Author: Lara Antonian

                                        Wednesday, 


Armenia Tests Passenger Flight To Syunik


Armenia - An L-410 aircraft operating a test flight successfully lands at Syunik 
Airport in Kapan, .


The first passenger flight in decades from the Armenian capital of Yerevan to 
the town of Kapan in the country’s southern Syunik province was operated on 
Wednesday, Armenia’s civil aviation authorities said.

The Civil Aviation Committee said an Armenia-registered L-410 passenger plane 
(made in the Czech Republic) successfully landed at Kapan’s Syunik Airport at 
10:58 am local time after a 48-minute flight from Yerevan’s International 
Zvartnots Airport.

The flight on the plane designed for 19 passengers took place in a test mode, it 
added.

“This is a truly historic flight – the first passenger flight to the Kapan 
airport since the 1990s, barring one private flight made in 2017,” the Civil 
Aviation Committee said.

The body did not say when regular commercial passenger flights between Yerevan 
and Kapan will become available.

Kapan’s Syunik Airport has been renovated in accordance with international 
standards and certified by the Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia in 2020.

Kapan is situated some 190 kilometers to the southeast of capital Yerevan not 
far from the border with Azerbaijan. The runway of its airport stretches along 
the border and at one point is situated less than a hundred meters from it.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for 
decades. Tensions along their restive border have persisted despite a 
Russia-brokered ceasefire that stopped a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani 
war in 2020.




Pashinian, Putin Discuss Situation In Nagorno-Karabakh


Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, December 27, 2022.


Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed the situation in 
Nagorno-Karabakh in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin reported 
by his office on Wednesday.

The phone call came three days after Azerbaijan installed a checkpoint at the 
entrance to the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia with 
Nagorno-Karabakh, thus tightening an effective blockade around the mostly 
Armenian-populated region where Russia deployed its peacekeepers after brokering 
a ceasefire in a 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

According to an official statement released by the Armenian prime minister’s 
office, issues “related to the Lachin corridor and the humanitarian situation in 
Nagorno-Karabakh” were discussed during the phone call.

The Kremlin also reported the phone call, saying that the two leaders discussed 
“the developments around Nagorno-Karabakh with an emphasis on solving practical 
tasks to ensure stability and security in the region.”

“In the context of the current tensions in the Lachin corridor, the importance 
of strict compliance with the entire range of fundamental agreements between the 
leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan was reaffirmed,” the Russian 
president’s office said, adding that the two leaders agreed that 
Russian-Armenian contacts would continue “at various levels.”

The phone call between Pashinian and Putin came amid reports about the 
replacement by Moscow of the commander of the Russian peacekeeping force in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to sources in Stepanakert, Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, who has 
served as an advisor to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, had already 
arrived in the region to replace Major-General Andrey Volkov as the commander of 
the peacekeeping contingent.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the appointment of Lentsov later on 
Wednesday.

Representatives of ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh do not 
conceal in their public remarks that they expect Russia to take more active 
steps in unblocking the road to relieve the humanitarian situation in the region 
that has already seen restricted supplies since December when a group of 
Azerbaijanis calling themselves environmental activists blocked the road at a 
junction not far from Stepanakert.

According to Stepanakert, Russian peacekeepers managed to bring some 
humanitarian goods to the region late on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 
three days of a complete blockade.

Yerevan and Stepanakert insist that the installation by Azerbaijan of a 
checkpoint on the Lachin corridor contradicts the terms of the Moscow-brokered 
ceasefire agreement that designates the five-kilometer-wide strip of land 
connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia as an area of Russian peacekeepers’ 
responsibility and control.

Official Moscow has also described “unilateral steps” in the Lachin corridor as 
“unacceptable.”

The United States and France, which along with Russia have spearheaded 
decades-long efforts to broker a solution to the protracted conflict over 
Nagorno-Karabakh, have voiced their concerns about the developments in the 
Lachin corridor, saying that an Azerbaijani checkpoint there undermines efforts 
to establish confidence and damages the peace process between Baku and Yerevan.

