Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has petitioned the parliament to strip 4 opposition lawmakers of immunity, including ethnic Armenian MP Garo Paylan from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Ermenihaber reported.
The three other MPs are also from the HDP and the Democratic Regions Party (DBP).
The issue must first be discussed at the parliament’s Joint Committee on Constitution and Justice, the source said.
Armenia’s move to allow Azerbaijani flights over its airspace is one of the worst possible signals that could be sent to Iran, according to expert on Iran Vardan Voskanyan.
As Panorama.am reported earlier, Azerbaijan Airlines started operating Baku-Nakhichevan-Baku flights through Armenia's airspace on Wednesday.
“Allowing an enemy aircraft to fly over Armenian airspace exactly today and in this particular direction is one of the worst possible signals that could be sent to Iran,” Voskanyan wrote on Facebook.
The move came one day after Iran banned Azerbaijani military planes from flying over the Islamic Republic to Nakhichevan.
In recent years, Iranian politicians have viewed neighboring Azerbaijan as Israel’s proxy, which may explain why Iran named its most extensive ground military exercise in recent years on the Iranian-Azeri border, “Khyber Conquerors.”
Khyber refers to the door of an ancient Jewish fortress on the Arabian Peninsula that was conquered by Imam Ali, the first Shia Imam. Therefore, from Iran’s point of view, Azerbaijan is today’s version of that same fortress and its door is the Zangezur corridor—proposed by Azerbaijan to connect the rest of the country with its Nakhchivan enclave via Armenia’s southern Syunik region. According to Iranian hardliners, the crossing could be a gateway for Israel and NATO’s direct entry into the Caucasus and, therefore, would violate Armenia’s territorial integrity and also threaten Iran.
The 2020 war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which led to Baku’s recapturing of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave from Yerevan, had significant consequences for Tehran. Contrary to expectations, during the war, Iran provided political and military support to Azerbaijan—due to Iran’s sizeable Azeri minority population, which includes the country’s Supreme Leader—and not to Armenia, despite Iran long being geopolitically aligned with Yerevan. This was in part because Iran recognized Baku’s military superiority over Armenia. Nevertheless, a year after a ceasefire was declared, defense, security, and geopolitical developments in the region have evolved in a way that has angered Tehran.
The October 1 Khyber military exercises by the Iranian armed forces on the seven hundred-kilometer northwestern border with Azerbaijan have only added to tensions. The story began when Baku imposed a “road tax” and detained two Iranian truck drivers entering the Nagorno-Karabakh region—a path truck drivers must take to transport fuel and goods to Armenia.
The war games were allegedly prompted after comments made by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the Turkish Anadolu Agency on September 28. During the interview, Aliyev accused Iran of violating Azerbaijan’s sovereignty by hiding the identity of the Iranian trucks heading to Armenia. To substantiate his claims, Aliyev cited satellite, drone, and ground imagery of what he called “illegal” Iranian actions. This interview came as Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and Turkey conducted military exercises on September 12 in Baku.
Upon news of the Iranian military maneuvers on its border, the first since the fall of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev said: “Every country can carry out any military drill on its own territory. It’s their sovereign right. But why now, and why on our border?”
The military exercises
Initially, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) ground forces conducted a tactical practice on the border by sending hundreds of combat battalions, including infantry, rocket artillery, and armored and electronic warfare units. The ground forces deployed in less than forty-eight hours, which is surprising given that they arrived from numerous provinces. It was also a highly unusual deployment since divisions and combat units are typically deployed from the same area as the military exercises. When the IRGC announced the end of the military drill, it left the combat battalions situated by the border area in a state of readiness.
Iran’s campaign sent a fiery message to Azerbaijan on the first anniversary of the Nagorno-Karabakh war. It was also extraordinary because the drill didn’t appear to be of the traditional sort held to test new equipment. Contrary to official military statements, Iran did not need to send large armored, mechanized, and infantry units to the region. Moreover, unlike when these forces were sent, there is no news of the return of combat battalions to the provinces where they belong. Therefore, it can be concluded that the real goal was to deploy the military force needed for a possible armed conflict under the guise of a military drill.
