Weekly update
12 March
Foreign Affairs Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov stated that Azerbaijan sent a 5-point proposal to Armenia on normalization of relations and is waiting for response. “There is no factor of occupation any more. In this situation, the Azerbaijani side, despite all the difficulties and problems of the past, comes in favor of normalizing relations with Armenia,” Trend quoted the Azerbaijani minister as saying. “We have recently sent a new proposal to Armenia as a sign of goodwill. We have proposed some fundamental principles that include the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We expressed our readiness to develop relations on the basis of certain principles. Armenia should consider this and give its answer. If Armenia sincerely wants to normalize relations, then this is a very good opportunity for them. Armenia’s response will be known in the near future, and of course we will take appropriate steps,” Bayramov said. “All the principles mentioned in this document are the principles of international relations,” the Azerbaijani minister stressed. These proposals include the issue of border demarcation as well. Mediamax notes that commenting on March 11 on the prospects of signing peace agreement with Azerbaijan, Armenian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan said: “The signing of the agreement should be surely preceded by a negotiation process. Since mutual statements have not yet developed into a concrete negotiation process, as the two countries do not have rich experience of direct negotiations, Armenia will probably soon apply to the mediators - the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to initiate the peace negotiations with Azerbaijan. The issue is currently being elaborated.”
https://mediamax.am/en/news/foreignpolicy/46680/
11 March
On the third day of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin called a meeting with Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff of the Russian Armed Forces, and Sergei Shoigu, the minister of defense. In line with foreignaffairs.com, seated at the opposite end of an extraordinarily long table, Putin ordered them to “transfer the deterrence forces of the Russian army”—which include its nuclear weapons—“to a special mode of combat duty.” The directive was aired on Russian national television. As Putin made his announcement, both Gerasimov and Shoigu looked surprised and uneasy. The scene is the latest in a series of episodes in which Putin commands or demeans his own senior officials, and it illustrates an unfortunate reality. Over the last decade, Putin has turned his government into a personalist regime: a system in which he monopolizes meaningful authority. Today, unlike during Putin’s first decade in power, there are virtually no dissenting voices within his small circle of advisers, nor are there any insiders who challenge his leadership. Instead, Russia’s major political figures are now all yes men who tell Putin what he wants to hear and hide inconvenient facts. Putin lives in a bubble of isolation and disinformation, which has reenforced his paranoid fear of NATO, his desire to revive the Russian empire, and his delusions of Russian military prowess.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-03-11/putins-nuclear-bluff
10 March
The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that strongly condemns Baku’s systematic destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Karabakh. During the discussion of the measure, members of the European Parliament accused Azerbaijan of committing cultural genocide in Artsakh. According to asbarez.com the resolution, which passed by a vote of 635 in favor, 2 opposed and 42 abstentions, also emphasizes that Baku’s steps constitute a violation international law, as well as a recent decision by the International Court of Justice. The European Parliament measure says that over the past 30 years, Azerbaijan has committed irreversible destruction of religious and cultural heritage, especially in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, where 89 Armenian churches, 20,000 graves and more than 5,000 tombstones have been destroyed. The resolution emphasizes that the elimination of traces of the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno Karabakh is carried out not only for damaging or destroying it, but also for falsifying history by presenting it as the so-called Caucasian-Albanian, stating that on February 3, 2022 Minister Anar Karimov announced the establishment of a working group responsible for eliminating “traces invented by Armenians on Albanian religious temples.” The resolution admits that the elimination of the Armenian cultural heritage is part of a wider systemic, state-level policy of anti-Armenianism, hatred of Armenians, encouraged by the Azerbaijani authorities, including glorification of violence, anti-humanism, and territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia, threatening peace and security in the South Caucasus.
https://asbarez.com/as-european-parliament-overwhelmingly-condemns-baku-lawmakers-warn-of-cultural-genocide-in-artsakh/
According to azatutyun.am French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday pledged to increase economic aid to Armenia and deepen broader French-Armenian relations in the face of what he called destabilizing effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Macron denounced Moscow’s “historical revisionism” and “imperial dreams” as he addressed a French-Armenian cooperation forum in Paris after holding talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The two leaders made a joint appearance at the concluding session of the daylong event organized by their governments. “What is happening in Ukraine today is not without consequences for the rest of the region and not without consequences for Armenia,” Macron declared in his speech. “So we are extremely vigilant about that.”