European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep 
Borrell also assessed Azerbaijan’s installation of a checkpoint in the Lachin 
corridor as an act “contrary to the EU’s call to reduce tensions.”

Incidentally, Prime Minister Pashinian on Wednesday also held a phone call with 
President of the European Council Charles Michel.

His office said that “the sides exchanged thoughts on the military-political and 
humanitarian situation in the region.”

Pashinian reportedly charged that Azerbaijan’s steps in the Lachin corridor are 
aimed “at the consistent implementation of its policy of ethnic cleansing in 
Nagorno-Karabakh and complete eviction of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.”

An official statement by the Armenian premier’s office said that “the sides also 
exchanged thoughts on the Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiation process” and 
“highlighted the importance of consistent efforts aimed at ensuring stability 
and peace in the region.”

Azerbaijan brushes aside accusations from the Armenian side, insisting that when 
installing the border checkpoint, it acted on its sovereign territory. Baku has 
also pledged that “necessary conditions” would be created for “a transparent and 
orderly passage of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of 
Azerbaijan” in both directions.




Karabakh Expects ‘Active Steps’ From Russia Over Azeri Checkpoint

        • Lusine Musayelian

Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov is said to have been appointed new commander 
of the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh (file photo).


De facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh expect Russia to take “active steps” in 
settling the latest tensions with Azerbaijan over its checkpoint in the Lachin 
corridor amid Moscow’s plans to replace the commander of its peacekeeping force 
deployed in the mostly Armenian-populated region.

Citing sources in the Russian Defense Ministry, media in Armenia and Russia 
suggested on April 25 that Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, an advisor to 
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, is a new replacement for Major-General Andrey 
Volkov, who had reportedly left his post in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto Foreign Minister Sergey Ghazarian did not deny the 
reports when he talked to Armenia’s public television on Tuesday evening.

The reported change is taking place amid increased tensions along the only road 
linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, known as the Lachin corridor, after 
Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint at its entrance on the border with Armenia.

The move tightened the already existing effective Azerbaijani blockade of the 
region where Russia deployed its peacekeepers after brokering a ceasefire to 
stop a deadly six-week Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November 2020.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s official would not speculate on whether the replacement of 
Volkov, who was appointed to the position just over a year ago, was due to the 
situation in the Lachin corridor, but instead laid out Stepanakert’s 
expectations from the Russian side.

“I still don’t know whether the new appointment is official or not, but the 
Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh - ed.] side expects active steps from the Russian 
side,” Ghazarian said.

He said that Stepanakert first of all wanted to find out what were the “red 
lines” of the Russian side in its relations with Baku.

So far, the Russian peacekeeping force has not given any official explanations 
as to why it did not prevent Azerbaijan from deploying military vehicles and 
construction machinery to close the Hakari river bridge, which is considered to 
be a zone of Russian peacekeepers’ control under the terms of the 2020 ceasefire.

“We see that the Azerbaijani side is pushing the so-called red lines [in its 
relations] with the Russian peacekeepers. At the same time, representatives of 
various circles on the Russian side say that their attention is focused on 
another direction [Ukraine], and the Azerbaijani side is taking advantage of it. 
Now we want to understand if there is any boundary to, let’s say, the Russian 
side’s patience in this regard,” Nagorno-Karabakh’s diplomat said.

Ghazarian stressed that ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh during the 
44-day war in 2020 returned to the region after seeing the deployment of Russian 
peacekeepers there. “But now they have found themselves in the status of a 
hostage,” he said.

If appointed, Colonel-General Lentsov, who served as deputy commander-in-chief 
of Russia’s Ground Forces until 2020 and has an experience of participating in 
Russia’s military operation in Syria, will become the fourth commander of the 
Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh appointed in the last two and a 
half years.