Tehran’s main concern with Azerbaijan is the increasing military capabilities provided by its patrons Israel and Turkey. This is changing the geostrategic balance to Iran’s detriment. Tehran is also worried that if Azerbaijan succeeds in imposing the Zangzur corridor on the Armenian government, Baku could easily connect to Turkey, Israel, and the European Union by land, thus, excluding Iran from its transit equations. Iran sees this as further expanding the presence of Israel and NATO on its borders and undermining Iran’s relations with Armenia.
On September 30, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told Azerbaijan’s new ambassador to Tehran that Iran had a right to hold war games on the border, adding, “We do not tolerate the presence and activity against our national security of the Zionist regime next to our borders and will take any necessary action in this regard.” Sabotage attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the assassination of its nuclear scientists—including most recently Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020—have widely been attributed to Israel. Azerbaijan denied the allegations.
Similar comments were made by the commander of the Iranian army’s ground forces, General Kioumars Heidari. “Since the arrival of this regime, our sensitivity to this border has increased and their activities here are fully under our observation,” said Heydari, in reference to Israel. He also noted that Iran was concerned about “terrorist forces that came to the region from Syria,” an apparent reference to reports that Turkey recruited jihadists to help Baku in Nagorno-Karabakh. Heydari claimed that Iran was uncertain whether these groups had left the Caucasus.
On October 5, Azerbaijan reportedly closed a mosque and office in Baku linked to Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Why Iran is worried
The high self-confidence of Azerbaijani authorities today, the coldness of Tehran-Yerevan ties due to Iran’s support of Baku during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the growing influence of Turkey and Israel in the Caucasus have made Iranian officials concerned about the possibility of a limited conflict in the region that would drag northwestern Iran into sectarian warfare—possibly over the severance of Armenia’s land connection with Iran. Nevertheless, this situation results from Iran’s lack of a clear and planned defense policy in border areas such as the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
It is unclear to what extent the new Ebrahim Raisi government and Supreme National Security Council can formulate a clear defense and security policy in the face of the security challenge with Azerbaijan. However, what is clear is the possibility of an aggressive defense and foreign policy given that tensions in the Middle East and the Caucasus are much higher than last year. Despite there being a new prime minister in Israel, its security policy toward Iran has not changed. The destruction of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure due to alleged covert Israeli actions has increased the risk of Iranian retaliation against Israeli citizens and its interests in the Middle East. This would certainly explain why Iranian officials are constantly talking about their intention to repel the Israeli threat in the Caucasus region.
Abbas Qaidari is a researcher on international security and defense policy. Follow him on Twitter: .
Levon Aronian (Armenia) played with Anish Giri (Netherlands) in the fourth round of the online Champions Chess Tour Finals rapid chess tournament, and won 3-1 in four games.
Aronian is currently third in the overall standings.
In the fifth round, his opponent will be Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan).
The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia does not deny reports about the raid in the home of former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan and his possible arrest.
According to media reports, Tonoyan's house was searched as part of a criminal investigation into arms supplies and it is possible he will be arrested, Pastinfo reported on Wednesday.
Searches are also underway in the houses of former Head of the Military Aviation Avetik Muradyan and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Stepan Galstyan.
Pastinfo contacted the Prosecutor General's Office to find out within what criminal case Tonoyan's house has been searched and whether there is a decision on his arrest. However, the law enforcement agency said it could not provide any information at the moment, thus not refuting reports about the search in Tonoyan's home and his possible arrest.
Moscow police arrested Doxa editor Armen Aramyan as he was leaving the Investigative Committee’s headquarters on Tuesday, September 29, the student journal reported.
According to lawyer Leonid Solovyov from the rights group Agora, police officers detained Aramyan in order to draw up misdemeanor charges against him. Where the police took the student journalist remains unknown, Doxa said. The publication didn’t specify the accusations brought against Aramyan.
