Author: Vanyan Gary

A bill to recognize the driver’s license of Armenian citizens in Russia submitted to the State Duma

Vanyan Gary

A bill to recognize the driver's license of Armenian citizens in Russia submitted to the State Duma

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 19:30, 4 April, 2022

YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS. The Russian government has submitted a bill to the State Duma, which is about the recognition of national driving licenses of Armenian citizens in Russia during business activities, ARMENPRESS reports TASS agency informs that the document was published in the electronic database of the Duma.

"The amendments envisage recognition of national driving licenses of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia while carrying out business and employment activities in the territory of the Russian Federation," the bill says,

At present, such a procedure applies to citizens of Kyrgyzstan, citizens of countries whose legislation defines Russian as the official language.

Parliament Speaker invites Kazakhstan’s Senate President to pay official visit to Armenia

Vanyan Gary

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 13:04, 28 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan is in the city of Almaty of Kazakhstan on a two-day visit from March 28 to take part in the meeting dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliament’s press service said.

Speaker Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Senate (upper house) of the Parliament of Kazakhstan Maulen Ashimbayev within the framework of the visit.

After the mutual greetings the Armenian Speaker of Parliament thanked his Kazakh counterpart for the hospitality and congratulated him on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries. The heads of parliaments have documented that the Armenian-Kazakh ties are directed to the mutually beneficial and perspective cooperation in the spheres of politics, economy and culture. Alen Simonyan noted that Armenia and Kazakhstan persistently develop the political cooperation, activate the inter-state contacts for reaching the bilateral relational to a qualitatively new level.

The Speaker of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan highlighted with gratitude the role of Armenia as a chairing state in the CSTO in operatively responding in the military clashes happened in Kazakhstan in January and showing joint support with the allies.

During the meeting the provocative actions of the Azerbaijani forces in Artsakh and the facts of invading the sovereign area of Armenia were discussed. Alen Simonyan underlined that once again Azerbaijan violated the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement, because of which there are victims and wounded. Alen Simonyan characterized the situation of the region as a deep humanitarian crisis, expressing hope that Kazakhstan, as an ally would have an impact on Azerbaijan.

The sides highlighted the active cooperation of the legislative bodies in the relations of the two states through the Parliamentary Friendship Groups. At the meeting the problems of more than 15.000 Armenians residing in Kazakhstan were touched upon. The Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan has assured that the Armenians living in Kazakhstan are completely involved in the social-cultural, economic and educational spheres, and the Armenian community is considered to be exemplary.

At the end of the meeting, the Armenian Speaker of Parliament invited his Kazakh counterpart to pay an official visit to Armenia: the invitation was gladly accepted.

With Russia tied down in Ukraine, other frozen conflicts are thawing

Vanyan Gary
March 31 2022

From the Caucasus to the western Pacific, Russia’s opponents are eyeing their chances of redressing the balance of power.

By Gabriel Gavin

Soldiers of the Russian peacekeeping force and Azerbaijani army guard a checkpoint in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. Last weekend Azerbaijani forces were accused of advancing into the province's demilitarised zone. Photo by Karen Minasyan/AFP via Getty Images

However, that peace is looking increasingly fragile. Just across the border lies the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, formally inside Azerbaijan but held by Armenian separatists since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and run as a de facto part of Armenia. Two years ago, a brief but bloody conflict broke out, with Azerbaijan’s forces capturing swathes of territory in the breakaway province and evicting the ethnic Armenians who had lived there. Now, despite a Moscow-brokered ceasefire, there are fears the fighting could start up again.

“Honestly, it was hell,” Tigran, a 32-year-old handyman from Yerevan said of his time on the front lines during the 2020 war. “But if I need to go back, I’ll go back. To defend my wife, my kids, my mum – my country.” He proudly carries his military service card with him everywhere and takes out his phone to show me pictures of him and his friends in army fatigues. “He’s dead now,” Tigran added, pointing to one. More than 4,000 Armenian troops lost their lives defending Nagorno-Karabakh, with Azerbaijan deploying fearsome attack drones provided by its long-standing ally, Turkey.