Samvel Babayan, a former Karabakh army commander, confirmed to RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service that Lentsov was already in the region. He said the 66-year-old general 
was expected to start negotiations over the Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin 
corridor later on Wednesday.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 

                                        Friday, 


U.S. Sanctions Armenia-Based Firm

        • Robert Zargarian

U.S. - A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the U.S. 
Treasury building in Washington, January 20, 2023.


The United States has added a Russian-owned firm registered in Armenia to its 
list of entities accused of helping Russia evade U.S. sanctions imposed since 
the invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) 
blacklisted on Wednesday more than 100 people and entities it said have violated 
U.S. export controls and helped Russia's war effort. The sanctions bar U.S. 
companies and individuals from any dealings with them and also freeze any assets 
the latter may hold in U.S. jurisdiction.

The newly blacklisted entities include, TAKO LLC, a little-known company 
registered in Armenia in May last year about three months after the outbreak of 
the war in Ukraine.

According to the Armenian state registry, TAKO is fully owned by a Russian 
national, Vadim Verkhovtsev, and specializes in wholesale trade in electronic 
and telecommunications equipment and parts. No other details of its operations 
are known.

TAKO’s registration address matches that of an office building in Yerevan. The 
building administration told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday that the 
company rented an office there until last fall.

The OFAC said that TAKO has cooperated with the Russian company Radioavtomatika 
regarded by it as a supplier of electronic items to Russia’s defense industry. 
The U.S. sanctioned Radioavtomatika last year.

TAKO is the first Armenia-based entity known to have been blacklisted by 
Washington in connection with the sweeping sanctions against Moscow. The 
development follows a series of meetings during which U.S. officials apparently 
pressed the Armenian government to comply with the sanctions.

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo discussed the issue with Armenia’s 
Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian in Washington on Tuesday. According to the 
U.S. Treasury Department, Adeyemo “highlighted the United States’ global efforts 
to prevent evasion of U.S. sanctions and export controls imposed on Russia.”

In a joint “compliance note” issued month, the U.S. departments of Justice, 
Treasury and Commerce said that third-party intermediaries have commonly used 
China, Armenia, Turkey and Uzbekistan as “transshipment points” to Russia as 
well as Belarus.

Russian-Armenian trade skyrocketed last year, with Armenian exports to Russia 
nearly tripling to $2.4 billion. Goods manufactured in third countries and 
re-exported from Armenia to Russia are believed to have accounted for most of 
that gain.




Russian, Armenian FMs Meet Again


Uzbekistan - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Armenian counterpart 
Ararat Mirzoyan meet in Samarkand, .


Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov 
discussed bilateral ties and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict when they met on 
Friday for the third time in just over a month.

The talks took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on the sidelines of a regular 
meeting of the top diplomats of ex-Soviet republics making up the Commonwealth 
of Independent States.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lavrov again called for “intensifying 
efforts on all tracks of the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization in accordance 
with the 2020-2022 agreements between the leaders of Russia, Armenia and 
Azerbaijan.”

Russia regards those agreements as a blueprint for settling the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute. It has repeatedly accused the West of seeking to 
hijack them and sideline Moscow.

Lavrov has been trying to host fresh talks between Mirzoyan and Azerbaijan’s 
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

Speaking in the Armenian parliament on Wednesday, Mirzoyan indicated that he 
will meet with Bayramov soon. But he did not specify the date or the format of 
the meeting. Bayramov did not travel to Samarkand for the CIS ministerial 
gathering.

The Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani ministers were scheduled to meet in Moscow 
last December. Yerevan cancelled the meeting in protest against Azerbaijan’s 
blockade of the Lachin corridor.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said Mirzoyan again raised the issue with Lavrov 
and “emphasized the need to lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat 
Mirzoyan meet in Moscow, March 20, 2023.

Armenian leaders have accused the Russian peacekeepers of doing little to 
restore traffic through the sole road connecting Armenia to Karabakh. Russian 
officials have strongly denied that.