Update. Leonid Solovyov located Armen Aramyan at the Tverskoy District Police Station, Doxa reported. The lawyer also found out that he is being charged with a misdemeanor under Administrative Code Article 20.2, section 2 (violating the procedure for holding a meeting or rally). This is punishable by up to 10 days in jail.
Armen Aramyan and three other Doxa journalists — Alla Gutnikova, Vladimir Metelkin, and Natalya Tyshkevich — are facing felony charges for allegedly involving minors in illegal protests. In April, they were all placed under de facto house arrest pending trial and banned from using communication devices, or communicating with anyone except their lawyers and close relatives. A Moscow court later eased the preventive measures against them slightly, allowing them to leave their homes for two hours per day.
Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Poland highlight resumption of NK peace talks
20:36,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who is in New York to participate in the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, met with Foreign Minister of Poland Zbigniew Rau on September 22. The Ministers touched upon a number of issues on the bilateral and multilateral agenda, expressing mutual readiness to take practical steps to strengthen cooperation.
As ARMENPRESS was informed form the press service of the MFA Armenia, within the framework of the Armenia-EU Partnership, the Ministers discussed issues related to the implementation of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, as well as the deepening of the Eastern Partnership cooperation based on common values.
The parties exchanged views on cooperation in the forthcoming Polish OSCE Chairmanship. Minister Rau briefly presented the general priorities of the Polish chairmanship.
Referring to the issues of regional security and stability, Minister Mirzoyan presented the steps taken to eliminate the consequences of Azerbaijan's aggression against the people of Artsakh, particularly emphasizing the imperative of repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and civilians held in detention in Azerbaijan.
Minister Mirzoyan also drew his counterpart's attention to the preservation of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage of Artsakh and the involvement of relevant international organizations in that issue.
Both sides expressed confidence that it is necessary to resume the peace process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair’s format.
Friday, September 17, 2021
Kocharian Not Allowed To Visit Russia
September 17, 2021
• Naira Bulghadarian
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian holds a post-election news
conference in Yerevan, June 22, 2021.
An Armenian court has refused to allow Robert Kocharian, a former president
leading the main opposition Hayastan alliance, to visit Moscow at the invitation
of Russia’s ruling party.
Kocharian’s office revealed the invitation last week, saying that the leadership
of the United Russia party wants to deepen “partnership” with Hayastan,
Armenia’s second largest parliamentary force. The trip was due to start at the
end of Russian parliamentary elections slated for September 17-19.
Kocharian needs a court permission to leave Armenia because of standing trial on
corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated. Anna Danibekian,
the judge presiding over the trial, repeatedly allowed him to visit Moscow
earlier this year and last fall. She also cleared him of other, more serious
charges in April.
Hayastan said on Friday that Danibekian has refused to give such permission this
time around without any “legal reason.” “We are forced to cancel the visit,” the
opposition bloc said in a statement.
The statement charged that the judge made the decision under strong government
pressure. It said the move is aimed at “restricting Hayastan’s political
activities” and undermining Russian-Armenian relations.
RUSSIA - A truck drives past a campaign poster of the United Russia political
party ahead of the Russian parliamentary and regional election outside Ulan-Ude,
Buryatia republic, September 16, 2021.
Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, is thought to enjoy a warm rapport
with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latter has repeatedly made a point of
congratulating the ex-president on his birthday anniversaries and praising his
legacy ever since Armenian law-enforcement authorities first indicted him three
years ago.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has described Kocharian as a “big friend of
Russia” and said the two men “talk to each other quite often.” But he insisted
in March that the Kremlin is not supporting or guiding Kocharian’s political
activities in any way.
Kocharian’s bloc was the main opposition challenger of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian and his party in snap parliamentary elections held June. It finished
second in the polls.
Kocharian told senior members of the bloc to intensify its activities and public
outreach efforts at a meeting held on Tuesday. According to a Hayastan statement
on the meeting, they assured him that they remain committed to ousting the
“government wrecking Armenia and leading it to destruction.”
