Category: 2023

The EU observers deployed to Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan do not share their reports either with the Armenian or the Azerbaijani authorities, Andrea Wiktorin, head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, said on Monday, adding the civilian mission reports back to Brussels.

“But as the mission is accompanied by officers of the Ministry of Defense, the Armenian side is well aware of what they see,” she told a news conference.

Wiktorin said the EU observers were not in the border village of Sotk during the latest Azerbaijani attacks which left one Armenian soldier killed and several others wounded. They visited the area after the tensions eased, she added.

"So far with the latest incursion and hostilities they were not present on the ground… when the incursion happened. You have quite a long border and there is a schedule of the patrols. It is also not an intention that they had to be there while something happens. They are monitoring the border and they see what they see around the border, but it does not mean that they are actually on the spot when something happens," Wiktorin said.

Opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan accused the Artsakh leadership of supporting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s efforts to give away Artsakh to Azerbaijan.

The Artsakh Foreign Ministry on Monday reacted harshly to European Council President Charles Michel’s remarks following the latest talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders in Brussels.

“The EU leadership continues to ignore the legitimate rights and interests of the people of Artsakh and is guided solely by their own geopolitical and short-term interests in the region to the detriment of the values of democracy and human rights declared by the European Union,” it said in a statement.

Pashinyan stopped championing the Artsakh Armenians’ right to self-determination last year and has spoken instead of the need to protect their “rights and security” since then.

Meanwhile, the Artsakh statement contained no criticism of Pashinyan and his government.

“Charles Michel’s remarks only indicate the current agenda and the talks that were held, Meanwhile, the Armenian authorities, at least, have not stated otherwise,” Abrahamyan, the secretary of the opposition Pativ Unem faction, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

He stressed neither the Artsakh president nor any of the Artsakh officials who held a rally in Stepanakert on Monday refrained from criticizing Pashinyan’s “disgraceful policy of surrendering Artsakh to Azerbaijan.”

"Despite harsh criticism of Pashinyan from various groups of Artsakh's society, the Artsakh authorities continue to support Pashinyan in his efforts to surrender Artsakh [to Azerbaijan],” the deputy stated.

The Artsakh Foreign Ministry issued a statement on European Council President Charles Michel’s remarks made after Sunday’s Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Brussels. The full text of the statement is provided below.

"On 14 May, President of the European Council Charles Michel made a press statement following a trilateral meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The content of the statement as a whole, as well as a number of points contained there indicate that the EU leadership continues to ignore the legitimate rights and interests of the people of Artsakh and is guided solely by their own geopolitical and short-term interests in the region to the detriment of the values of democracy and human rights declared by the European Union.

This is evidenced in particular by the absence in the statement of any mention of more than 5-months blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the establishment of an illegal Azerbaijani checkpoint at the entrance to the corridor and the factual siege of the 120,000 population of Artsakh with all the ensuing humanitarian consequences. This is an indication of the fact that the President of the European Council not only does not prevent, but in fact indulges Azerbaijan in using the suffering of the people of Artsakh as a political tool.

However, if the intentions and visible actions of Azerbaijan to provoke a humanitarian catastrophe and carry out ethnic cleansing in Artsakh are not a matter of concern for the President of the European Council, we still had the right to expect that the organisation he represents would show direct interest in Azerbaijan's strict compliance with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice, as one of the pillars of contemporary international legal order. In this regard, the European Council President’s  defiant disregard for Azerbaijan's consistent non-compliance with the legally binding Order of the principal judicial organ of the UN and its systematic violations of international law, in particular the non-use or threat of force and the peaceful settlement of disputes, is puzzling.

It is only the effective measures on the part of the international community aimed at forcing Azerbaijan to immediately and unconditionally implement its obligations under the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020 and the Order of the International Court of Justice of 22 February 2023, that may testify that those acting as mediators are sincerely interested in lasting peace and stability in the region. We believe that those international actors who either by their action or inaction are encouraging Baku in their aggressive, expansionist policies and internationally wrongful acts, not only bear responsibility for their grave consequences, but also justify the recurrence of such policies and violations in other parts of the world.

We recall once again that in 1991, the people of Artsakh, in full compliance with international law and domestic legislation in force at that time, exercised their inalienable right to self-determination and established their statehood on the same basis as Azerbaijan and Armenia. The authorities of the Republic of Artsakh have consistently defended and will continue to defend the legitimate choice and _expression_ of the free will of their people.

Representatives of individual countries and international organisations have no right to decide the fate of the people of Artsakh. Moreover, any attempt to impose on the people of Artsakh an agenda based on the legitimisation of the illegal use of force and ongoing terror is tantamount to complicity in the implementation of Azerbaijan's criminal plans of ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and maintaining a permanent source of tension in the region, as well as encouraging Baku's territorial ambitions and aggressive policies.

In this connection, we reiterate the determination of the people and authorities of the Republic of Artsakh to continue the struggle for their inalienable rights in accordance with the norms and principles of international law. We are convinced that only the recognition of the right to self-determination exercised by the people of Artsakh can become the basis for a sustainable settlement of the conflict and the establishment of just and lasting peace and stability in the region.

We also recall that the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh have always advocated a comprehensive settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict through negotiations. The Republic of Artsakh remains open to discussing all components of the conflict and reasonable proposals aimed at a peaceful settlement, in an agreed and internationally recognised negotiation format, based on the equal rights of the parties and in the presence of strong international guarantees for the implementation of their obligations."

Yerevan Deputy Mayor Tigran Avinyan’s lawyer Harutyun Harutyunyan has asked a court in the Armenian capital to unfreeze assets of 168 Zham reporter David Sargsyan.

Avinyan filed a defamation lawsuit against Sargsyan and his newspaper after the journalist released a video report accusing the vice mayor of illicit enrichment. The report claimed Avinyan and his family had been “steadily getting richer” since Nikol Pashinyan came to power in 2018.

The court granted Avinyan’s request to freeze the assets of both the newspaper and the journalist worth 18 million drams and 9 million drams, respectively, pending a verdict in the case.

In a statement on Tuesday, Harutyunyan said following discussions with his client, he filed a motion to the court on Tuesday to unfreeze the reporter’s assets in response to a statement issued by Armenian media organizations on May 12.

“It also highlights that Tigran Avinyan has no intention of bankrupting any media outlet or deliberately causing it any financial inconvenience,” the lawyer said.

At the same time, he urged media outlets and reporters to be “as scrupulous as possible” and remain committed to the principle of integrity.

Russian peacekeeping forces on Tuesday facilitated the transfer of nine severely ill patients from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to Armenia, the Artsakh Health Ministry said.
Medical evacuations were previously carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The ICRC had to suspend them on 29 April after Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor, the sole road in or out of Artsakh. The supply of medicine to Artsakh has also been suspended.

“More than 100 patients have been deprived of access to medical aid in Armenia due to the impossibility of their transportation in recent weeks. 25 of them require urgent transfer to Armenia,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

In his press remarks after the Brussels talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday, European Council President Charles Michel said the two leaders “confirmed their unequivocal commitment to the 1991 Almaty Declaration and the respective territorial integrity of Armenia (29,800 km2) and Azerbaijan (86,600 km2).”

Panorama.am asked Metakse Hakobyan, an MP representing Artsakh’s opposition Justice Party, for comment on the statement.

Panorama.am: Mrs. Hakobyan, how did Artsakh react to Charles Michel's statement on the outcomes of the talks?

Metakse Hakobyan: We witnessed the confirmation of Nikol Pashinyan’s claims in the Armenian National Assembly on 13 April 2021 regarding the lowering of the bar on Artsakh's status by the international community. In fact, when he spoke about the international community, he meant the collective West, which was also confirmed at the meeting. Frankly speaking, we were totally unfazed by this statement, because not only after the war, but also back in 2018 we were waring that the current leaders came to power in Armenia to realize all the goals and dreams of the West, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, all actors have their own interests, and the current authorities catered to the interests of them all. As for the outcomes of the Brussels meeting, I can state that they actually mean nothing for us, because no one, including politicians, authorities or the international community, can act against the will of 120,000 Armenians and make a decision instead of us. This is in response to their statement.

As for the legal aspect of the statement, everything is distorted in it, starting from the Almaty Declaration, which was taken as a basis for making the statement and drafting the document [peace treaty] as well in the future. The Almaty Declaration was signed on December 21, 1991 and the CIS countries mutually recognized each other's territorial integrity under it, just as the Republic of Armenia recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and vice versa. For 30 years, according to the Almaty Declaration, the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan included 75,000 square km and it was strangely turned into 86,600 square km in violation of this declaration. In any case, there were no figures, but the actual borders of the time were specified. Why, in fact, the territory was 75,000 square kilometers? Because Azerbaijan left the Soviet Union after signing the Almaty Declaration on December 28, 1991, and Artsakh could not have had any links with the Republic of Azerbaijan, which had not even declared itself the legal successor of the Azerbaijani SSR.

Hence, both politically and legally it is a false agenda which they rely on. It’s also not accidental that the prime minister of Armenia spoke for a long time about 29,800 square kilometers of Armenia, as if constantly urging Azerbaijan to announce figures concerning its territories as well, which was done during the meeting in Brussels. In fact, the Armenian leaders, who talked about 86,600 square kilometers even during the verbal arrangements in accordance with their workstyle, included the Republic of Artsakh in these 86,600 square kilometers.

For the sober political forces in Artsakh, which are quite numerous, and the Artsakh Armenians it is absolutely unacceptable – whether it's a verbal agreement or a written one, we won't let it be implemented. I think that Artsakh people have demonstrated their will in this regard.

Panorama.am: How would you comment on the statement of the Artsakh Foreign Ministry regarding the trilateral meeting in Brussels, which harshly criticized Europe, but made not a single mention of Nikol Pashinyan?

Metakse Hakobyan: We expressed our own attitude towards the Artsakh authorities long ago. No matter which agency makes a statement or takes a step, the Artsakh authorities’ so-called submissiveness to the Armenian leadership is evident. The statement was also a manifestation of silence, or worse, a statement to the detriment of Artsakh, because we have to realize that both the West and Russia are just mediators, the beneficiary is Artsakh and the interested party is Armenia. So, the Artsakh leadership should have behaved accordingly.

Artsakh’s authorities, as a beneficiary party, should have been part of those policies and have had the guts to oppose them, but they don’t and cannot do it, because, in fact, as Arayik Harutyunyan once said, they agree with the Armenian authorities in everything, down to every comma, which they do not even hide.

That's why the statement of the Foreign Ministry had to be like that, there’s nothing surprising about it. Moreover, yesterday both the Artsakh authorities and some other political forces were apparently solving “much more important problems". Instead of starting prompt and serious discussions and searching for countermeasures, were busy dividing the post of state minister. It was much more important to them than Artsakh's survival.