Category: 2021

President Armen Sarkissian on Friday, once again, reiterated that Armenia’s authorities must only be guided by national interests when making decision that impact the future and national security of Armenia.

The president’s statement comes ahead of an unconfirmed meeting that will take place on Monday between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev, who reportedly will discuss the fine points of the November 9 agreement that ended the Karabakh war but force the surrender of territories in Armenia and Artsakh.

“The President of Armenia attaches importance to the ceasefire established under the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020 and the implementation of efforts aimed at maintaining the ceasefire, particularly the urgent return of prisoners of war, hostages and other persons being kept, the processes of demarcation and delimitation and unblocking transportation routes,” said a statement from Sarkissian’s office on Friday.

“The President calls on the relevant authorities to be guided only by national interests, ensure accountability before the public and unwaveringly observe the provisions of the Constitution and laws of Armenia, as well as the norms and principles of international law for implementation of aforementioned agreements [November 9 agreement] and when reaching verbal agreements,” added the statement from Sarkissian’s office.

In a bombshell announcement immediately after the signing of the November 9 agreement, Sarkissian announced that he was not consulted before the agreement was concluded and urged holding national interests above all else when reaching agreements that impact Armenia’s citizens and its national security.

Representatives of the Homeland Salvation movement on Saturday met with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ara Aivazyan.

Representing the Homeland Salvation movement were its prime minister candidate Vazgen Manukyan, chairman of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Council of Armenia Ishkhan Saghatelyan and head of the Homeland Party Artur Vanetsyan.

“We expressed our concern to the foreign minister, and heard some clarifications on those issues,” Manukyan told reporters after the meeting.

He said further details on this meeting will be publicized after a meeting with the Armed Forces chief of staff Onik Gasparyan. He did not elaborate on when the latter meeting was scheduled.

“Some of the answers [by the foreign minister] were satisfactory and some were incomplete. We will talk about this in more detail after the next meeting,” added Manukyan.

In a statement issued Thursday by the Homeland Salvation Movement, Manukyan called on the Aivazyan, Gasparyan and head of the National Security Service General Armen Abazyan to meet with his group, which is a coalition of opposition forces in Armenia that has been demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after he signed the defeatist November 9 agreement. The Movement is calling for the establishment of the interim national accord government, headed by Manukyan, which will organize snap parliamentary elections in Armenia.

Amid unconfirmed reports that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will meeting the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan on Monday in Moscow, where he is reportedly going finalize details of the November 9 agreement, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia urged official Yerevan to not sign any agreements that would further endanger Armenia’s statehood and territorial integrity.

The pontiff cautioned that the immediate salvation and protection of the Armenian state must be held above all other considerations.

“As we mentioned on the day, the declaration to end the war unleashed by the Azeri-Turkish army against Artsakh contains several vague and ambiguous points that could endanger the security, independence and territorial integrity of the Armenian state,” said Aram I in a statement issued by the Catholicosate on Saturday.

“The dangerous points of the ceasefire declaration should be clarified at the request of Armenia and with the support of Russia. The strong and secure preservation of the territorial integrity of Armenia and the state is an indisputable National matter,” added the Catholicos.

“At critical junctures throughout our centuries-old history and in the face of dangers threatening the existence of our nation and the homeland, our people have voiced their ‘no’ at the cost of every sacrifice,” explained Aram I.

“We do not know the details of the agenda of the Putin-Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting to be held on January 11 in Moscow. It is our demand—we believe also our people’s—that Yerevan should not endanger Armenia’s sovereignty, statehood and territorial integrity by signing any agreement.”

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—The heads of Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s main security services met again on Saturday to discuss the implementation of the Russian-brokered agreement to stop the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In a short statement, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said the meeting took place in no-man’s-land at a section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border about 70 kilometers south of Yerevan.

The statement said NSS Director Armen Abazyan and the chief of Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, Ali Nagiyev, discussed “the exchange of prisoners and the search for missing persons.” “Contacts on these topics are continuing,” it added without elaborating.

Abazian and Nagiyev already discussed these issues late last month at a meeting in Moscow hosted by Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service. The NSS said afterwards that they reached unspecified “understandings.”

The ceasefire deal brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 9 calls for the exchange of all prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians held by the conflicting sides. So far 54 Armenians have been freed and returned home. Dozens of others remain in Azerbaijani captivity.

They include 62 Armenian soldiers who were taken prisoner in early December when Azerbaijani forces seized the last two Armenian-controlled villages in Karabakh’s Hadrut district occupied by them during the six-week war.

In a letter to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres publicized earlier this week, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov branded the soldiers as “saboteurs” and indicated the Azerbaijani authorities’ intention to prosecute them on relevant charges.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned Baku’s plans as a gross violation of international law and the Karabakh truce agreement. It accused the Azerbaijani side of “using Armenian prisoners of war as hostages to advance its political agenda.”