Category: 2021

Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of State Artak Beglaryan has reflected on the issue of captives.

“Anyone can explain [to] me why some international leaders praise Azerbaijan for releasing Armenian captives, if it is an intl law duty & AZ still keeps many of them as hostages?” Beglaryan wrote on Twitter.

“Guys, if you praise ‘good will’ of a criminal instead of punishing, you encourage deviant behavior!” he added.

Let them not tell tales. The “My Step” has put the petty group interest above the interest of an entire community. Mayor Hayk Marutyan noted this in his remarks at Wednesday’s special session of the Yerevan Council of Elders—and with respect to the matter of the no-confidence motion against him.

"Today a process is taking place that has never taken place in the history of Yerevan. This is the first case of expressing no confidence in the mayor of Yerevan. It seems that in order to do such a thing, the initiators had to have very weighty arguments against the mayor. (…). [But] the reason presented is completely different. As the initiating party says, since I have left the [ruling] CC [Civil Contract] party, I must leave this position as well." Marutyan added.

He recalled that the first snap elections after the revolution in Armenia in April 2018 were held in the capital Yerevan, and the revolutionary team ran in this election in a bloc. Marutyan noted that out of the first 57 people elected via the "My Step" bloc to the Council of Elders, only 27 were members of the CC at that time.

Marutyan reminded that as a result of this election, 82% of the voters had cast their ballots for that team.

"I repeat: the people did not vote for any party; they voted for the bloc, the revolution, the revolutionary team, the leader of the revolution [serving PM] Nikol Pashinyan, Hayk Marutyan, the respected and well-known people included in the team, (…) who for years had dedicated themselves to the victory of the revolution," Marutyan said.

The mayor of Yerevan noted that today the process of expressing no confidence in him is based on his leaving the CC and the "My Step" bloc. He emphasized that he left the CC, but not the "My Step" bloc.

"Mentioning the name of the Civil Contract party in their arguments, these people are trying to privatize the revolution, they are trying to make the CC the only bearer and heir of revolutionary values. This is unacceptable for me and for thousands of non-partisan people like me, who carried out the revolution to have a better Armenia," Marutyan added.

As reported earlier, the Yerevan municipal council has convened a special session Wednesday—and with only one matter on the agenda: the draft decision of the Yerevan Council of Elders on expressing no confidence in Mayor Hayk Marutyan. Also, this draft proposes to elect Deputy Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan as the Mayor of Yerevan. The session is being chaired by Hayk Marutyan.

The ruling majority "My Step" Faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders had collected signatures to express no confidence in Marutyan. This initiative is supported also by the members of the opposition “Prosperous Armenia” Faction and Ani Khachatryan from the opposition “Luys” Faction.

But several members of the "My Step" Faction have opposed this initiative and resigned from the Yerevan city council.

In an interview with Azerbaijan newspaper, the minister of defense of the country told the details of their operation to capture Shushi city of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) during the war last year.

According to Zakir Hasanov, in late October, units of the Azerbaijani army, including special forces, began the operation to break through the defense of Shushi in different directions.

"According to the intelligence data, the Armenians were waiting for us in two directions. They were preparing for fierce battles from Qirmizi Bazar [(Karmir Shuka)] to Shushakend [(Shosh )] [villages], from there along the road to Shusha [(Shushi)], and in the direction of Lachin. That was the reason why we concentrated our main forces there.

According to the operative plan of the Azerbaijani military command, we paved a new road to Shusha through dense forests. Our heroic engineering-sapper troops have done an incredible job of launching this road. They have turned the narrow mountain path into a forest road through which equipment can pass. This road was really a shock for the Armenians. As a result, we managed to deploy artillery installations near Shusha," Hasanov said.

The Armenian fortress city of Shushi has been occupied by Azerbaijan since November 8, 2020.

The Armenian authorities don’t pay visits to Nagorno-Karabakh, and I won’t be surprised, if later they refuse to visit Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex in order to please Turkey. This is what President of the International Center for Human Development NGO, political scientist Tevan Poghosyan told reporters today.

According to him, Turkey won’t renounce its preconditions in any way. “The re-election of the incumbent authorities secured more losses and failures for us Armenians,” Poghosyan said.