Last weekend, one of those drones carried out a strike on an Armenian position, killing three servicemen and injuring several others. At the same time, Azerbaijani soldiers were accused of having rolled past Russian outposts to take a village in the demilitarised zone, sparking evacuations and fears that a return to full-scale hostilities could be on the cards. Yerevan has accused Moscow of doing nothing to stop the incursion, with the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan calling the Kremlin to “stress the need for Russian peacekeepers to return the Azerbaijanis to their starting positions”.

[See also: How will the war in Ukraine end?]

Baku denies it is launching a new effort to retake the region, but insists it has the right to position its forces wherever it chooses “within its internationally recognised borders”, while top politicians call for action against “separatist terrorists”. Azerbaijani officials say no country would accept foreign forces on its sovereign soil, and that they have a right to defend their territory.

The timing could not be worse for the Russian president Vladimir Putin, already bogged down in his catastrophic invasion of Ukraine and now being forced to decide whether to commit personnel and equipment to maintain the status quo in the Caucasus. Kyiv has even welcomed the distraction, with the secretary of its security council, Oleksiy Danilov, saying that “things seem to really be escalating in Nagorno-Karabakh… if second fronts open up for the Russian Federation, as a result of the decisions it has made throughout its short history, these will have a measurable effect in helping us.”

In theory, Moscow is obliged to protect Armenia, as a member of its Collective Security Treaty Organisation defence pact. But with the reputation of its armed forces shattered as a result of its botched offensive in Ukraine, it is looking like a less reliable partner with each passing day. Gegham Stepanyan, the human rights ombudsman for the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh – as Armenians refer to Nagorno-Karabakh – told the New Statesman that “a peacekeeping mission based only on Russia’s political influence is vulnerable”. According to him, “the Azerbaijani side is trying to question the reputation of the Russian peacekeepers and their mission.”

Putin’s woes, however, present an opportunity for another regional power looking to assert itself. The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has presented himself as a mediator between Moscow and Kyiv, with a series of peace talks being held in Istanbul and Antalya. However, simultaneously, he has openly provided Ukraine with the same advanced Bayraktar attack drones that Azerbaijan has used in Nagorno-Karabakh, helping them to take out vast numbers of Russian tanks and troop transports. Across eastern Europe and the Caucasus, Erdoğan is unpicking the webs of Russian influence that have held fast for more than a century and is moving in to fill the gaps.

The threat of war now looms large in Armenia, a country where almost everyone knows a soldier who lost their life in Nagorno-Karabakh or a family displaced by the fighting. For the Kremlin, though, this could just be the start of a series of problems on its doorstep, with once-frozen conflicts beginning to thaw as a result of Russia’s army having spread itself so thin over Ukraine.

In nearby Georgia, a series of videos have been shared widely online calling for an assault on Abkhazia, a region of the country occupied by Moscow-backed rebels since the country's war with Russia in 2008. Hundreds of Georgian fighters are believed to have gone to fight in Ukraine against Russia and, in one clip, armed volunteers near the front lines told those back home: “we urge you to take up arms and strike at the enemy. We will never have such a chance again.”

On the other side of the globe, just a week after the invasion began, Japan doubled down on its claims to the Kuril Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The archipelago has been governed from Moscow after it was captured by the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War, despite Tokyo’s claims to sovereignty. With Moscow increasingly isolated on the world stage, the Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi sought to secure support for reopening the row, saying Russia’s control of the islands contradicted “international order”.

Putin’s miscalculation might have begun in Ukraine but, with foes from the Zangezur Mountains to East Asia smelling weakness and desperation, it is unlikely to end there.

PM Pashinyan’s advisor, Iranian Minister of Energy attach importance to organizing President Raisi’s visit to Armenia

Vanyan Gary

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 14:51, 31 March, 2022

TEHRAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. During a visit to Iran, the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s advisor Artashes Tumanyan held several meetings with a number of Iranian government officials from May 27 to 30.