Mirzoyan was also reported to brief Lavrov on Tuesday’s fighting on the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border which left at least seven soldiers from both sides 
dead. He described the deadly clash as “yet another manifestation of 
Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy.”

The two ministers held the fresh talks amid unprecedented friction between their 
countries. It stems in large measure from what Yerevan sees as Moscow’s 
reluctance to support its main regional in the protracted conflict with 
Azerbaijan.

The rift deepened further late last month after Armenia’s Constitutional Court 
gave the green light for parliamentary ratification of the International 
Criminal Court’s founding treaty. The ruling followed an arrest warrant issued 
by the ICC for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes allegedly 
committed by Russia in Ukraine.

Moscow warned on March 27 that recognition of The Hague tribunal’s jurisdiction 
would have “extremely negative” consequences for Russian-Armenian relations. The 
official readouts of Lavrov’s latest meeting with Mirzoyan made no mention of 
this issue.




Families Of Fallen Soldiers Again Protest In Yerevan

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia - Parents of soldiers killed in the 2020 Karabakh war protest outside 
the Investigative Committee building in Yerevan, .


Several dozen parents of Armenian soldiers killed during the 2020 
Nagorno-Karabakh war partly blocked a street in Yerevan for the second 
consecutive day on Friday to protest against authorities’ failure to prosecute 
police officers who used force against them.

The same protesters gathered at the main entrance to Yerevan’s Yerablur Military 
Pantheon last September to try to prevent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian from 
laying a wreath there on the occasion of Armenia’s Independence Day. They blame 
Pashinian for the deaths of their sons as well as at least 3,800 other Armenian 
soldiers killed in action.

Riot police violently dispersed the protesters shortly before senior officials 
led by Pashinian arrived at the military ceremony. At least 37 grief-stricken 
men and women were dragged away, forced into police vehicles and detained in 
dramatic scenes that caused uproar on social media.

Armenia - Police detain the mother of an Armenian soldier killed in the 2020 war 
in Nagorno-Karabakh at the Yerablur Military Pantheon, Yerevan, September 21, 
2022.

Armenia’s leading civic organizations strongly condemned the use of force and 
demanded the resignation of Vahe Ghazarian, the then chief of the national 
police. Ghazarian retained his post before being promoted and appointed by 
Pashinian as interior minister in January.

While defending the use of force, Ghazarian ordered an internal inquiry into his 
officers’ actions at Yerablur. None of them has been fired or subjected to 
disciplinary action.

Despite formally recognizing most of the detained parents as “victims” of 
violence, Armenia’s Investigative Committee has likewise not indicted any of the 
policemen in a separate, criminal investigation launched after the Yerablur 
crackdown.

The angry parents decried this fact and demanded official explanations when they 
rallied outside the law-enforcement agency’s headquarters on Thursday evening. 
They also partly blocked traffic through a street adjacent to the building.

The protest continued through the night and on Friday morning. Its participants 
also condemned Investigative Committee’s refusal to meet with them.

Armenia - Armenian flags fly at Yerablur Military Pantheon by the graves of 
soldiers killed during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, January 28, 2022.

“We have spent the night here,” said Gayane Hakobian, who lost her son Zhora 
Martirosian during the six-week war.

Hakobian said that riot police officers must be held accountable despite 
apologizing to her and other parents during a joint interrogation.

“We suffered more mental and moral injuries than physical ones,” she told 
journalists.

In a statement, the Investigative Committee rejected the protesters’ demands as 
“illegal” and defended its officials’ refusal to hold more face-to-face meetings 
with them. It claimed that some parents shouted insults and made other 
“emotional” statements when they were received by investigators last fall.

The protesters dismissed that explanation. As one of them put it, “They haven’t 
taken any investigative actions since our last meeting. They don’t come out [to 
meet the parents] simply because they have nothing to tell us.”


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.