Author: Elizabeth Jabejian

 14:41, 14 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said there’s no planned meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev at this moment.

“At this moment there’s no planned meeting. I’ve never avoided meeting, but on the other hand the experience of our meetings shows that there must be guarantees on the implementation of agreements and obligations,” Pashinyan said at a press conference.

Pashinyan noted that agreements were reached during their previous EU-mediated meetings in Brussels with Ilham Aliyev, but implementing the agreements was impossible due to Azerbaijan’s actions.

“Armenia is ready to continue the work in the Brussels format, but we are saying let’s start implementing one by one what’s been agreed upon. If there are over ten agreements that aren’t being implemented, what’s the sense in carrying out work over agreeing on a new thing? And these agreements pertained to Nagorno Karabakh, border security, opening of regional connections, release of prisoners of war and other issues,” Pashinyan said, adding that he sees a fundamental problem regarding the Brussels format.

He described the quadrilateral format talks in Prague – with participation of France – to be the most effective negotiations with concrete results. Pashinyan said that Azerbaijan disfavors this format.

 13:08,

YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. The Future Armenian Convention – the first pan-Armenian citizens’ assembly – kicked off in Yerevan on March 10.

The Future Armenian is a public initiative launched by Armenians and friends of Armenia to create a common framework of understanding around the sustainable development of Armenia as a country and Armenians as a nation.

Over 200 participants will engage in discussions on "Historic Responsibility", "Armenia-Diaspora Unity" and "Growing Population".

“Today we are opening a new chapter in the history of the Future Armenian initiative,” said Artak Apitonyan, the CEO of the Future Armenian Development Foundation. “We are launching a highly important stage of public discussions, which is commonly referred to as a citizens’ assembly in the world. In a sense this is a new test in the Armenian arena but we are convinced that we will achieve success through joint efforts.”

Speaking about the development of the initiative, he said that the 2020 war made them once again think about the future in terms of “what kind of Armenia and Armenians we want to have and how to build that Armenia.”

Over 110,000 Armenians from 108 countries have already joined the initiative.

200 of them are now participating in the discussions.

Noubar Afeyan, a co-founder of the initiative, as well as Ruben Vardanyan, the former State Minister of Artsakh who is also a co-founder of the initiative, also delivered remarks at the event, with the latter joining through video call from blockaded Artsakh. Vardanyan said that the ongoing blockade showed that Armenians have a great demand for discussing ideas.

 20:33, 9 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, ARMENPRESS. On March 9, around 5:50 p.m., the units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire from different caliber firearms at the Armenian positions located in the direction of Verin Shorzha.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Defense, the Armenian side has suffered no casualties. As of 20:00, the situation on the frontline is relatively stable.

 19:11, 1 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Nelly Baghdasaryan, Advisor to the President of Artsakh, described the news spread by the Azerbaijani media, which tried to present the meeting between the representatives of the Republic of Artsakh and Azerbaijan as so-called "preliminary discussions about the reintegration of the Armenians of the Karabakh region" as disinformation.

Speaking with ARMENPRESS reporter, Nelly Baghdasaryan mentioned that the spokesperson of the Artsakh President gave details about the meeting between the official representatives of the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Azerbaijan, with the mediation and participation of the command of the Russian peacekeeping troops, during which humanitarian and infrastructural issues were discussed. After the meeting, the Azerbaijani mass media actively spread disinformation, presenting it as the so-called "preliminary discussions about the reintegration of the Armenians of the Karabakh region".

"The President of the Republic of Artsakh, in his February 23 address and during the Cabinet meeting on March 1, once again ruled out any integration process with Azerbaijan, noting that political dialogue with Azerbaijan for the purpose of conflict settlement is possible only within the framework of the international mediation format," Nelly Baghdasaryan emphasized. 

Speaking about another disinformation spread by the Azerbaijani mass media, according to which the next meeting of the official representatives of the parties "may take place in Ganja or Aghdam", and without the participation of the Russian peacekeeping troops, the advisor to the Artsakh President stressed that this also does not correspond to the reality, because since the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020, the communications and meetings of the representatives of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Artsakh related to the settlement of the humanitarian and infrastructural problems of the Artsakh Republic are organized at the place determined by the Russian peacekeeping troops, with their mediation and participation.

 19:53, 6 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 6, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation referred to the firing at a police car in Artsakh by the Azerbaijani armed forces and the death of people, noting that the command of the Russian peacekeeping force is conducting an investigation with the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides.

