Author: David Nargizian

                                        Monday, 

Russian, Armenian Defense Chiefs Again Discuss Border Crisis


Armenia - Armenian soldiers take up positions on the border with Azerbaijan, May 
17, 2021.

Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian warned of “unpredictable consequences” 
of Armenia’s border dispute with Azerbaijan when he again discussed it with his 
Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Monday.

The two men spoke by phone for the second time in five days amid a continuing 
standoff between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces deployed on the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, Harutiunian told Shoigu that most of 
the Azerbaijani troops that crossed into Armenia’s border areas last week have 
still not pulled back in breach of an “agreement” brokered by the Russian 
military.

“Vagharshak Harutiunian found the infringements of Armenia’s internationally 
recognized territory inadmissible, emphasizing that further developments of the 
situation could lead to unpredictable consequences,” the ministry said in a 
statement.

Shoigu assured Harutiunian that Moscow “will make all necessary efforts to 
resolve the existing situation peacefully,” added the statement.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported no details of the phone call.

Russian military officials have been involved in Armenian-Azerbaijani talks held 
on the border in recent days. No agreements have been officially announced as a 
result of those talks so far.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seemed to downplay the gravity 
of the border standoff which Yerevan says could reignite the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict.

“There have been no gunshots, no clashes there,” Lavrov told reporters in 
Moscow. “They sat down and started calmly talking about how to de-escalation 
that situation. They asked us for assistance and our military officials provided 
such assistance. An agreement was reached.”

“I see no reason to whip up emotions on this issue which is not ordinary but can 
be settled easily,” he said, adding that Moscow is ready to help Armenia and 
Azerbaijan demarcate their border.

Late last week Armenia formally asked the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty 
Organization (CSTO) to help it deal with the Azerbaijani incursions and restore 
its territorial integrity. It also requested separate military aid from Russia, 
citing bilateral defense agreements.



Another Opposition Bloc Formed

        • Satenik Hayrapetian

Armenia - Former President Serzh Sarkissian and former National Security Service 
Director Artur Vanetsian look on as their political parties officially set up an 
electoral alliance at a ceremony outside Yerevan, May15, 2021.

The opposition parties led by former President Serzh Sarkisian and former 
National Security Service (NSS) Director Artur Vanetsian have officially joined 
forces to participate in Armenia’s parliamentary elections scheduled for June 20.

The two men presided at the weekend over the signing of a memorandum on the 
creation of their electoral alliance comprising their Republican (HHK) and 
Fatherland parties. They said the alliance named Pativ Unem (I Have the Honor) 
will strive to oust Armenia’s current government blamed by them for what they 
see as existential threats facing the country after last year’s war with 
Azerbaijan.

“We will remove and hold accountable the capitulators who have discredited and 
humiliated our state and knelt before the enemy and will stop the decline of the 
state,” Sarkisian declared in a speech delivered during the signing ceremony.

“We need to realize that we are faced with a real threat of losing statehood and 
even being wiped out,” Vanetsian said for his part.

The former ruling HHK announced plans to team up with Vanetsian’s Fatherland 
late last month. Both parties were key members of a coalition of opposition 
forces which tried to force Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign over his 
handling of the war.

Vanetsian, 42, was appointed as head of the NSS immediately the 2018 “Velvet 
Revolution” that toppled Sarkisian and brought Pashinian to power. He quickly 
became an influential member of Pashinian’s entourage, overseeing high-profile 
corruption investigations into former government officials and Sarkisian’s 
relatives. He fell out with Pashinian and resigned in September 2019.

“Artur Vanetsian understood the whole real essence of the new jackals, decided 
to stop and urged others to do the same. Alas, they did not listen to him,” said 
Sarkisian.

The ex-president stressed that “there will be no return to the past” if the new 
bloc succeeds in coming to power. He also seemed to admit that the two parties 
alone cannot unseat the current government, saying that regime change requires 
the consolidation of “all healthy forces.”

Former President Robert Kocharian, who handed over power to Sarkisian in 2008, 
leads another bloc comprising two opposition parties. He has said that it will 
be Pashinian’s main election challenger.

Unlike Kocharian, Sarkisian made clear that he will not be seeking to become 
prime minister or hold any other government post as a result of the upcoming 
elections.

“The reason is very simple: I believe that I have finished my service to Armenia 
and the Armenian people in high-level state positions,” he said.

Accordingly, Vanetsian will top the list of Pativ Unem’s election candidates and 
will be its prime-ministerial candidate.



Armenian-Azeri Border Standoff Continues After Fresh Talks

        • Artak Khulian
        • Gevorg Stamboltsian

Armenia - A view of an area in Armenia's Syunik province where Armenian and 
Azerbaijani troops are locked in a border standoff, May 14, 2021. (Photo by the 
Armenian Human Rights Defender's Office)

Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian military officials announced no agreements 
after holding more talks over the weekend in a bid to end a military standoff at 
disputed sections of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian did not comment on their results in his opening 
remarks at a meeting of Armenia’s Security Council held on Monday morning.

“The negotiations will continue on Wednesday,” he said. “The negotiations have 
one theme: Azerbaijani troops must leave Armenian territory.”

The weekend talks took place in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province where 
Azerbaijani troops reportedly advanced several kilometers into Armenian 
territory early on May 12. The Armenian military alleged similar Azerbaijani 
advances at two other sections of the long border.

Armen Khachatrian, an Armenian pro-government lawmaker representing a Syunik 
constituency, described the talks as “quite productive” but refused to go into 
details.

