecution not to object. And so it was. Kocharyan’s passport was returned, but he and Ter-Petrosyan never went to Moscow. “

Pashinyan’s entry on the ‘Karabakh impasse’

In another entry, Nikol Pashinyan said that by 2018, when he took office, the Karabakh issue was at an impasse, from which there was only one way out – the unconditional surrender of territories, “and without guarantees that Azerbaijan would not put forward new demands.”

In the context of these new demands, Pashinyan wrote, the likelihood of war increased again.

“But what should we do now? We must gradually stabilize the situation, not aggravate it. The most important issue now is the problem of prisoners, missing persons, perhaps those who were able to hide, a problem that needs to be solved very quickly,” the head of the Cabinet noted.

Attempts to stop the war

Pashinyan also presented some details of attempts to stop the Karabakh war. The fact is that now many accuse him of the being late with the decision to end hostilities.

As Pashinyan writes, on October 19, Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan told him that the war must be stopped:

“He also said that he expresses this point of view not only on his own behalf, but also on behalf of the former presidents of Karabakh, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, as well as [former presidents of Armenia] Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan.”

Then Pashinyan called Putin.

“He said that, in his opinion, this should be done according to the logic of the Russian proposals. That is, to postpone the question of the status of [Karabakh], to transfer the areas [around NK, which came under the control of the Armenian side during the First Karabakh war in the early 90s], and to introduce Russian peacekeepers,” Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page.

He informed the President of Karabakh about Putin’s answer. Arayik Harutyunyan agreed with the proposal of the Russian President. But it turned out that the former presidents of NK Bako Sahakyan and Arkadi Ghukasyan did not accept any agreements without specifying the status of Karabakh or a clarification mechanism.

“In fact, they said this on behalf of Robert Kocharian, Serzh Sargsyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan.”

As a result, almost a month later, on the night of November 10, a statement was signed, which many in Armenia now perceive of as a ‘traitorous’ document voluntarily transferring Karabakh to Azerbaijan.