Category: 2023

 12:24,

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Stability and peace in the South Caucasus region could become the consensus between the West and Russia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said.

“Azerbaijan is in euphoria after the 44-Day War and is thinking to take as much as possible, or , if possible, take everything. And its perception is being aggravated by the international situation. Basically, Azerbaijan has directly or indirectly become an energy and logistic crossroad and its importance for both Russia and some Western countries has increased. But this situation has both risks and opportunities,” Pashinyan said.

According to the Armenian PM, the risks are visible nearly every day, while the fact that South Caucasus itself is a big crossroad is the opportunity. And Armenia’s and Georgia’s role are no less important.

“In this context, the region’s stability and peace could become a consensus between the West and Russia. Because, if our region were to once again explode, it could become a problem for both Russia and the West at least in terms of energy, with other consequences stemming from energy,” Pashinyan said.

Aliyev: “Armenia must officially state that Karabakh is Azerbaijan”

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated today that “Armenia must confirm the absence of territorial claims to Baku and state that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.”

“Armenia, which once said that “Karabakh is Armenia and that’s it”, today must repeat our words: “Karabakh is Azerbaijan and an exclamation mark”. When you say “A”, you need to say “B”. Armenia, which has declared its readiness for a peace treaty on the basis of the Alma Ata Declaration, must now officially declare that Karabakh is Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said in an interview with AzTV.

 12:55,

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The Republic of Armenia fully recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and expects Azerbaijan to do the same by recognizing the entire territory of the Armenian SSR as the Republic of Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said.

“The peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan would become realistic if the two countries recognize each other’s territorial integrity without ambiguities and traps and assume obligation to not make territorial claims against each other, now or ever,” Pashinyan said in parliament.

Pashinyan reminded that such an agreement was reached with the Azerbaijani president during their meetings in Prague and Sochi on October 6 and October 31 in 2022 respectively.

“Nevertheless, official statements are heard both from Yerevan and Baku accusing the other side of not adhering to the agreements. I want to reiterate that the Republic of Armenia fully recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and we expect Azerbaijan to do the same, by recognizing the entire territory of the Armenian SSR as Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan said that Azerbaijan’s accusations that Armenia is refusing to fully recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity during the peace treaty talks are untrue.

He said that Armenia itself offered to attach the maps of the Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs – approved by the USSR – to the treaty as the basis of territorial integrity of the two countries.

 13:18,

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has again called for the development of international mechanisms guaranteeing the implementation of a possible peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Without such mechanisms, a new war or escalation could happen even a day after signing the treaty, Pashinyan warned.

Speaking about the mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity by Armenia and Azerbaijan, PM Pashinyan said that Armenia itself offered to attach the maps of the Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs – approved by the USSR – to the treaty as the basis of territorial integrity of the two countries.

“But it is here that we reach the biggest and most difficult problem, Nagorno Karabakh. And there is a nuance, which has been highly urgent during the past sixteen years, but we haven’t addressed it. The problem is that usually we address and have addressed the future of Nagorno Karabakh, but it is important to address the issue of Nagorno Karabakh’s situation at any moment during the existence of the conflict,” Pashinyan said. He said he attempted to do this several times during the past five years, but regrettably the issue transforms into a dispute between the opposition and the government, which is also normal.

“During the entire course of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination were placed side by side. This actually recorded realities which we cannot admit, but regardless of admitting or not, they exist. In this context, the right to self-determination means that you, as a beneficiary of the right to self-determination, are raising the issue of revising your, so to say, nominal A status. Theoretically this could mean to revise the A status and make it a B status, or revise it and not change it, or revise it and make it A+1 or A-1 status,” Pashinyan said. But without noting the A status, with this logic there can’t be any talk about any future status, meaning the self-determination.

“If you raise the issue of self-determination it means you are part of something. If you are a part of something, you’ve either already self-determined or don’t have the need to self-determination. Now, with our own hands, during the time known to you, we have created this negotiations, political, geopolitical reality, cemented it, but after that we’ve said we want a B status for Nagorno Karabakh, but we’ve never publicly accepted the A status. We’ve lied to ourselves with this, the people of Armenia, the people of Nagorno Karabakh,” Pashinyan said, adding that there won’t be peace until they face this fact. Pashinyan said he considers his political commitment to be peace. In this context, Pashinyan attached high importance to the development of an international mechanism for dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert to ensure the implementation of the rights and security agenda of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh.

“It is highly important that international mechanisms guaranteeing the possible peace treaty implementation get developed, otherwise war or new escalation could erupt the next day of the signing of the treaty,” Pashinyan said.

 

He also highlighted the opening of economic and transport connections, noting that as stipulated by the 9 November statement, the roads must be reopened under the sovereignty and legislation of the parties.

 14:42,

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. The six troops wounded near the village of Tegh during the April 11 Azerbaijani attack are recovering, Healthcare Minister Anahit Avanesyan told lawmakers in parliament on April 18.

She said the condition of the survivors is getting better every day.

The one serviceman who was critically wounded is already in stable condition, she added.

“None of them is in life-threatening condition anymore, and three of the six are still receiving hospital care,” Avanesyan said.

On April 11, Armenian troops carrying out engineering works near the village of Tegh close to the border with Azerbaijan came under heavy gunfire in an unprovoked attack. Four Armenian soldiers were killed and six wounded.

 13:49,

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that by adopting the Madrid Principles as the basis for resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in 2007, Armenia recognized Nagorno Karabakh to be part of Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan made the remarks in parliament in response to a question from Hayastan (Armenia) faction MP Artur Khachatryan.

