Author: Emma Jilavian

 15:14,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS.  Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in an interview with France 24, stated that the reforms in the Armenian army should concern nobody.

"Azerbaijan raises uproar every time in case of our new cooperation in the military-technical field, but does not say about its billions of dollars worth of arms purchases; this is an important fact.

Why is Azerbaijan concerned about the reforms of the Armenian army when it continues to occupy sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia, and when we propose, based on the Alma Ata Declaration, to delimit our borders and conduct a mirror-like withdrawal of troops? This would be a significant step toward mutual trust. The reforms in our army should not concern anyone," said the Prime Minister.

 16:11,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. The delimitation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be done exclusively through topographic maps, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan has said.

He said that only the topographic “professional maps” should be used in the process. Furthermore, Grigoryan said that the delimitation process doesn’t simply involve working with maps. “First of all, the delimitation process is about identifying the legal basis on which any given map was drawn. Moreover, not every agency is authorized, or was authorized during the Soviet Union to draw or print a map. All these nuances are highly important and must be addressed during the work,” Grigoryan said.

He said that there’s no agreement yet on the timeframe of the next meeting on border delimitation.

 19:07,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 19, ARMENPRESS.  Azerbaijan is desecrating the graves of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, Tigran Balayan, the Ambassador of Armenia to Belgium and the head of Armenia’s mission to the European Union told Brussels Signal.

Speaking to Brussels Signal, Tigran Balayan said  that Azerbaijan has begun destroying religious artefacts belonging to the former Armenian population of the region, the vast majority of whom have since fled the territory.

 “The war against Armenian cemeteries has started,” the official said during an interview with Justin Stares, Head of News at Brussels Signal.

“We have tons of video and photo evidence that they are starting to ruin the cemeteries in the villages and also the churches.”

Balayan went on to claim the country was also demolishing smaller churches across Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that the one in his native village had been destroyed.

Azerbaijan has, he added, also removed religious symbols from larger buildings.

“All the crosses from all Armenian churches in Nagorno-Karabakh were removed by occupying soldiers,” he said.

 Balayan’s assertions stood in stark contrast to those made by Azerbaijani officials in recent weeks.

After a period of detente between the two Caucasus countries, tensions have once again spiked. That came after a clash on the border between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces, as a result 4 Armenian troops dead.

Speaking to Brussels Signal, presidential representative Elchin Amirbayov insisted that his country remained committed to protecting the rights of ethnic Armenians in the disputed territory.

He added that Azerbaijan would “welcome back” any ethnic Armenians who had fled the region, describing them as being entitled to Azerbaijani citizenship in the same way other ethnic minorities in the country are.

That was rejected by Balayan, who instead said Azerbaijan had worked to prevent the return of ethnic Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh.

“There were attempts by some people to return. They were rejected by Azerbaijan,” he insisted.

 20:02,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS.  The press secretary of Armenian Prime Minister Nazeli Baghdasaryan has responded to several statements from official Baku, specifically noting that Azerbaijan continues its strategy of deepening enmity in the region, which poses a continuous threat of destabilization, Baghdasaryan wrote this on her Facebook page.

In response to several announcements from official Baku, I am authorized to announce:

The legislation of the Republic of Armenia is an internal matter of the Republic of Armenia, and no external force has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of our country.

As for territorial claims, Armenia is committed to the agreements reached with Azerbaijan on international platforms to recognize each other's territorial integrity on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration, to conduct the demarcation and delimitation of the borders between the two countries based on the Alma-Ata Declaration, to open the regional communications on the basis of the sovereignty, jurisdiction, the principles of equality and reciprocity.

Azerbaijan regularly violates these agreements by persisting in aggressive rhetoric, using force and the threat of force, that contradict the written agreements reached at international platforms. Additionally, Azerbaijan continues to occupy 31 vital territories belonging to the Republic of Armenia. All this shows that Azerbaijan continues the strategy of deepening enmity in the region, which is a continuous threat of destabilization.

Armenia will continue its efforts to establish peace and again offers Azerbaijan the withdrawal of troops, based on the 1991 border line, which will be a cornerstone step for stability and mutual trust in the region. As for the peace treaty, there is an already agreed-upon point in the draft being negotiated between Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to which the parties cannot refer to their legislation to refuse to fulfill any provision of the peace treaty.

 We repeat: Armenia and Azerbaijan have already reached an agreement on this point, and the statements from official Baku contradict this agreement as well.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry has removed a section called “Nagorno-Karabakh Issue” from its website, coinciding with a top Azerbaijani official complaining about the description “language” used on the website, which has been deemed unacceptable by Baku.

While the section entitled “Nagorno-Karabakh” still appears on the Foreign Ministry’s website under the foreign policy heading, the “Nagorno-Karabakh Issue” subsection is removed in all languages — Armenian, English, French and Russian.

The foreign ministry has also removed a section that included reports by the Artsakh Human Rights Defender’s office.

Asbarez reported on Friday that Elchin Amirbayov, Azerbaijan’s senior envoy for special assignments who has been closely involved in the negotiations, had told RFE/RL’s Joshua Kucera that in addition to Armenia’s Constitution, there are several other instances where Armenia’s claim on Artsakh appear in formal statements and legislation.

Amirbayov specifically called attention to the language on the Armenian Foreign Ministry website saying that Nagorno-Karabakh is “an integral part of historic Armenia,” and recent Armenian filings in the European Court of Human Rights that imply a claim on Azerbaijan.

He also said, when Armenia’s legislature ratified the 1991 Alma Ata accords, which accepted Soviet republic borders as the borders of the newly independent states, lawmakers added language saying that it did not apply to Artsakh.

“We have pointed the attention of the Armenian side to those facts many times, during our [in-person] negotiations, but also through different exchanges of comments,” Amirbayov said. “And the Armenian side acknowledges that this is the fact, but nothing is being done…”

“When they try to cheat, if I may use the word, if they try to put all the blame and the responsibility on our shoulders, and at the same time in the back of their minds still having these territorial claims against us, it’s not going to work,” the Azerbaijani official added.

 11:39, 6 February 2024

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. The government carried out renovation projects worth 154 million dollars in Kotayk Province in 2018-2023.

330 kilometers of roads, 163 kilometers of lighting, 34 kilometers of gasification, 206 kilometers of water lines, 20 kindergartens and 3 schools were either built, reconstructed or repaired in the province in 2018-2023, the government said in a press release.