“Very soon you will also witness street actions,” Ishkhan Saghatelian, a senior
Hayastan figure, told reporters earlier on Friday. He did not go into details.
Asked whether this means the alliance is planning to hold anti-government
rallies, Saghatelian said: “We never gave up rallies in the first place.”
Armenian Opposition Lawmakers Spurn Holiday Bonuses
September 17, 2021
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Senor lawmakers from the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances
talk during a parliament session in Yerevan, August 24, 2021.
Opposition lawmakers said on Friday that they will not accept hefty holiday
bonuses allocated to all members and staffers of Armenia’s parliament by speaker
Alen Simonian.
Simonian decided to reward them on the occasion of the country’s Independence
Day that will be marked on September 21. The one-off payments will be equivalent
to 75 percent of the parliament deputies’ monthly wages, meaning that each of
them will get at least 380,000 drams ($770).
Both opposition alliances represented in the National Assembly criticized the
decision as profligate and unethical, saying that the Armenian authorities are
continuing to neglect the country’s socioeconomic problems aggravated by last
year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“At a time when the country has severe socioeconomic problems and more than
10,000 wounded and disabled persons, public officials, including National
Assembly deputies, are continuing to get bonuses,” said Ishkhan Saghatelian, a
deputy parliament speaker and senior member of the opposition Hayastan bloc.
“In line with our campaign platform and statements, we will not benefit from
these sums,” Saghatelian told reporters. “We will either return them to the
state budget or use them for implementing a [charity] project in of Armenia’s
border regions.”
The opposition Pativ Unem bloc likewise said that all of its seven
parliamentarians will donate their bonuses to victims of the Karabakh war and
their families. In a statement, it said accepting the money means “living a
normal life as if nothing happened” to Armenia and Karabakh.
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party attend a parliament
session,, September 13, 2021.
The parliamentary group of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party
did not officially react to the opposition criticism.
One of its members, Hovik Aghazarian, praised his opposition colleagues for
planning to use their bonuses for charitable purposes. But Aghazarian made clear
that he himself will take the extra cash.
Another pro-government parliamentarian, Heriknaz Tigranian, said there is
nothing wrong with accepting what she described as a “symbolic reward” worth
roughly twice the amount of the average monthly wage in Armenia.
Government officials said that all Armenian civil servants will receive
Independence Day bonuses.
Armenia’s previous parliament also controlled by Pashinian’s party faced similar
criticism earlier this year when it decided to add 250,000 drams to its
deputies’ monthly wages worth at least 473,000 drams. The extra sum was supposed
to cover their job expenses.
Armenia Takes Azerbaijan To International Court
September 17, 2021
• Anush Mkrtchian
NETHERLANDS -- People walk toward the International Court of Justice in the
Hague, August 27, 2018
Armenia has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hold Azerbaijan
responsible for what it called anti-Armenian “racial discrimination,” mass
killings and other grave human rights abuses committed during the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“For decades, Azerbaijan has subjected Armenians to racial discrimination, with
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev himself leading the way,” reads its lawsuit
announced by the Hague-based UN tribunal on late Thursday.
“As a result of this state-sponsored policy of Armenian hatred, Armenians have
been subjected to systemic discrimination, mass killings, torture and other
abuse,” it says, adding that they “once again came to the fore” during last
year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
It claims that Azerbaijan has continued to kill and torture Armenian prisoners
of war and civilian captives even after the six-week war was stopped by a
Russian-brokered ceasefire last November. Dozens of Armenians are believed to
remain in Azerbaijani captivity.
Yerevan wants the ICJ to find Baku guilty of violating several articles of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (CERD). It is also seeking urgent measures to “protect and
preserve Armenia’s rights and the rights of Armenians from further harm.”
Responding to the Armenian move, Azerbaijan said it is poised to file a similar
lawsuit against Armenia in the same court. The Foreign Ministry in Baku said it
has been “carefully documenting and compiling evidence of gross human rights
abuses” for that purpose.