Tumanyan held meetings with Iranian Minister of Energy Ali Akbar Mehrabian, Minister of Petroleum Javad Owji and Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari.

During the meeting with the Minister of Energy the opportunities of implementing joint projects and the efficient use of investment potential was discussed. Tumanyan and Ali Akbar Mehrabian attached importance to organizing Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Armenia.

A number of issues relating to long-term bilateral and regional cooperation in gas and energy sector was discussed at the meeting with the Minister of Petroleum.

Valerie Boyer calls on France, EU and UNESCO to protect the Armenian population and heritage in Artsakh

Vanyan Gary
Public Radio of Armenia
April 1 2022
April 1, 2022, 20:08

 

French Senator Valerie Boyer has called on the French government, the European Union and UNESCO intervene to protect the population of Artsakh and the Armenian heritage.

“I was received several months ago by Father Hovhannes at the Monastery of Dadivank. I wanted to meet him again in the Senate,” Mrs. Boyer said in a Twitter post.

“Accompanied by Monsignor Kamo Abrahamyan, they again wanted to alert me about the Azerbaijani threat,” the Senator added.

“While the international community is fully focused on the war in Ukraine, I again call on the Government, the European Union and UNESCO to intervene to protect the population and the Armenian heritage,” she said.

Book: Midlands Voices: Omaha, the Armenians and today

Vanyan Gary
Omaha World Herald
Nebraska,

  • David P. Forsythe

he Omaha Daily Bee, on April 23, 1909, reported on the front page Muslim massacres of Christian Armenians in the Adana province of Turkey, also known then as the Ottoman Empire.

The article in the local paper ran opposite an article on the price of wheat. These massacres, more than a riot but less than a full genocide, are mostly unknown in the U.S. today. They are recalled in a detailed new book by University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Bedross Der Matossian, titled “The Horrors of Adana: Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century” and was just published by Stanford University Press.

History for the sake of history is important. One can learn that the Adana massacres were preceded by other Turkish violence against the Armenians especially in 1895-96. Adana was followed by a real Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks (and Kurds) centered on 1915 during World War I. Historians debate the connections among the three episodes. Der Matossian does not see tight linkage; some others do. I am not a historian, although I read a lot of it, and I primarily want to know if Adana offers lessons for today.For Der Matossian, the fall of the Sultan in 1908 and the coming to power in Istanbul of the “Young Turk” government opened society for more freedom. But this freedom allowed deep tensions to surface. Instead of social media and fake news, there were rumors of an Armenian uprising. The old guard Muslims, fearing for their status, and in the wake of a failed counter coup against the Young Turks, exploded in fury against the local Armenians in the region of Adana who were doing well locally in the cotton trade. Perhaps 20,000 Armenians were killed as compared to about 2,000 Muslims.

Events were widely reported, but the outside powers with gun boats off the coast in the Mediterranean did not intervene. They feared rivalries among themselves, getting stuck in a broader involvement and maybe even a restoration of the repressive Sultanate. Better to leave the Young Turks in charge of things. They and others did provide humanitarian assistance after the fact.

Lesson No. 1: Freedom without consensus and compromise is dangerous. Especially dangerous is an old guard that fears further loss of status and privilege, especially in the context of conspiracy theories or more simply ill-founded rumors. Violence is likely when some “other” is seen as pernicious, even treasonous. In 1909 in Adana, the Muslim notables and Imams belonging to the ancien régime saw the Armenians, exercising their new freedoms to organize and advocate, as meriting a violent comeuppance. The result was widespread death and destruction.

In the U.S. today, White supremacist militias are a reality. The Department of Homeland Security has said they constitute the most important terrorist threat facing the U.S. They tried to take over the Jan. 6, 2021, events leading to mob violence at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. They see particularly the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, if not all that party, as dangerous to the American Republic, not at all a legitimate and loyal opposition party, and hence to be opposed with force. To put it mildly, this situation is dangerous.

Public opinion polls show a deeply divided country, with the moderate center having withered away. The Republican Party has moved very far right. Some of its leaders said nice things about neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, during disturbances in 2017. Some propagate the myth about a stolen election, undermining a core democratic value. The Democratic Party has become slightly more left. Some of its leaders talk of defunding the police.

This deepening divide requires urgent attention. American stability, even genuine democracy, is very much at risk. Mitt Romney has had the courage to speak out about the fragility of democracy. We need more like him to address deep fissures in the U.S. with a declining consensus. All independent indices show declining democracy, aka political freedom, in America.

Lesson No. 2: Even widely reported atrocities, such as mass murder, do not necessarily result in humanitarian intervention to protect civilians. The Adana massacres of 1909, although forgotten in the American heartland as elsewhere, were widely covered at the time by newspapers in Turkey, the Arab world, Europe and North America — including Omaha. But ruling elites in outside nations processed the news according to their national interests as defined at the time. The U.S. government back then did not see any reason to get involved, although the American Red Cross provided some humanitarian assistance.

Today, terrible atrocities in places like Myanmar (formerly Burma), Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere do not lead to decisive action to stop the killing of civilians and other mass atrocities. Even before Ukraine took all air out of the global humanitarian response system in 2022, powerful outside states avoided deep involvement in most nasty violent conflicts. They were wary of quagmires and forever wars and more big expenditures.

Race and religion also played a role, witness European willingness to accept millions of Ukrainian refugees whereas these same European states — especially Hungary and Poland — had been much less welcoming to Syrian refugees. Syrian refugees too had been victimized by merciless Russian bombing and even use of chemical weapons.

The global humanitarian response system is much better organized than in 1909, both through the United Nations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and others like Doctors Without Borders. We read of the commendable actions of the UN High Commissioner of Refugees and UNESCO for example.

As I write, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross is in Ukraine trying to limit the violence. Arranging humanitarian corridors has its value: better to have refugee flows than mass murder. But state calculations of national interest still dominate, often to the detriment of civilian victims. That has not much changed since 1909. Even a real Armenian genocide later did not provoke outside intervention, although by 1915, World War I complicated matters enormously.

Professor Der Matossian, an Armenian born in Jerusalem, came to UNL in 2010. He knows the Middle East well. He has written a carefully researched account of Adana in 1909, relying on numerous sources in multiple languages. Historians will find it useful for many reasons.

The rest of us benefit from thinking about what the events of 1909 might tell us about our world of today. As often said, history does not exactly repeat itself. But sometimes it seems to come close.

David P. Forsythe is UNL professor emeritus of political science, specializing in international human rights and humanitarian affairs.

https://omaha.com/opinion/columnists/midlands-voices-omaha-the-armenians-and-today/article_5cbb5998-abb1-11ec-bebc-476991d3107f.html

Azerbaijan’s policy is to divert us from peace agenda, Armenian PM says

Vanyan Gary

 

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 11:40, 24 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. The policy adopted by Armenia on opening an era of peaceful development for the region has no alternative, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the Cabinet meeting today, stating that although many react to the current gas problem in Artsakh by reminding and criticizing the policy of opening a peaceful development era for the country and the region. 

“Quite the contrary, with its actions, numerous provocations Azerbaijan is trying to divert us from our agenda of peace, to deligitimize that agenda in order to implement its policy of provoking new escalations, new wars in the region. But we must not give in to these and such kind of provocations. I have stated that for implementing the peace agenda we need firm nerves and we must not deviate from our declared strategy in any way. Strategy is a strategy that should guide us in all situations”, the PM said.

He reminded that after the first explosion of the gas pipeline, on March 10, a 5-point proposal on the settlement of the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan was handed over to Armenia. 

“We have responded to these proposals in writing very quickly, on March 14, and have applied to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, requesting to assist in organizing the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And on March 21, 2022, the Foreign Minister of Armenia voiced Armenia’s overall assessment to the proposals presented by Azerbaijan, and that assessment is the following:

“There is nothing unacceptable for us in the proposals submitted by Azerbaijan. It’s another thing that these proposals do not address all issues on he Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda. With our response, submitted to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, we have amended that agenda and thus, we are ready for the launch of peace talks on this base”.

On the day this position was announced, in the evening, Azerbaijan closes the pipeline supplying gas to Artsakh. Pay attention please, Armenia announces that the proposals presented by Azerbaijan are acceptable for Armenia, but Azerbaijan closes the gas pipeline, and this is the greatest proof that Azerbaijan’s policy is to divert us from the peace agenda”, Pashinyan said.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 03/24/2022

Vanyan Gary 
                                        Thursday, 


Moscow Calls For Restored Gas Supplies To Nagorno-Karabakh


Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (file photo).


Russia has called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to resolve the issue of natural gas 
supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh as soon as possible “to avoid further aggravation 
of the difficult humanitarian situation in the region.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a weekly news 
briefing on Thursday that Moscow has been in contacts with both sides on the 
matter.

“Corresponding work is being carried out through our country’s Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Energy, as well as Gazprom. We 
proceed from the understanding that one should not aggravate what is already a 
difficult humanitarian situation, and ordinary people should not suffer,” 
Zakharova said, as quoted by Russia’s Tass news agency.

On Tuesday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry accused Azerbaijan of cutting off gas 
supply to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia on territory controlled by its military.

As a result of the second disruption of gas supply to Stepanakert and other 
towns in Nagorno-Karabakh within a space of two weeks ethnic Armenians in the 
region face difficulties in heating their homes in still freezing temperatures 
as well as in running their businesses, including bakeries.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming 
its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a 
separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians’ 
making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.

The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 as a result of which 
Azerbaijani forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven 
adjacent districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994.

Some 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the ceasefire 
following a Moscow-brokered truce.



Azerbaijan Accused Of Violating Line Of Contact In Nagorno-Karabakh

        • Artak Khulian

A Russian peacekeeper patrols at the check point outside Askeran in 
Nagorno-Karabakh (file photo).


Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have accused Azerbaijan of 
violating the line of contact in the east of the region by the advancement of 
its troops denied by Baku.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s Information Headquarters, an agency affiliated with the 
mostly Armenian-populated region’s de facto authorities, said Azerbaijani forces 
had advanced in the direction of the village of Parukh in the Askeran region. It 
said it happened at around 4:00 pm (1 pm CET) on Thursday.

Representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping 
force have reportedly been trying to hold negotiations with the Azerbaijani side 
to persuade it stop its further advancement and withdraw.

No information about any fighting or casualties was immediately reported in the 
context of the incident. But authorities in Stepanakert said that women and 
children of the nearby village of Khramort had been evacuated for security 
reasons.

“We urge the population to remain calm. The situation on all other sections of 
the line of contact is stable at the moment,” Nagorno-Karabakh’s Information 
Headquarters said.

In a statement released later on Thursday Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied 
any advancement of its troops “in the territory of Azerbaijan where the Russian 
peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed.”

It said that “specifications of positions and locations are taking place at the 
site” and that “no clashes or incidents have occurred.”

“Armenian media artificially exaggerate the situation. The goal is to create an 
atmosphere that can cause hysteria and mislead the public. There is no reason to 
worry,” the ministry said, as quoted by the Azerbaijani news website Haqqin.az.

Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement, saying that 
“Azerbaijan’s aggressive actions once again show that official Baku continues to 
grossly violate the terms of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement [on 
ceasefire].”

At least one civilian in the village of Khramort was injured by mortar fire as 
Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire in the direction 
of this and several other Armenian communities earlier this month.

Local residents were in particular alarmed by Azerbaijan’s deployment of 
military equipment at their positions situated not far from the village. The 
Russian peacekeepers set up a permanent post in the village two weeks ago, after 
which no serious incidents have been reported.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry had denied targeting civilians during those 
incidents. It had accused Armenian forces of firing at its troops deployed in 
the adjacent Agdam district.

Khramort mayor Zorik Abrahamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in the late 
afternoon that the situation in the village was “very serious.” He declined to 
elaborate.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming 
its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a 
separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians’ 
making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.

The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 in which about 7,000 soldiers 
and more than 200 civilians were killed. As a result of that war Azerbaijani 
forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven adjacent 
districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994.

Some 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the ceasefire 
following a Moscow-brokered truce.



Armenian Government Criticized Over Crisis In Nagorno-Karabakh

        • Astghik Bedevian

Ishkhan Saghatelian (in the front row center) and other members of the 
opposition Hayastan faction in the Armenian parliament (file photo).


Two opposition factions in the Armenian parliament have leveled harsh criticism 
at the government, accusing it of not doing enough to ensure the security of 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

During news briefings in parliament on Thursday lawmakers representing the 
Hayastan and Pativ Unem factions, in particular, referred to the current 
situation with discontinued gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh that de-facto 
authorities in the Armenian-populated region blame on Azerbaijan.

“The current government of Armenia is trying to wash its hands, giving up on the 
Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.] issue. The Republic of Armenia thus renounces 
its obligation to guarantee the sovereignty and security of Artsakh,” Deputy 
Parliament Speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian, of the Hayastan faction, claimed.

Pativ Unem’s Tigran Abrahamian, meanwhile, criticized the government for lacking 
a long-term strategy on Nagorno-Karabakh in conditions of increased pressure on 
the region from Azerbaijan.

Tigran Abrahamian, a member of the opposition Pativ Unem faction in parliament 
(file photo).

“The problem here is not only gas supply, the problem here is not only the 
implementation of certain social programs, the problem is much more complicated, 
it is much bigger. Regardless of the fact that these issues cannot be solved 
within a couple of days, the government must have complex programs that also 
take into account the security component, because the accumulation of these 
issues, the failure to resolve these issues can lead to two major consequences – 
either there will be an exodus of Armenians from Artsakh, or it may lead to a 
new war,” Abrahamian said.

During a government session earlier on Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian acknowledged that the second disruption of natural gas supply to 
Nagorno-Karabakh this month has brought the region to the verge of a 
“humanitarian disaster.”

He said that Armenia is raising this issue with the international community.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan 
also said that Yerevan is using all diplomatic channels to achieve a solution to 
the gas supply issue in Nagorno-Karabakh that creates humanitarian problems for 
the region’s population in conditions of still freezing temperatures despite 
early spring.

Mirzoyan also reaffirmed that Armenia is seeking peace talks with Azerbaijan 
that would, among other things, address the rights and status of Armenians in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pro-government Civil Contract faction member Arman Yeghoyan also said during 
today’s news briefings that both the government and parliamentarians are working 
with international partners on a daily basis regarding the situation with the 
discontinued gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh.



Nagorno-Karabakh ‘On The Verge Of A Humanitarian Disaster’

        • Anush Mkrtchian

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during a government session (file photo).


Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has accused Azerbaijan of deliberately 
discontinuing natural gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh, claiming that the 
Armenian-populated region is “on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.”

Addressing a government session in Yerevan on Thursday, Pashinian said that both 
cases of the disruption of natural gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh this month 
happened during unprecedented harsh weather conditions in the region.

The first disruption of the supply on March 8 due to reported damage to a 
pipeline pumping natural gas from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh on a section 
passing through Baku-controlled territory lasted for 11 days as the region’s 
de-facto ethnic Armenian authorities accused Azerbaijan of not allowing their 
maintenance workers to repair the vital infrastructure.

Gas supply was resumed on March 19 after Azerbaijan reportedly repaired the 
pipeline following calls from international organizations, including the 
European Union.

But gas supply again was interrupted on March 21 when Nagorno-Karabakh’s de 
facto authorities accused Baku of having turned off the valve on the pipeline 
that the Azerbaijani side had purportedly installed during the repairs.

The disruptions of the supply of vital fuel used by people in Stepanakert and 
elsewhere in the region for heating their homes and for business activities came 
amid still freezing temperatures despite early spring.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as unacceptable behavior 
on the part of Azerbaijan in a statement issued on March 22.

Not specifically referring to the issue of natural gas supply to 
Nagorno-Karabakh, a spokeswoman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on 
Wednesday advised that “Armenia should not interfere in Azerbaijan’s internal 
affairs.”

Armenia’s prime minister today also insisted that Azerbaijan had installed a 
valve on the gas pipeline during the repairs. “This indisputably shows 
Azerbaijan’s policy towards the Armenians of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.], 
that is, to make it impossible for them to live in their native land,” Pashinian 
said, stressing that Yerevan has widely presented the issue to the international 
community.

Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming 
its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a 
separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians’ 
making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.

The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 as a result of which 
Azerbaijani forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven 
adjacent districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994. Some 2,000 
Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the cease-fire following a 
Moscow-brokered truce.

In his remarks today the Armenian premier also insisted that “Azerbaijan will 
not be able to divert Armenia from the peace agenda.” He stressed that there is 
no alternative to “Armenia’s policy of ushering in an era of peace” in the 
region.

“With its actions and various provocations Azerbaijan is trying to divert us 
from the peace agenda in order to implement its policy of provoking new 
escalations and new wars in the region. But we should not give in to such 
provocations,” Pashinian said.

The Armenian prime minister reaffirmed that Azerbaijan’s five-point proposal for 
starting negotiations around a peace treaty with Armenia contained “nothing 
unacceptable for Yerevan.”

“It is another thing that these proposals do not address all the issues on the 
Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda. We have completed the agenda with 
our reply to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, so we are ready to start peace 
talks on that basis,” Pashinian said.

Baku insists that a future peace treaty with Yerevan should be based on five 
fundamental principles, including mutual recognition of each other’s sovereignty 
and territorial integrity, mutual reaffirmation of the absence of territorial 
claims to each other and a legally binding obligation not to make such claims in 
the future, abstaining from threatening each other’s security, delimitation and 
demarcation of the border with the establishment of diplomatic relations and 
unblocking of transport links.

In a recent interview with the state-run Armenpress news agency Armenian Foreign 
Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that it is vital for the Armenian side that “the 
rights and freedoms of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians be clearly guaranteed, and 
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh be finally clarified.” “For us, the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial issue, but a matter of rights,” 
he said.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Mirozyan said that the Russian, American 
and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group had informed Armenia that its 
proposals had been passed on to Azerbaijan. He said Baku had not responded to 
Yerevan’s proposals yet.

Pashinian today also described as odd criticism heard from the Armenian 
opposition that by agreeing to hold negotiations with Azerbaijan Armenia was 
accepting territorial integrity as a principle of normalization of relations. He 
again said that previous Armenian governments had repeatedly recognized the 
principle of territorial integrity in negotiations with Azerbaijan.

Stressing that peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan should start as soon 
as possible, Pashinian pointed to the need to speed up the process of border 
demarcation and delimitation along with steps to raise the level of border 
security and stability.

“We have proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops from the de jure established 
Soviet-era borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. But I want you to know that in 
addition to a complete withdrawal, we have also proposed local withdrawals, and 
we are now waiting for Azerbaijan’s response,” the Armenian prime minister said.



Armenia ‘Discussing’ With Russia Gas Payments In Rubles

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

A natural gas distribution station at the Armenian border (file photo).


Yerevan and Moscow are discussing the issue of payments for the Russian gas 
supplied to Armenia in rubles, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian 
said during a question-and-answer session in parliament on Wednesday.

The Armenian official did not provide details as he answered a question from a 
pro-government lawmaker regarding the issue.

Grigorian said that the matter is part of discussions about the currency for the 
distribution of customs duties within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a 
Russia-led economic grouping of five former Soviet countries, including Armenia.

“I cannot promise that this issue will be solved now, because there are 
objective reasons. But today it is at least being discussed in a global sense, 
and I think that at some point it will become a much more specific agenda,” the 
deputy prime minister said.

For years, especially since joining the EEU in 2015, Armenia has been raising 
the issue of conducting trade in energy resources, including natural gas, in 
rubles within the EEU space.

Official reports in Armenia regularly say that the matter is part of ongoing 
discussions.

Amid Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for invading and waging an aggressive 
war against Ukraine, including a ban on transactions in dollars, euros and other 
hard currencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 23 that 
Russia will start forcing “unfriendly countries” – including all European Union 
states and the United States – to pay for their natural gas supplies in rubles.

The decision came after a dramatic depreciation of the Russian ruble as a result 
of the crippling sanctions imposed by the West.

Armenia is not on the list of “unfriendly countries” that Moscow published 
earlier in March. But despite being also a member of the Russia-led Collective 
Security Treaty Organization, Armenia has mostly maintained neutrality on the 
ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine.

Despite official Yerevan’s statements that it seeks trade with Russia in rubles 
when it comes to the supply of natural gas and other energy resources, Armenian 
experts are skeptical that the Kremlin will actually agree to receive payments 
in the Russian currency given the acute demand for hard currency in Russia.

In a recent interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, former governor of 
Armenia’s Central Bank Bagrat Asatrian also said that payments for Russian 
natural gas in rubles involved technical difficulties as well.

“I don’t believe that Russia will agree to that and start selling energy to us 
in rubles. Besides, it also involves difficulties related to the pricing issue. 
As you know, there is a notion of international prices for energy resources, 
which are estimated in dollars,” Asatrian said.

Annually Armenia imports more than 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas from 
Russia. At the border, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom sells it to its Armenian 
subsidiary for $165 per 1,000 cubic meters, but Armenian users pay almost twice 
as much for the natural gas supplied to their homes.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Azerbaijan deliberately continues state policy of terrorizing Artsakh population – joint statement of Ombudspersons

Vanyan Gary

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 14:45,

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS. The Human Rights Defender of Armenia Kristinne Grigoryan and the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Gegham Stepanyan issued a joint statement, calling on international human rights organizations to pressure Azerbaijan and eliminate its gross and continuous human rights violations against the Armenians of Artsakh.

“An instrument of “petty revenge” has been discovered for the Azerbaijani policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians of Artsakh.

Yesterday at night, yet again the Azerbaijani side deliberately stopped the operation of the only gas pipeline supplying gas from Armenia to Artsakh. The gas supply of Artsakh was disrupted for the first time on March 8, due to an alleged accident, Afterwards, the Azerbaijani side did not allow experts from Artsakh to approach the area of the “accident”, which was located under their (Azerbaijani) control. From that moment on it has become obvious that the state policy of Armenophobia of Azerbaijan had discovered yet another method to pressure the Armenians of Artsakh.

The analysis of reliable facts reveals that during the reconstruction works or under their guise, the Azerbaijani side has installed a valve on the gas pipeline to terrorize the peaceful population of Artsakh and to leave them without heating, hot water, and other basic conditions necessary especially during cold weather conditions, by closing it at any given time. 

The gas supply that was restored on March 18 lasted less than 3 days. In these severe winter weather conditions, children, older persons, the sick and displaced persons of Artsakh are deprived of heating. People are facing undefinable difficulties. The humanitarian crisis in Artsakh is ongoing. 

It is beyond doubt for us that the Azerbaijani side is deliberately continuing the state policy of terrorizing and pressuring the population of Artsakh. The goal is the same -  annihilation and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh from its indigenous Armenian population.

This shameful "revenge" towards more than 100,000 Armenians is unacceptable. This state policy best describes the false and empty essence of the theses of “tolerance” declared by Azerbaijan.

We strongly condemn this ongoing practice of ethnic hatred and revenge by Azerbaijan towards the people of Artsakh.

We call on international human rights organizations and actors to put pressure on the Azerbaijani side in order to eliminate this gross and continuous human rights violation," reads the statement.