The political scientist added that Armenia failed to overcome a tremendous number of crises and challenges that existed in the past and escalated even more and emerged after the new authorities came to power. “I’m referring to the financial crisis and the crisis in diplomacy and security, and, in my opinion, the most important one if the moral-psychological crisis, which had an impact on each and every one of us. Moreover, all these crises continue to escalate,” Poghosyan clarified.

When Ankara made an announcement about the normalization of relations with Armenia and sent positive signals, Armenia responded to those positive signals; overall, there is still no agenda, it’s mainly about sitting at the table, understanding the stances of the sides and understanding how to normalize the relations. This is what Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said in an interview aired on Armenian Public Television, touching upon the upcoming Armenian-Turkish negotiations.

“We see that there are such opportunities in the region, for instance, the possible opening of the Kars-Gyumri railway which will create big opportunities for Armenia and Turkey and will help make Armenia and Turkey economically dependent,” Grigoryan stated.

Asked why is it that the Turkish side constantly says what has to happen and Armenia does whatever the Turkish side says, Grigoryan noted the following: “The Turkish side isn’t saying what has to happen. It makes public statements, and we respond to almost all of them. Currently, we believe the important thing is to sit at the table and discuss the issues. We have yet to sit at the table and understand what Turkey is referring to and what Armenia is referring to.”

A few days ago, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu declared that Armenia and Turkey will appoint special envoys to discuss the steps aimed at normalizing their relations. Turkey will be represented by Serdar Kilic, who served as Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States for 7 years and served as Secretary General of the National Security Council of Turkey before that. Armenia’s special envoy will be Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan, who held the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for a few months after shift of power and then chaired the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations in the seventh convocation of the National Assembly. In 2017, Rubinyan was in Turkey for a few months and, as he declared from the podium in parliament on August 3, conducted research.

We will hold more discussions on the Armenian-Turkish relations in the bilateral format, but if there is an opportunity to hold discussions in the ‘3+3’ format, we will also take advantage of that opportunity to have contacts with Turkey and express each other’s positions more clearly and make them more accessible. This is what Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said in an interview aired on Armenian Public Television today, touching upon Armenia’s participation in the ‘3+3’ or ‘3+2’ regional format being formed and the possible agenda within the scope of that format.

Asked if this means that Armenia’s representatives will go to Ankara since the Turkish foreign minister informed that the next meeting will be held in Turkey and then in Baku and the representatives of Turkey and Azerbaijan will visit Armenia, Grigoryan said the following: “If there is an opportunity, we are ready to go, and we are also ready to host the representatives of those countries to organize discussions on our regional issues.”

The first meeting in this regional format was held on Dec. 10 in Moscow, and Armenia was represented at the level of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Although the Georgian national flag was seen at the meeting, Georgia didn’t participate in the meeting since it is against participation in this and any platform with Russia’s participation. Nevertheless, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu recently voiced hope that Georgia will participate in the next meeting to be held in Ankara, but Tbilisi hasn’t responded to this yet.

Ruben Rubinyan was the head of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly, specializes in this sector, and there is another factor that makes him an effective negotiator — he has ties with the Prime Minister and his team. This is what Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said in an interview aired on Armenian Public Television, touching upon the question why it was decided to send Rubinyan as Armenia’s special representative to represent Armenia during the upcoming negotiations with Turkey.

Asked if it wouldn’t be right to place emphasis on rich experience in diplomacy and not the political ties of the envoy and the ties with the team, Grigoryan noted the following:

“We believe that the factors I mentioned are more important since any kind of issue can be set forth during the negotiations, and there will be a need to verify a particular issue with the Prime Minister. We took all this into consideration, and we considered Mr. Rubinyan’s appointment more effective. Modern diplomacy is undergoing several changes, and we shouldn’t think about the modern processes with old patterns,” he stated.

A few days ago, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu declared that Armenia and Turkey will appoint special envoys to discuss the steps aimed at normalizing their relations. Turkey will be represented by Serdar Kilic, who served as Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States for 7 years and served as Secretary General of the National Security Council of Turkey before that. Armenia’s special envoy will be Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan, who held the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for a few months after shift of power and then chaired the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations in the seventh convocation of the National Assembly. In 2017, Rubinyan was in Turkey for a few months and, as he declared from the podium in parliament on August 3, conducted research.