Author: Liana Toganian

Armenian top diplomats resign

Liana Toganian
EurasiaNet.org
June 1 2021
Ani Mejlumyan Jun 1, 2021
Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan addresses diplomats at a farewell meeting on May 31 following his resignation. (photo: mfa.am)

Armenia’s foreign minister and other senior diplomats have resigned amid a festering dispute over how to resolve a border crisis with Azerbaijan.

Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan announced his resignation on May 27. Four days later, he said goodbye to MFA staff with a cryptic statement that alluded to his unwillingness to carry out “ideas or initiatives that go against our statehood and national interests.” The same day, his deputy Gagik Ghalachyan and spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan also announced that they were leaving.

Signs of a rift between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan had been apparent for several days. When news first broke on May 19 of a new deal in the works with Azerbaijan that would address an ongoing border crisis, among other issues, Ayvazyan was reported to be against the draft agreement.

Naghdalyan then issued a statement about the ongoing negotiations that presented a dramatically different vision of the process than Pashinyan had, suggesting that border negotiations would only take place after Armenia retook control of territory it lost during the war and a final political agreement between the two sides was reached, conditions that are unlikely to be reached soon, if ever.

On May 31, Pashinyan’s spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan told state news agency Armenpress that she expected Ayvazyan to elaborate on his reasons for resigning. “Our state and national interests oblige Mr. Ayvazyan to publicly explain who was going to take a step or make a decision that would contradict the state and national interests of our country,” she said. “We expect Mr. Ayvazyan to clarify [the statement] publicly."

The deputy minister and the spokesperson have not yet explained their resignations.

Ayvazyan assumed the post of foreign minister on November 18, 2020, days after Armenia’s catastrophic defeat in the war with Azerbaijan.

The immediate trigger for Ayvazyan’s resignation appeared to be Pashinyan’s surprise announcement that international observers, possibly from Russia or other co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (the United States and France), could deploy to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

"That proposal, announced at an afternoon meeting of the National Security Council on May 27, stunned the Foreign Minister, who was neither consulted nor informed in advance (the Armenian president and other officials were similarly excluded from the decision-making process in this case),” said Richard Giragosian, the head of the Yerevan think tank Regional Studies Center.

There were also deeper reasons for dissatisfaction at the MFA: "His [Pashinyan’s] impulsive and at times reckless micromanagement of foreign policy was a constant and consistent source for a failed and ineffective policy process,” Giragosian said.

“Pashinyan makes his ministers into scapegoats: He doesn’t allow them freedom of action, but when there is a failure all the blame is placed exactly on them,” added analyst Armen Baghdasaryan, in an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant.

The turmoil at the Foreign Ministry will only deepen the crisis in which Armenia finds itself, under continuing pressure from Azerbaijan and desperately seeking for international help. "The pressing challenge is not from the Foreign Minister's resignation but his replacement, especially given the paucity of qualified candidates and the poverty of policy-making in the Pashinyan government," Giragosian said.

With snap parliamentary elections less than three weeks away, Pashinyan on June 1 was traveling to Paris and then onward to Brussels. According to Armenpress, the agenda includes "possibilities for resolving the situation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, as well as issues related to the further settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict." 

 

Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.

Azerbaijani press: Armenian people will have to choose the lesser of two evils – analyst

Liana Toganian
2 June 2021 16:39 (UTC+04:00)
494

By Trend

Provocations carried out by the Armenian military on the border with Azerbaijan have a serious impact on the formation of pre-election public opinion in Armenia, Azerbaijani political scientist Jeyhun Ahmadli told Trend.

“The results of a recent sociological poll in Armenia showed that 32 percent of respondents consider security to be the most pressing issue. Only 13 percent of those polled spoke about the importance of economic stability, despite the fact that the results of polls two months ago were exactly the opposite,” Ahmadli said.

He noted that the sharp change in public opinion is only because of incidents at the border.

“Apparently, the shameful situation, which the Armenian servicemen who committed the provocation found themselves in, as well as the fact that Azerbaijan will not give up even an inch of its land during the delimitation of borders, will have an impact to acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's electoral rating. So the current situation is beneficial to ex-President Robert Kocharyan and can create conditions for him to get more votes in the upcoming elections," Ahmadli said.

"Generally, the course of events shows that following the election results, the blocs of Pashinyan and Kocharyan will share the first and second places. It is assumed that the bloc of Pashinyan will gain about 30 percent of the votes, but will not be able to stay in power. If it does not come to the second round of elections, then Pashinyan will be forced to share power with Kocharyan, that is, agree to a coalition government, because there is no other alternative political force,” Ahmadli said.

According to the political scientist, the results of opinion polls indicate that political polarization is increasing in the Armenian society.

“Pashinyan is at one pole, Kocharyan is at the other. In reality, the Pashinyan-Kocharyan coalition government will not be able to be stable and remain in power for a long time. Thus, if this happens, a serious crisis of power is inevitable in Armenia, therefore it is possible that the second round of elections will be held on the initiative of Pashinyan," said the analyst.

"Today the Armenian people will have to choose the lesser of two evils. Neither Pashinyan, who came to power with slogans about democracy and human rights, nor Kocharyan, who previously ruled Armenia with criminal methods, can promise salvation to the people, and the Armenians understand this. Therefore, in all polls, the majority of respondents in Armenia declare that they do not believe any of these political forces, or have not yet decided who they will vote for in the upcoming elections,” Ahmadli said.

Early parliamentary elections in Armenia are scheduled for June 20.

Armenia fighting against the Russian-Turkish pliers

Liana Toganian
June 3 2021
by GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Azerbaijan’s recent encroachments on the territorial integrity of Armenia, already leading to human casualty, the capture of six Armenian servicemen and the seizure of sovereign territories of Armenia, has been condemned by individual governments and various international organizations in recent days.

The main issue that needs to be clarified is: how Russia – the strategic ally of Armenia, as well as the Collective Security Treaty Organization, to which Armenia applied in expectation of receiving politico-military assistance – does not intervene to prevent aggression from Azerbaijan and resolve the conflict between the countries.

The answer to this lies in the context of Russia’s traditional policy in the Caucasus and other regions, which implies a simple mechanism.

In competition with the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Tsar always used the persecution of the Christians living in border areas – Armenians, Greeks, Georgians and other nations.

Sometimes tsars themselves artificially created these persecutions for the benefit of the Russian state.

As a result, the tsar got the right to intervene in the affairs of separate regions with the “messiah aureole” on his head and “free” the younger Christian brothers from the sword of the Ottoman sultan.

This mechanism was already staging an improved performance both within Russia and in the interjacent regions of interests with Turkey, such as the South Caucasus in 1918-1921.

Firstly, an agreement was struck with a power source in the Caucasus to carry out aggression against the target object. At the same time, Russia acted restrictively and destructively in various ways, including special services, against the target.

When the attack by the arranged side reached its peak, in the name of saving the persecuted object, Russia intervened and maintained its order in the zone of aggression conceding certain rights or internal territories of the persecuted object to the aforesaid prearranged side.

This way Russia was able to neutralize any units displaying certain subjectivity or performing under the auspices of other centres, as well as bringing its relations with Turkey into balance.

Russia applied the aforementioned mechanism more than once, especially in the Caucasus. But that mechanism has left the very Armenian nation with irreparable repercussions.

The Lenin-Ataturk deal of 1920, which in fact was the prelude to the “Molotov-Ribbentrop” pact, cost the Armenian nation the loss of a huge homeland and the sacred Mount Ararat.

The Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in 2020 was another example of the performance of that mechanism, resulting in the dismemberment of the unrecognized (by other countries) but independent Artsakh, and creating a Russian-Turkish monitoring center on its border to control the movement of Armenian troops.

Today the aforementioned mechanism has found application against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia too.

The only innovation in this mechanism is that the Kremlin has “tied the hands” of the Armenian Army by the tripartite (leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia) ceasefire statement of 2020 November 9, according to which Russia is the guarantor of the ceasefire with the right to punishment in ceasefire violation cases.

It is already evident that Russia is ignoring the actions of the Azerbaijani military troops in the territory of Armenia, thus exposing the existence of their agreements with Baku.

By the way, Azerbaijani military forces follow a well-designed strategy of avoiding the use of combat weapons.

The Azerbaijani tactics are the following: they infiltrate the unguarded or poorly guarded, not-delimited and the not-demarcated line stretching for hundreds of kilometres and use the mountain trails to reach a strategic height and put down roots there. The military authorities of the Armenian Army have announced a number of times that the political leadership of Armenia does not allow the use of military force against such bases.

That is because the Kremlin has promised to assess such a step as a violation of the November 9 ceasefire document by Armenia and a legitimate “casus belli” for Azerbaijan to declare war.

Thus, Armenia has found itself in the trap laid by the traditional Russian policy and is forced to apply to the Kremlin for help to solve the problem of making Azerbaijan leave the sovereign territories of Armenia, but a certain price made be paid to Russia.

Today, the price Moscow wants is the control of communications passing through the Armenian region Syunik.

It is important to underline that if the communications remain under Armenian control, Syunik preserves its role as the wedge dividing the Turkish world into two parts, from Altai to the Balkans, and also the wedge separating Russia from Turkey.

The traditional  Russian policy of “messiah” that is being applied in Armenia these days is aimed at establishing a new role for Syunik – to bring that wedge dividing the Turkish world into the Kremlin’s control, positioning border control points of Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (PS FSB Rossii) on the 40 km length Meghri corridor, as well as eventually removing the question of the wedge between Russia and Turkey from the political agenda.

The RA government has already provided the territories for PS FSB points by the Government decision on  May 27, 2021.

However, the Armenian nation hopes to find a way out of these consecutive Russian-Turkish pliers as despite imposing Russian and Turkish agreements on Armenia, despite keeping Armenian political parties and government under external control, there are many non-partisan layers of society and political units ready and currently fighting for Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Armenian nation will get out of this ordeal, too, with or without the help of the West, but the Armenian nation never forgets its friends.

Saro Saroyan is a political scientist with 20+ years of experience in the public and private sectors. He is a member of the Armenian Network State movement.

Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan hold trilateral consultations on de-escalation of border crisis

Liana Toganian
JAM News
June 4 2021
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    JAMnews, Baku-Yerevan

Trilateral talks on the de-escalation of the conflict at the Armenia–Azerbaijani border were held in Moscow on June 2, Russian Novosti news agency reports. The only thing known about the results of the meeting so far is that the parties agreed to further negotiations.

The Armenian media also covered the meeting of representatives of the three countries in Moscow. The Hraparak newspaper, in particular, reported that during the negotiations the latest events on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from the territory of Armenia would be considered.

The Armed Forces of Azerbaijan crossed the border of Armenia on May 12 and advanced several kilometers deep into the country’s territory towards the regions of Gegharkunik and Syunik. Azerbaijan refuses to withdraw its troops despite Armenia’s repeated demands.

Reports of the trilateral meetings in Moscow appeared the next day after the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan announced the suspension of the activities of the Yerevan-Baku-Moscow working group chaired by the vice prime ministers of the three countries. The group was created on January 11, 2021 in Moscow to fulfill the clauses of the statement on the cessation of hostilities in Karabakh, signed by the heads of the three states.

The main function of the group was the implement the unblocking of economic and transport communications in the region.

Mher Grigoryan stated that the communication with the Azerbaijani side was interrupted after six Armenian soldiers were captured on the territory of their own country on May 27.

The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has reported that a “reconnaissance and sabotage group of the armed forces of Armenia” attempted to advance its positions in the direction of the settlement of Yukhari Ayrim of the Kelbajar region.

The Armenian Defense Ministry denied this claim and stated that the servicemen were captured “while carrying out engineering work in the border zone of Gegharkunik region”.

Mher Grigoryan said that given the current situation on the border, Yerevan considers it impossible to communicate constructively in the format of a trilateral working group. At the same time, he stressed that before the capture of the Armenian military, the group nevertheless carried out its work.

Political scientist Sergei Melkonyan explained the logic behind the latest actions of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan:

“For Russia, it is of fundamental importance to have all parties comply with the clauses of the statement signed in November last year [on the cessation of hostilities in Karabakh]. This way it will both be able to preserve a fragile peace near its borders and to show the whole world that this region it within its zone of influence and responsibility, and Moscow is able to establish peace there. That is why the red line for both sides [Armenia and Azerbaijan] is the opening of fire. […]

Another important element of Russian policy in the region is the preservation of its influence over Armenia and Azerbaijan (as both Baku and Yerevan are currently moving away from it). From Moscow’s point of view, this will allow both to maintain Russia’s military presence in Artsakh and balance the Turkish influence in Azerbaijan. The rest of the components are not as important for Russia.

Speaking about Armenia, it is necessary to consider precisely the logic of Pashinyan’s actions, since they traditionally diverge from the interests of the state. The de facto prime minister proceeds from the following considerations.

First, he is not convinced that in the event of an escalation, the armed forces are ready to ensure the security of the country. These fears are mainly due to lack of response to the presence of Azerbaijani forces in the territory of Armenia for more than two weeks.

Secondly, Pashinyan has traditionally been a supporter of cooperation with neighbors through unilateral concessions. Therefore, it makes no sense to doubt his intentions to open a corridor [through the territory of Armenia, in particular, to connect Azerbaijan with its exclave Nakhichevan] and fulfill other non-public agreements (surrender of “enclaves”, etc.).

Thirdly, due to serious society pressure on the issues of “corridor” and “enclaves”, Pashinyan can no longer present concessions as a victory.

He is now in a stalemate: on one hand, he promised to fulfill the agreements [to Moscow and Baku], but on the other, by going through with his promises he will surely lose in the upcoming elections scheduled for June 20.

In the case of Azerbaijan, everything is more or less clear: to achieve as much as possible while Pashinyan is still in power in such a way that cannot be reversed in case of a change of leadership in Armenia there is no way back.

[…] Having received more territorial and other concessions from Pashinyan, Aliyev will be able to compensate for the impossibility of establishing control over Artsakh.

In conclusion, I would like to add one important point. It is important for Aliyev to partially balance the Turkish influence, which has increased significantly after the war. This explains the curtsey towards Moscow, as this is the area where their interests converge”.

Political scientist Shahin Jafarli also commented on the meeting of representatives of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in Moscow:

“According to the information that I have, in Moscow the parties discussed only the situation on the state border of Azerbaijan and Armenia. I also know that the meeting was attended by the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh, Rustam Muradov”, Jafarli said.

In his opinion, Muradov’s participation in the discussions speaks of the desire of Russia’s desire to better understand the essence of the problem and resolve it.

“Russia is trying to resolve the border conflict under its own auspices. We are talking about the creation of a new trilateral commission, which will deal exclusively with the problem of establishing the state border between the two countries.

“The Azerbaijani side agrees with this condition and is ready to start discussions in a trilateral format. But the Armenian side has a precondition – they want to have all their citizens held captive in Azerbaijan return back home. Armenia refers to them as “prisoners of war”, and Azerbaijan considers them to be saboteurs. And here we are talking not only about those who were detained in December last year but also about those six servicemen who were detained the other day while mining a road on the territory of Azerbaijan”, the political scientist said.

“Today, according to the disseminated information, Rustam Muradov must visit Yerevan to meet with the leadership of this country. I think the details of the proposals voiced the day before in Moscow will be discussed there”, Jafarli added.

When asked whether the ongoing situation will result in the deployment of Russian peacekeepers also on the border of the two countries the political scientist replied:

“Russia has no problems with the Armenian side of the border. Russia has experience in protecting the borders of Armenia. As for the Azerbaijani side, I do not think that the leadership of our country will agree to such a thing”.

78,004 more passengers leave Armenia by air in first 5 months of 2021 than arrive

Liana Toganian
News.am, Armenia
June 6 2021
16:24, 06.06.2021

In the first 5 months of 2021, the number of passengers arriving in Armenia by air was 246,727 people.

And 324,731 passengers departed from the country during the same period.

Thus, in the first 5 months of 2021, the number of passengers departing Armenia by air is 78,004 more than the number of those who have arrived in the country.

Turkey’s Erdogan expresses willingness to support Georgia-Azerbaijan-Armenia trilateral cooperation

Liana Toganian
News.am, Armenia
June 1 2021
Turkey's Erdogan expresses willingness to support Georgia-Azerbaijan-Armenia trilateral cooperation
23:17, 01.06.2021

Turkey views Georgia as a key to regional cooperation and is willing to support any trilateral format, including the Georgia-Azerbaijan-Armenia format. This is what President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a press conference following talks with Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili, TASS reports.

“We believe we can implement various activities that will help strengthen and increase the importance and peace in our region. Within the scope of the mentioned activities, the trilateral cooperation with Azerbaijan is very important. Turkey supports any trilateral cooperation, be it Georgia-Azerbaijan-Armenia or Georgia-Azerbaijan-Turkey,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan also declared that a decision has been made to set up a supreme strategy council with Georgia as soon as possible.

In his turn, the Georgian Prime Minister expressed hope that Turkey and Georgia will be able to carry out more joint projects and deepen their cooperation and invited Erdogan to Tbilisi.

Armenian, Russian Defense Ministers reach agreement on steps for solving border situation

Liana Toganian

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 18:12,

YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Defense Minister of Armenia Vagharshak Harutyunyan met in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu on May 28.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Armenia, during the meeting the sides discussed the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno Karabakh, the situation in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces of Armenia, as well as the Armenian-Russian strategic cooperation and issues referring to the regional security.

The Armenian caretaker Defense Minister presented to his Russian colleague details about the infiltration of Azerbaijani servicemen into the Armenian territory and the actions taken by the Armenian Armed Forces.

Vagharshak Harutyunyan emphasized that the Azerbaijani provocations carried out under false pretext of ‘’border clarifications’’ are extremely inadmissible and the Azerbaijani units must immediately withdraw from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

The sides observed the possible options for solving the situation and reached an agreement on steps necessary for that.

Ucom Digital Lab students keep on getting high-quality technical education

Liana Toganian

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 15:39,

YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS. It’s been about three years since Ucom company opened the doors of Ucom Digital Lab at Ayb School. Designed for the students from 1st to 9th grade, the project allows to learn the computer basics, while the middle school students get an opportunity to study artificial intelligence techniques, master programming and combine computer science and art.

“As an innovative company, we have always worked to create proper conditions and opportunities for the students of all Armenian schools to get high-quality modern education. Today, we clearly see the success of Ucom Digital Lab, which is the result of the activity carried out during the past several years,” said Ara Khachatryan, Director General at Ucom.

“Thanks to Ucom company, Ayb School got an opportunity to teach informatics in a room furnished with high-speed computers. In addition to standard programs (MS Word, MS Excel, Power Point), our students can come up with creative projects with the help of Paint, Scratch, Typing or similar programs, as well as study HTML, _javascript_ and other advanced technologies,” Ayb Primary School Director Sylvia Najarian added.

Ucom Lab also implements project-based learning, where the ‘informatics’ subject is integrated into other subjects, as result of which new educational materials are created to be passed over for the generations to come.

“The fact that the Ucom Lab serves not only as a computer room but also as a place where each subject teacher can make their lesson much more effective is exciting and inspiring,” Mrs. Najarian said.

The aim of the project is to ensure professional growth, test alternative education tools, promote new ideas and interesting communication formats. The project is educational and non-commercial.

Azerbaijani press: Serious escalation in Karabakh not excluded during upcoming election in Armenia – expert

Liana Toganian
10:47 (UTC+04:00)
582

By Trend

The parliamentary election in Armenia will be held (on June 20, 2021) in a very tense atmosphere, and a serious escalation isn’t excluded, political expert, chairman of the National Congress of Azerbaijanis of Georgia Ali Babayev told Trend.

"Armenia is facing a heavy crisis, and the parliamentary election can also contribute to escalating the situation. Now in the country there are a number of groups that seek to destabilize the situation, want to terminate the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020 on Karabakh," Babayev said.

According to him, there is a strong diaspora in Armenia, which constantly interferes with the internal political situation in the country.

"Pashinyan wanted to get rid of this syndrome. He saw that Azerbaijan is no longer the state it was in the early 90s. Today Azerbaijan is one of the powerful military powers, and it firmly stands in its positions," he added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Following over a month of military action to liberate its territories from Armenian occupation from late Sept. to early Nov. 2020, Azerbaijan has pushed Armenia to sign the surrender document. A joint statement on the matter was made by the Azerbaijani president, Armenia's PM, and the president of Russia.

A complete ceasefire and a cessation of all hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were introduced on Nov. 10, 2020.

Georgian Ministry of the Interior launches investigation into clashes between ethnic Azerbaijanis and Georgians in Dmanisi

Liana Toganian
Panorama, Armenia

The Ministry of the Interior  of Georgia issued on Monday a statement regarding the fighting that erupted on Sunday between local ethnic Georgians and ethnic Azerbaijanis in Dmanisi town. As Jam News reported, additional police forces have been called up in the city as the situation remains tense

“At this stage, the investigative measures carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs established that local residents in Dmanisi clashed with each other on domestic grounds, and the clashes later escalated into group violence,” the ministry said. The statement also says that the police have already identified the persons involved in the clashes.

The Interior Ministry says that police officers have been mobilized in the region to maintain public order and “in order to prevent a recurrence of the conflict and an artificial escalation of the situation”.

As the source reminded, the conflict between ethnic Azerbaijanis and eco-migrant settlers from the Svaneti region began with a dispute at one of the shops and escalated into a violent brawl between the two groups.

The footage of the fighting captured by surveillance cameras, was shared on media and online on May 16. The footage shows young people beating each other with sticks. The conflict continued the next day. The Palitranews agency reported that several people were injured as a result of another brawl, including one policeman, and paramedics were called to the scene.