The lawmaker asked the PM to clarify why the 2022 report on the government’s program doesn’t mention the right to self-determination of the people of Nagorno Karabakh when the 2021-2026 government program noted it as one of the bases for conflict resolution.

Pashinyan said that in the negotiations legacy which he received in 2018 there is no “people of Nagorno Karabakh” wording, but rather an “entire population of Nagorno Karabakh” wording. “There words are highly important. Yes, the people is a constitutive entity under the Helsinki Act and all other acts. The population isn’t a constitutive entity, meaning it is not an entity to sovereignty. And third, if we say self-determination, from whom and where are we self-determining? For example, why aren’t we saying let Armenia self-determine? Because Armenia self-determined with the 1991 Alma Ata Declaration. From whom? From the Soviet Union, because it was part of the Soviet Union,” Pashinyan said.

PM Pashinyan explained that Armenia had a concept around this issue before 2007. The concept was the following: Nagorno Karabakh, like the others, is also self-determining from the Soviet Union, and there was a narrative that Nagorno Karabakh has never been part of Azerbaijan. In 2007 the Madrid Principles emerged, which stipulated that determining the status of Nagorno Karabakh and the entire process must be agreed with Azerbaijan. “Why must it be agreed with Azerbaijan if we don’t recognize Nagorno Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan? We have recognized Nagorno Karabakh to be part of Azerbaijan with the Madrid Principles. I’ve said it is a problem when our negotiations content and public narrative don’t match. We’ve recognized but we didn’t say, and all wars and fighting were related to this,” he said.

PM Pashinyan added that an entity to self-determination is the one who wants to self-determine, but Nagorno Karabakh has been left out of the negotiations process in 1998. After this, the right to self-determination was simply left written in the Helsinki Final Act.

“And today I am saying, let’s decide, either we face this or let’s note what’s going to happen. I have information, I have the analysis, and I am saying, if we don’t face this reality, it’s not going to happen,” Pashinyan added.

MP Khachatryan argued that Pashinyan is equalizing self-determination with independence, whereas the Helsinki Final Act defines self-determination as something completely different. For example, the MP said, Armenia could self-determine and decide that it no longer needs a parliamentary republic and adopt theocracy. The MP argued that this is what the Helsinki Final Act is all about.

 

Pashinyan answered by saying that Azerbaijan has been saying the same thing during the entire negotiations process. “They were also saying that self-determination doesn’t mean that an independent state must exist. They were also saying that the entity to that self-determination aren’t the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh alone, the Azerbaijanis are also an entity, they were saying that the Azerbaijanis must also decide. That’s why I am speaking about the people-population wording. I’ve said back in 2019 that the negotiator of the Nagorno Karabakh issue must be a representative of the people of Nagorno Karabakh because the people of Nagorno Karabakh did not vote in our parliamentary elections, hence I don’t have a mandate. I’ve continuously and constantly expressed these positions,” Pashinyan said.

Asked about his vision of a future status for NK, Pashinyan said there can’t be any talk about a future status as long as the status it has so far isn’t stipulated in the logic of the narrative voiced by the MP.

Speaking about the MP’s observation regarding the ICJ ruling on the Kosovo issue, Pashinyan said that the ICJ had determined that self-determination doesn’t require permission from central authorities. “The Russian president also spoke about this in context of the events in Ukraine. He said that a region doesn’t have to apply to the [central authorities] for self-determination. There was a lot of discussion back then, but no one noticed that in 2007, with the Madrid Principles, we already accepted that we must do it together with them, it can’t be done unilaterally. That’s why I am saying that we’ve had a different concept before 2007,” the Prime Minister said.

 14:59,

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. General Secretary of the European Weightlifting Federation Milan Mihajlovic praised the level of organization of the 2023 European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan.

“The European federation is very happy that the championships are held in Armenia. Armenian sports, particularly weightlifting, is well known in the world. We are happy that Yerevan is hosting the 2023 European championships. The organization is impressive, it’s obvious that work has been done in this direction,” Mihajlovic told ARMENPRESS.

Mihajlovic also spoke about the values of sport.

“We are all friends here and we are happy to preserve the values in this area. Regrettably, sometimes some people don’t understand this and ruin the atmosphere and create difficulties for us all,” Mihajlovic added, apparently referring to incident with the Azerbaijani flag during the opening ceremony.

 16:05,

YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on April 18 that he wants his questioning in the parliamentary ad hoc commission investigating the circumstances of the 44-Day War to be public. He said he plans to reveal why he didn’t sign a document on ending the war on October 19th, 2020, which the Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke about.

“We’ve agreed, and assumed obligation, that I must be heard in the investigative committee,” Pashinyan said in parliament when asked by MP Vahagn Aleksanyan.

“I’m asking the commission chairman Andranik Kocharyan whether or not the opposition will come. He says he doesn’t know, that perhaps they won’t. Well, all right, let’s say we came, people would say that the opposition wasn’t there, they came and discussed all by themselves and left,” Pashinyan said.

He added that discussions are underway to find an option for the questioning to be public.

“The foreign ministry raises its issues here, the interior ministry too. I’m thinking, if I come and speak at the commission, and my speech gets classified top secret and is kept in a safe, the opposition will boycott and people will say it was a cover up,” he said, adding that he realizes the risks.

 17:30,

YEREVAN, 18 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 18 April, USD exchange rate down by 0.16 drams to 387.78 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.33 drams to 425.67 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.01 drams to 4.75 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 1.12 drams to 482.32 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 307.74 drams to 24879.35 drams. Silver price down by 8.05 drams to 316.55 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.