“The negotiations will continue. There are still issues,” he told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service.

Khachatrian confirmed reports that General Rustam Muradov, the commander of 
Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh after last year’s 
Armenian-Azerbaijani war, personally participated in the negotiations.

According to Pashinian, the situation on the border remains largely unchanged 
even though some Azerbaijani soldiers have withdrawn from Armenian territory 
since May 14.

“This means that we must continue to activate mechanisms of the Collective 
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and continue to work on activating 
Russian-Armenian allied mechanisms,” he said.

Shortly after the Security Council meeting Pashinian wrote on his Facebook page 
that tensions at “some portions” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier have risen 
in the last few hours due to increased “aggressiveness of Azerbaijani forces.” 
He did not elaborate.

Late last week Armenia formally asked both the CSTO and Russia to help it deal 
with the Azerbaijani incursions and restore its territorial integrity. It wants 
the Russian-led military alliance to invoke Article 2 of its founding treaty 
which requires the CSTO to discuss a collective response to grave security 
threats facing member states.


Armenia - Human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan talks to Armenian soldiers 
deployed in Syunik province, May 14, 2021. (Photo by the Armenian Human Rights 
Defender's Office)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Moscow remains in “constant 
touch” with Yerevan and Baku and is making “energetic efforts to defuse the 
tensions and correct the situation.”

Azerbaijan has denied sending troops across the border and said its forces only 
took up new positions on the Azerbaijani side of the frontier.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev described the Armenian appeal to the CSTO as 
“completely baseless.”

“There have been no armed clashes on the border, the situation is stable and 
negotiations are going on,” Aliyev was reported to say in a phone call with 
President Kasim-Zhomart Tokayev of CSTO member Kazakhstan.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, for its part, that Baku and Yerevan 
should resolve the border crisis through “bilateral contacts.”

Pashinian countered, however, that the two South Caucasus states have no 
diplomatic relations and that they had agreed to demarcate and delimit their 
border in a “trilateral format” involving Russia.

The Armenian premier claimed late last week that Baku may be trying to “provoke 
a large-scale military clash” six months after a Russian-brokered ceasefire 
stopped the war in Karabakh. He pointed to large-scale Azerbaijani military 
exercises that began on Sunday.

The border standoff has also prompted serious concern from the United States and 
France, which co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group together with Russia. Both countries 
have urged Azerbaijan to withdraw its troops from Armenia’s border areas.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le 
Drian appeared to have discussed the border crisis in a phone call on Sunday. 
According to the U.S. State Department, they “spoke about their cooperation as 
OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Countries and emphasized the need for a long-term 
political settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”



Ter-Petrosian Set To Join Parliamentary Race

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia - Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian speaks at a congress of his 
Armenian National Congress (HAK) party, Yerevan, .

Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian signaled at the weekend plans to 
participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections despite his failure to form 
an alliance with Armenia’s two other ex-presidents.

Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party held a congress in 
Yerevan to formulate a position on the elections slated for June 20. HAK 
representatives said the final decision will be made this week by a new party 
board chosen by the delegates.

“If the board decides to participate in the elections … then it’s clear that the 
duty to top the Congress’s electoral list will be imposed on me,” Ter-Petrosian 
said in a speech at the congress.

“It’s going to be difficult but the truth is that the Congress’s presence in the 
[new] parliament is necessary not least for ensuring … that the lantern of 
reason is not extinguished in the atmosphere of widespread cacophony,” he said.

He said the HAK’s key objective is to scuttle Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
reelection and at the same time prevent former President Robert Kocharian from 
returning to power.

The HAK did not participate in the last parliamentary elections held in December 
2018 six months after a “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. It 
had failed to win any parliament seats in the previous polls held in 2017.

Earlier this month Ter-Petrosian publicly called on Kocharian and the other 
former Armenian president, Serzh Sarkisian, to lead together with him a 
broad-based opposition alliance and try to unseat Pashinian. He said they also 
must also pledge not to seek the post of prime minister in the event of their 
bloc’s victory.

Both men turned down the proposal before Ter-Petrosian suggested that the 
political parties led by him and Sarkisian set up an electoral bloc without 
Kocharian’s participation. Sarkisian did not accept that proposal either.

Ter-Petrosian hit out at the fellow ex-presidents in his speech at the HAK 
congress, saying that they are motivated by parochial, rather than national 
interests. The 76-year-old claimed that Kocharian is keen to “take revenge” on 
Pashinian.

Ter-Petrosian’s readiness to join forces with Kocharian and Sarkisian came as a 
surprise given the long history of mutual antagonism between them. For many 
years, he was highly critical of his successors’ policies and track records.

Like other opposition figures, all three ex-presidents blame Pashinian for 
Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Ter-Petrosian said on 
Sunday that Kocharian and Sarkisian are also responsible for the war and its 
outcome. He claimed that they opposed compromise solutions to the Karabakh 
conflict during their rule.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 

Public Radio of Armenia
May 7 2021







Facebook has removed 124 accounts, 15 Pages, six Groups and 30
Instagram accounts from Azerbaijan that targeted primarily Azerbaijan
and to a much lesser extent Armenia.

“We found this network as a result of our internal investigation
following routine enforcement against two third-party Android
applications — Postegro and Nunu, which misled people into giving away
their Instagram credentials,” Facefook said.

“It appears that this activity was separate and unrelated to the same
actors’ coordinated inauthentic behavior. Our CIB investigation found
links to individuals associated with the Defense Ministry of
Azerbaijan,” it added.