ARMENPRESS reports, the message released by the ministry says: "The Russian peacekeeping contingent continues to carry out its tasks in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. In thirty observation posts, Russian peacekeepers monitor the situation around the clock and supervise the maintenance of the ceasefire regime. On March 5, 2023, at 10:00 a.m., the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan shot at the car of the law enforcement officers of Nagorno Karabakh in the territory of Dukyanlar settlement. As a result of the clashes, three people were killed, and one was injured. There were also losses on the Azerbaijani side. two dead and one injured. The clash was stopped with the efforts of Russian peacekeepers. In connection with that fact, the command of the Russian peacekeeping military group is conducting an investigation with the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides."

Three Nagorno Karabakh police officers were killed as a result of an ambush by a sabotage team of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces on March 5. The officers of the Passport and Visa Department of the Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nagorno-Karabakh were attacked around 10:00. They were in their service vehicle at the time of the ambush.

 14:30, 2 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 2, ARMENPRESS. Russian forces are conducting an operation to destroy a group of Ukrainian "armed nationalists" that intruded across the border into Bryansk region, Russian state news agencies reported citing a statement from the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The FSB said in the statement that its own forces and the army were trying to destroy what it described as "an armed group of Ukrainian nationalists" who had crossed the border.

The security service said in the statement that "..the FSB and the attached forces of the Russian Ministry of Defense are taking measures to destroy armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border” in the Klimovsky district of Bryansk region.

Earlier in the day, Aleksandr Bogomaz, the regional governor, said that a group of Ukrainian operatives had launched a raid into the region’s territory, adding that the group attacked a moving car, killing one person and injuring a ten-year-old child. He said Ukrainian armed forces had launched a drone attack and fired artillery shells at other areas near the border.

"Today, a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group penetrated the Klimovsky district in the village of Lubechanye," Bogomaz said on his Telegram channel. "Saboteurs fired on a moving car. As a result of the attack, one resident was killed and a ten-year-old child was wounded."

Some media reports suggested that the saboteurs also had taken several local residents hostage, a claim that has not been confirmed by local authorities.

Ukraine didn’t immediately comment on the Russian reports.

 09:31, 3 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 3, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan will visit New Delhi on March 3-4 to participate in Raisina Dialogue, India’s premier conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, the foreign ministry announced Friday.

“On March 3-4, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New Delhi to participate in India’s leading conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics “Raisina Dialogue.”

In the framework of the conference, Minister Mirzoyan will participate in a panel discussion as a speaker, and will also have meetings with colleagues,” the foreign ministry said on social media.

 12:46, 1 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. A monument commemorating the victims of the 2008 post-election unrest, colloquially known as the March 1 events, was inaugurated today near City Hall in downtown Yerevan.

President Vahagn Khachaturyan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan, Yerevan Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan, other government officials, members of the public and family members of the victims attended the inauguration.

“I want to underscore that March 1 is not a day of mourning,” PM Pashinyan said in his speech. “Because, of course, we mourn and commemorate the victims, but March 1 has a wider context, and the meaning of the life and struggle of our killed brothers is about something completely different. After the 2021 parliamentary election I had various occasions to say that for the first time in the history of Armenia, elections became not the cause of a domestic crisis but the way to overcome the domestic crisis. This is also my personal conclusion from the 1 March 2008 events because as you know I was personally significantly involved in those events and the conclusion is that March 1 was actually about the lack of democracy, it was about breaking the people’s free _expression_, deforming it, depriving the people of _expression_ and making decisions. And this is how we must perceive the meaning of March 1. And at least from this perspective the struggle and sacrifice of March 1 reached its goal, because vote rigging is a closed chapter in Armenia and there won’t be a return to it.”

He described the Armenian people as the “guarantors” for never allowing a return to vote rigging and said that the vision of the people is to live a free, happy and fruitful life in a strong, independent and sovereign country.

Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Tigran Avinyan noted that the monument is being opened 15 years since the events. “The meaning of March 1 teaches us a lesson that there should never be a dividing line between the government and the people. And whenever the government and people have these lines it leads to crimes like March 1,” Avinyan said.

The sculptor of the monument, Albert Vardanyan, said his creation “came from his heart” because “everyone shared the pain” of those days. “This is an ode to the people and government, so that we never again see such days.”

Eight protesters and two police officers were killed in the violent suppression of anti-government street protests that followed a disputed presidential election held in February 2008 which saw Serzh Sargsyan take office. Former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the main opposition candidate in the ballot, rallied his supporters to protest against alleged vote rigging.

Ter-Petrosyan's supporters held nonstop rallies in Liberty Square until they were forcibly dispersed by riot police early on March 1, 2008.

[see video]