“This includes Armenia’s targeting of Azerbaijanis for expulsion, torture,
murder and serious mistreatment,” it said in a statement reported by the AFP
news agency.
In comments cited by the Interfax news agency, the ministry spokeswoman, Leyla
Abdullayeva, accused Yerevan of hampering the return of Azerbaijani civilians to
districts around Karabakh retaken by the Azerbaijani army during and after the
hostilities. She said the Armenians are refusing to share with Baku all maps of
their landmines laid in those areas.
Ara Ghazarian, a Yerevan-based international law expert, welcomed the Armenian
government’s decision to take Baku to the UN court.
“For Armenia and its people, this lawsuit is a means for legal protection and
also deterrence against Azerbaijan,” Ghazarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on
Friday.
The ICJ was set up after World War II to rule on disputes between UN member
states. The court usually takes years to hand down rulings on cases brought by
them.
Armenian, Iranian Leaders Discuss Closer Ties Amid Transport Hurdles
September 17, 2021
Tajikistan - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) and Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian meet in Dushanbe, September 17, 2021.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
discussed on Friday ways of deepening bilateral commercial ties complicated by
an Azerbaijani checkpoint set up on the main highway connecting the two
neighboring states.
Raisi and Pashinian met on the sidelines of a Collective Security Treaty
Organization summit in Tajikistan as Azerbaijani officers stopped and demanded
hefty payments from Iranian trucks transporting goods to and from Armenia for
the sixth consecutive day.
More than a hundred such trucks were reportedly stranded on Thursday at a
21-kilometer section of the highway which the Armenian government
controversially ceded to Azerbaijan following last year’s war in
Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani authorities set up the checkpoint there on Sunday
after again accusing Iranian trucks of illegally shipping cargos to
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Armenian government’s press office said Pashinian and Raisi discussed, among
other things, ways of “organizing unfettered cargo shipments between the two
countries” as well as “processes taking place in the region.” It gave no details.
The official Iranian readout of the talks made no mention of the new obstacle to
Armenian-Iranian trade and wider transport links. It said Raisi “stressed the
need to increase the current level of economic relations between Iran and
Armenia.”
In that regard, the recently elected Iranian president was reported to say that
an Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation should
become “more active.” He proposed that Yerevan and Tehran set up joint
“specialized working groups” that would deal with “obstacles” to the
implementation of their joint economic projects.
According to the statement posted on the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website,
Pashinian pledged to “instruct relevant ministers” to remove those obstacles.
It was Pashinian’s second meeting with Raisi in less than two months. The two
men held their first face-to-face talks in early August when the Armenian
premier visited Tehran to attend Raisi’s swearing-in ceremony held in the
Iranian parliament.
During those talks Pashinian reaffirmed his government’s readiness to have
Iranian companies participate in its plans to refurbish Armenian highways
leading to the Islamic Republic. The two governments set up in May a working
group tasked with looking into practical aspects of such participation.
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.
09:43, 15 September, 2021
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. A Lt. Colonel of the Armenian Armed Forces who was serving as battalion chief of staff at a military base in Khtsaberd (Artsakh) where 62 Armenian servicemen were taken captive by the Azerbaijani military on December 13, 2020 has been placed into custody on charges of desertion, failure to obey the superior’s order, negligence, absence without official leave and bribery, the Investigative Committee said.
The Lt. Colonel was listed in the reserve at the time of the indictment being announced.
On September 14 a court approved pre-trial detention for the Lt. Colonel.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
16:04,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan received today Ambassador of Japan to Armenia Fukushima Masanori, the finance ministry told Armenpress.
The minister introduced the government’s five-year action plan to the Ambassador and thanked the Japanese government for the support provided to Armenia in different areas, in particular the healthcare sector.
The officials emphasized the need for developing the commercial and cultural cooperation and discussed all preconditions existing for that. They highlighted the importance of boosting the economic and cultural ties between the Armenian and Japanese peoples.
The Japanese Ambassador assured that he is ready to take respective actions to expand the bilateral relations in different directions and to contribute to their further development and strengthening.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan