Author: David Nargizian

By: OurWarsToday

The EU has issued several statements including warnings to Azerbaijan that diplomatic relations will be severely injured if President Aliyev carries out his proposed plan of taking control of eight Armenian villages, as well as plans to create an extraterritorial corridor to the Azerbaijani Nakhichevan exclave, an Azerbaijani claimed autonomous republic, to the west of Southern Armenia.

European Commission spokesperspn Peter Stano speaking to Armenpress said: “The European Union has spared no diplomatic efforts to help reach a mutually acceptable settlement of the conflict over the past few years… We have been in close contact with the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaderships, tirelessly reiterating our support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity of both countries and the resolution of issues exclusively by peaceful means. Our communication channels remain open… The EU has been using every opportunity to pass clear messages to Azerbaijan that any violation of Armenia’s territorial integrity would be unacceptable and will have severe consequences for our relations… We remain firm and steadfast in this stance… The President of the European Council Charles Michel, the High Representative /Vice-President Josep Borrell and the EU Special Representative Toivo Klaar continue their engagement for a sustainable and lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan,”

Azerbaijan’s Justification and Intentions:

Azerbaijani leader Illham Aliyev made these threats in recent territorial claims where-in he said Armenia must give control of the villages which he calls as Azerbaijani instead of Armenian, as well as designate land between the exclave and Azerbaijan so as to create a corridor for goods supply. Additionally he seeks to prevent Armenian goods inspection on Nakhichevan cargo back and forth.

Aliyev’s backing for these claims was that under Soviet Azerbaijan these areas were delineated to their nation, Soviet borders were redrawn between Armenia and Azerbaijan several times and neither side has accepted the various choices for decades. All eight villages claimed exist on or near the border, and one next to Nakhichevan. Aliyev said in a speech on January 10th: “As for the occupied Azerbaijani villages, there are enclave and non-enclave villages. The villages that are not enclave, the four villages should be returned to Azerbaijan without any preconditions. The villages that are enclave, a separate expert group should be established and this issue should be discussed. Azerbaijan believes that all enclaves should be returned. The roads leading to these enclaves should have the necessary conditions and the people living there should be accommodated in these enclaves… Azerbaijan is not going back anywhere. Neither from the positions of May 2021 nor from the positions of September 2022. Azerbaijan is not taking a step back because that border must be defined… Armenia continues to occupy Azerbaijan’s villages, and this is unacceptable. This issue will be clarified during the meeting of the commissions at the end of this month [January of 2023].”

Aliyev also announced new and planned Azerbaijani infrastructure and city building projects in the recently seized Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Background and Regional Conflict:

In recent years when Azerbaijan has made similar demands and claims for Armenian territory which is not met, it follows with an invasion that seizes the land by force utilizing its larger military force and population to brute strength attacks and hold frontlines that have steadily grown, such as the recent seizure of the enclave of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh. Supply by Turkey and Israel to Azerbaijan of advanced military technology and armaments such as drones has enabled them to swiftly strike Armenian defenses and vehicles before sending in ground troops to overwhelm thinned out positions and then occupy them.

YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. According to statistics provided by the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GTNA) 4,703,945 tourists visited Georgia in 2022, more than 80% of them were Europeans and 4.4% were citizens of the Middle East countries.

 In the overall picture of inbound tourism, the number of visitors from the Middle East is very small but dynamics is significant in this case. According to the results of 2022, Georgia has received 208,341 tourists from the Middle East, which is 15 times more than ten years before.

Moreover, the increase in the number of visitors from the region has exceeded the pre-pandemic level. Furthermore, the former Soviet republic admitted almost 160,000 visitors from the Middle East in 2019. Georgia is popular among tourists from the Middle East not only thanks to its picturesque views, affordable hotels, and relative proximity but also because of the growing availability of halal food and Arabic-speaking guides (Middle East Monitor, 2022).

The increase in the number of visitors from the Middle East is mainly due to tourists from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia, which accounts for more than 50% of the total number of tourists from the Middle East. In 2022, the number of tourists from Saudi Arabia increased by 60% compared to the pre-pandemic period of 2019, reaching 119,921 visitors.

Let's consider how the above-mentioned success factors for Georgia work and examine the possibilities of achieving similar results in Armenia.

Citizens of only 45 countries can enter Armenia without a visa and stay in the country for up to 180 days, which is twice less than in the case of Georgia, when this opportunity is given to citizens of 107 countries (Table 4). Moreover, only citizens of two countries of the Middle East- UAE and Qatar are allowed to visit Armenia without a visa.

Unlike Georgia, in Armenia the number of direct flights from many airports of the region (Dubai, Doha, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam) is less and they are more expensive.

The price of a round trip ticket from the mentioned cities to Armenia if booked two months before the date of departure is 82 – 470 Euros while the average price is 454 Euros.

At the same time, Armenia is considered one of the safest countries in the world, according to the Numbeo crime index as of July 2023, Armenia ranks 6th in terms of security, with a crime index of 21.6 and a safety index of 78.4. This is a notably high safety index, surpassing that of Georgia, which holds the 20th position. In terms of safety, Armenia is a much more preferred destination for tourists compared to Georgia (Numbeo, 2023).

For more information, please view the following 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1127765.html?fbclid=IwAR2yKI5H1dFSQJsV4CICnofsVxeFVvFFwBGlVJe-nUKmQsnzxwhslGI80A8

President Aliyev and Macron in Paris in 2012

France has decided to expel two employees of Azerbaijan’s embassy in Paris, after Baku took a similar step this week against two employees working in France’s embassy in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that two French diplomats had been ordered to leave the country over actions “incompatible with their diplomatic status.”

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it had summoned French ambassador Anne Boillon to voice a “strong protest over the actions of two employees of the French Embassy.”

“France has taken note of the decision taken by Azerbaijan to declare two members of the French Embassy in Azerbaijan persona non grata. It categorically rejects the allegations presented by Azerbaijan to justify its decision,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday in response to Baku’s actions.

“As a reciprocal measure, France has declared two employees of the Azerbaijani Embassy in France persona non grata,” the French Foreign Ministry said, adding that Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to France was summoned and was officially informed of the decision.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (right) with President Ilham Aliyev in St. Petersburg, Russia on Dec. 26 (screen capture from Ria Novosti)

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan on Tuesday discussed the peace process between their countries during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia on the margins of a Commonwealth of Independent States summit.

Pashinyan’s press secretary Nazeli Baghdasaryan told Azatutyun.am about the “informal meeting,” saying the talks were “bilateral, meaning the two leaders talked without a third country mediator — in this case Russia — president.

“Issues related to the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agenda were discussed. The discussions were in a bilateral format,” Baghdasaryan said, without elaborating.

It was the first time the two leaders were meeting since Azerbaijan’s large-scale attack on Artsakh in September, which forced the displacement of more than 100,000 Artsakh residents. Aliyev and his foreign minister, Jeyhum Bayramov, canceled scheduled meetings in Brussels and Washington, respectively, scheduled after the September attack.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian media outlets circulated a short video showing Pashinyan and Aliyev shaking hands during an excursion to the Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site in Saint Petersburg as CIS leaders entered the venue ahead of the unofficial CIS summit.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia had invited the leaders of CIS countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — to discuss issues not in a meeting format, but during an excursion in the palace-park complexes of Saint Petersburg.

Pashinyan also met with President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, who last month hosted a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Minsk. The Armenian prime minister did not attend that gathering.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Channel One television that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have expressed interest in signing a peace deal.

“They are ready to conclude peace negotiations, issue a joint document, to sign the peace treaty,” Peskov said.

A military post along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Official Baku has signaled that the delimitation and demarcation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan may proceed on a separate track and should not be linked to a peace deal between the two countries currently being discussed.

“The 35-year-long conflict is now over,” Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy adviser to President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, told reporters in London, Reuters reported.

“The strategy for Azerbaijan now is to win peace. (This) requires action from both sides,” he added.

“A peace treaty is not rocket science,” Hajiyev said. “For Azerbaijan there are no longer obstacles on the way to a peace agenda.”

“Azerbaijan is ready to form a peace treaty with Armenia. For that reason, Azerbaijan has also suggested five fundamental principles and a text for a peace treaty. Currently, there are diplomatic engagements between Armenia and Azerbaijan in direct talks. I believe that Armenia and Azerbaijan have managed to surprise the world with a positive agenda. On December 7, the two countries made a joint statement expressing their intention to advance the peace agenda and implement confidence-building measures,” Hajiyev told reporters in London on Tuesday.

He noted that these last three months could be considered the most calm and peaceful period in the history of the Armenia-Azerbaijan relationship since the independence of the two countries.

“There is no war, no atrocities, and no confrontation, with soldiers returning to their barracks. Relative peace has been ensured on the ground. Now is the time to transform it into a long-lasting peace, including the signing of a peace treaty,” Hajiyev added.

He claimed that Baku has made it possible for Armenians who fled Artsakh to return, after a vetting process and as long as they are ready to accept Azerbaijani citizenship.