Author: Yeghisabet Vorskanian

Lavrov: Moscow to help Yerevan, Baku arrange meetings on Nagorno-Karabakh

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 30 2020

Moscow will assist Yerevan and Baku in arranging meetings to resolve issues concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with TASS.

"As for discussing unresolved political issues, I can confirm our readiness as a nation and a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group to facilitate efforts to arrange such meetings as soon as the parties are ready," Lavrov pointed out.

Russia has not seen any provocations against its peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, the top Russian diplomat told TASS on Wednesday.

"The situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone tends to be normalizing," Lavrov noted.

"We are glad to see that Baku and Yerevan are determined to meet their commitments and work towards stabilizing the overall situation. I would like to note that the sides showed a high ability to cooperate in terms of ironing out issues emerging on the ground. Russia, in its turn, keeps fulfilling the function of a ceasefire guarantor in a responsible and effective way. No provocations against the Russian peacekeepers have been seen."

Lavrov noted that the only noticeable violation was registered on December 13 in the area of the contact line where there were no Russian peacekeepers.

"Energetic steps taken by our peacekeeping contingent’s command in contacts with the Azerbaijani and Armenian partners made it possible to prevent the escalation after the incident," he said. "We will continue all efforts in order to prevent a ceasefire disruption."

Parliament convenes extraordinary session – LIVE

Yeghisabet Vorskanian

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 11:01,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The Parliament of Armenia has convened an extraordinary sitting.

15 issues are on the agenda.

Lawmakers will debate and vote for a number of bills and legislative packages at first and second hearings.

The MPs will also debate suspending the powers of MP Naira Zohrabyan from the position of chair of the standing committee on Human Rights and Public Affairs.

[see video]
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

ICRC handed details about 62 new Armenian POWs

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
Big News Network
Dec 21 2020

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Armenian side has provided the International Committee of the Red Cross with information about 62 servicemen taken captive by the Azerbaijani troops near the villages of Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd in Nagorno-Karabakh's Hadrut region, Armenian Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan said Monday, December 21.

The situation around the two villages came to a head when Azerbaijan launched new offensives to capture them on December 11, having seized most of the region of Hadrut during the war. According to a trilateral statement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on November 9, the parties were supposed to remain at their current positions, which means both Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd should have remained under the Armenian side's control.

Harutyunyan spoke to the parents and family members of the newly-captured servicemen via videoconference on Monday and said the Armenian side doing everything to settle the matter as soon as possible. the Defense Minister said their personal information has been sent to the International Court of Human Rights (ICRC).

According to him, the issue is also in the center of attention of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh (Karabakh).


CivilNet: Azerbaijan Adds Billions to Defense Budget

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
CIVILNET.AM

24 December, 2020 22:47

Azerbaijan’s 2021 national budget intends to allocate more than $4 billion to the country's defense, national security, judiciary, and law enforcement agencies, which is a 16.3% increase from the 2020 budget, reports Turan news agency.

$2.7 billion of the total $4 billion will be allocated to the defense and security of the nation, which is 20.5% more than in 2020.

The total allocated funds in 2021 for these sectors will account for 23.4% of total expenditures, which is 2.5% more than in 2020. 

The 2021 national budget intends to allocate an additional $1.23 billion towards strengthening the core of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

Residents of certain communities of Karabakh won’t benefit from lump-sum financial assistance program

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 24 2020
 
 
 
Residents of certain communities of Karabakh won't benefit from lump-sum financial assistance program
23:19, 24.12.2020
 
 
The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) reports that the residents of Berdzor, Aghavno, Nerkin Sus and Kaler communities won’t benefit from the lump-sum financial assistance program for citizens registered in the territories that have been transferred since those communities aren’t under the control of Azerbaijan, but they will receive financial assistance in the amount of AMD 300,000 through another program.
 
 
 
 

Scandal continues in Armenia over Aliyev’s proposed $5 bln ‘Karabakh buyout’

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
JAM News
Dec 16 2020
Scandal continues in Armenia over Aliyev's proposed $5 bln 'Karabakh buyout'

    JAMnews, Yerevan

Fresh on the heels of news that former Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan was offered $5 billion by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in exchange for the seven districts surrounding Nagorno Karabakh, new reports suggest the same offer was made to current PM Nikol Pashinyan.

These seven regions in question came under the control of the Armenian side during the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s and which were considered a ‘security belt’ for Nagorno-Karabakh. Following the results of the second Karabakh war, in the fall of 2020, these areas returned to the control of Azerbaijan.

Former ambassador to the Vatican, son-in-law of former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Mikael Minasyan, said that in October 2018, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was allegedly given an envelope with a proposal from Azerbaijan offering to pay for the seven regions around Nagorno Karabakh.

Minasyan says the sealed envelope was handed over to the former head of the National Security Service of Armenia Artur Vanetsyan by the head of the special services of Azerbaijan. And Vanetsyan handed it over to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

A direct participant in the events, the former head of the National Security Service, has already confirmed the fact of communication with his Azerbaijani counterpart.

All the details of the story below.

  • Armenian PM on calls for resignation, clashes in Karabakh, prisoner exchange
  • No more prisoners? Azerbaijan, Armenia claim ‘all for all’ prisoner exchange completed
  • Aliyev lays claim to ‘historical lands’ in Armenia. Moscow, Yerevan react

Commentary of the former head of the NSS

In an interview with Hraparak newspaper, Artur Vanetsyan recalled that since 2018, Armenia and Azerbaijan have established operational communication to prevent incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. In September 2018, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan himself also said that such an agreement had been reached following a meeting with Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe.

According to Vanetsyan, this proposal was carried out through him and another state official:

“Within the framework of operational communication, I periodically met with representatives of Azerbaijan, including in Dubai. During these contacts, I received a lot of information and passed it on to Pashinyan, and all the members of the Security Council knew about these contacts”, Vanetsyan says.

Vanetsyan refused to disclose further content of the conversations during these meetings, as he received this information while on duty.

Aliyev’s proposal to Sargsyan

Most recently, the Bagramyan 26 Telegram channel distributed an audio recording of a personal conversation between former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, which took place in Yerevan on October 14, 2016.

In the recording, the President of Belarus says that the President of Azerbaijan is ready to pay Armenia five billion dollars for seven regions around Nagorno-Karabakh. Serzh Sargsyan replies that he is ready to give Aliyev six billion to give up his claim to these territories.

Ex-President Sargsyan’s office declined to comment on the conversation “in a closed session”, but did not deny the authenticity of the recording.

“Border adjustment” carried out near Jermuk, mayor comments on reports of Azeri troops amassing

Yeghisabet Vorskanian

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 16:40,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. A “border adjustment” took place in Jermuk with participation of the Armenian military and the local government bodies, the Jermuk Mayor Vardan Hovhannisyan told ARMENPRESS when asked to comment on the reports purporting that the Azerbaijani troops are amassing at the border with Armenia to build a military base in the section which isn’t yet adjusted.

“An adjustment of the borders and positions took place, we went and agreed who will stand where. Nothing unusual happened. There won’t be any military base, unlike the purported reports. The process took place with participation of our military, I was also present,” Hovhannisyan said.

He said the Armenian military is deployed and are on-duty. The locals of Jermuk are approaching the situation with understanding, he said.

“There is simply no need to create such a fuss around this resort town. Those who are doing so are perhaps solving some objectives of theirs, but an entire city could suffer from that. In reality, Jermuk is safe, and we are expecting guests, the spas are working normally , there are no problems,” Hovhannisyan said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia, Azerbaijan blame each other for deadly post-ceasefire clashes

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
Reuters
Dec 13 2020

By Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

BAKU/YEREVAN (Reuters) – Clashes in the Nagorno-Karabakh region have killed four Azeri servicemen in recent weeks, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said on Sunday, in the first report of casualties since a Russian-brokered ceasefire accord.

Separately, authorities in Armenia said six of their servicemen had been wounded in what they described as an Azeri military offensive that took place on Saturday.

The Baku government said the clashes, which also left two Azeri servicemen wounded, had taken place in an area that fell under its control when the fighting ended on Nov. 10 and territory in Nagorno-Karabakh previously controlled by ethnic Armenians was handed over to Azerbaijan.

It said the military operation on Friday and Saturday aimed to destroy or drive out enemy forces responsible for the deadly attacks on Azeri servicemen.

Yerevan said Armenian forces had repelled attempted intrusions into territories supposed to remain under the control of the rebel province’s government, namely the Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd villages.

“The provocations of Azerbaijan continued today in the direction of the villages of Mets Shen and Hin Shen in the Hadrut region,” Armenia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

In another statement, Armenia’s defence ministry said: “negotiations between Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani servicemen are underway to resolve the situation in Hadrut and ensure the return of the parties to their former positions”.

Russian peacekeepers deployed in the conflict area have reported no major clashes but said at the weekend there had been one ceasefire violation.

Azerbaijan’s State Security Service said that “unfounded accusations against the Azeri side and the Russian peacekeepers by some Armenian leaders and media” were unacceptable.

The Armenian foreign ministry said Russian forces were not deployed in the area where the clashes broke out.

Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku and Nvard Hovhannisyan in Yerevan; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Gareth Jones and Barbara Lewis

Memorial plaque unveiled in memory of crewmembers of Russian helicopter shot down over Armenia

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
Panorama, Armenia

Dec 12 2020

A memorial plate was unveiled Saturday in Yeraskh in memory of the crewmembers of the Russian Mi-24 military helicopter that had been shot down by Azerbaijani forces on November 9 over Armenia. The event, which was initiated by 'Peace' Foundation, started with prayers, later the national anthems of Armenia and Russia were played. It was announced that a memorial complex dedicated to the Armenian-Russian friendship will be build in Yeraskh. 

The Head of Bright Armenia party Edmon Marukyan, present at the event, noted that the Russian pilots, who were in Armenia for a peacekeeping mission,  joined the thousands of Armenian servicemen, who fell during the Karabakh war. Marukyan condemned the terrorist act by Azerbaijan.  

Lawmaker form Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Arman Abovyan conveyed condolences on behalf of PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan and the whole party. 

"The killed Russian pilots  became the symbol of the century-long Armenian-Russian friendship," Abovyan stressed. 

Spokesperson of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Eduard Sharmazanov noted that shooting down the helicopter was not only against Armenia, Russia, but the Russian-Armenian friendship and even the Christian civilization. 

Highlighting the Armenian-Russian friendship, Sharmazanov stressed there can be no person in Armenia who can downgrade that friendship especially after the recent war. 

To remind, a Russian Mi-24 military helicopter was shot down over Armenia near the border with Azerbaijan on November 9. Two crew-members died and the third pilot was wounded. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry announced shortly that the helicopter had been shot down by the Azeri armed forces by mistake.



FM Ayvazian visits Armenian church complex in Moscow

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
Public Radio of Armenia

Dec 7 2020

Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian visited the church complex of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Moscow, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs.

The Foreign Minister laid a wreath in memory of the victims of 1988 earthquake.

Minister Ayvazian held a meeting with Archbishop Ezras Nersisyan, Primate of the New Nakhichevan and Russian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The interlocutors exchanged view on a number of issues on the agenda.