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31745205.html
9 March
The two opposition alliances represented in the Armenian parliament said on Wednesday that they will boycott the inauguration ceremony of the country’s new president elected by lawmakers last week. The deputies representing the Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances already boycotted the two rounds of balloting through which the pro-government majority in the National Assembly installed Minister of High-Tech Industry Vahagn Khachatrian as president. They said he does not meet constitutional provisions requiring the presidency to be a “really neutral institution consolidating the society.”Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanian said on Wednesday that Khachatrian himself has admitted being a member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team. “He is Nikol Pashinian’s president,” Mamijanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We see no reason to attend the inauguration ceremony of Nikol Pashinian’s presidency.” “They did not elect a president of the Republic of Armenia,” agreed Hayastan’s Ishkhan Saghatelian. “They just installed a member of their team as president. Therefore, we are not and will not be part of that process.”Artur Hovannisian, a senior lawmaker from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, denounced the opposition boycott. “I believe that the opposition deputies are being disrespectful towards the Armenian statehood,” he said.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31745044.html
8 March
The Azerbaijani military is obstructing the repair works of a gas pipeline which was damaged earlier on March 8. According to armenpress.am the main pipeline supplying natural gas from Armenia to Artsakh was damaged due to a malfunction at 01:00, March 8. The damaged section is near an Azerbaijani military position. “At this moment the Azerbaijani side is obstructing the launch of repair works,” the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Artsakh said in a statement. “Negotiations with mediation of the Russian peacekeeping mission are underway for launching the repair works tomorrow,” it said.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1077373.html
7 March
Senior Armenian lawmakers expressed confidence on Monday that troops from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will not be sent to Ukraine to reinforce the invading Russian forces. According to azatutyun.am “It’s important to point out that CSTO mechanisms are activated when a CSTO member states is attacked,” said Vahagn Aleksanian of the ruling Civil Contract party. “I don’t think that the hostilities [in Ukraine] are likely to move to the territory of the Russian Federation, at least at this point.”Eduard Aghajanian, another Civil Contract figure heading the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations, dismissed speculation about possible CSTO involvement in the war in Ukraine as a “hypothetical, non-existent agenda.” Moscow has so far given no indications that it might seek a CSTO operation in Ukraine. Only one non-Russian member of the military alliance, Belarus, is involved in the war, having served as a launch pad for Russian troops advancing towards the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The other CSTO member states -- Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan -- have refrained from publicly backing the Russian invasion. They all abstained last week from voting on a UN General Assembly resolution that demanded an immediate Russian withdrawal from Ukraine. As recently as in early January, Russia and its CSTO allies sent more than 2,000 troops to Kazakhstan after being called in to help stabilize the Central Asian nation rocked by deadly unrest. It was their first ever joint military operation. While agreeing to dispatch some 100 Armenian soldiers to Kazakhstan, Armenian leaders chided the bloc for not responding similarly to their request for military aid made after last year’s Azerbaijani incursions into Armenian territory.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31740638.html
6 March
Iran has expressed its readiness for implementing various infrastructure projects including dams, roads, and power plants in Armenia, this according to Tehran Times citing a statement released by Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO). In line with hetq.am the announcement was made during a recent meeting in Yerevan between Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Reza Fatemi-Amin and TPO Head Alireza Peyman-Pak with Armenian Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan. Peyman-Pak said Iranian companies are ready to provide power plant services as well as the supply of fuel including gasoline and diesel to Armenia. The two sides also discussed cooperation in other areas including transportation, mining, and transit.
https://hetq.am/en/article/141926
5 March
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, at a news conference after his meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov in Baku, said that Ankara supports the signing of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to hetq.am, Çavuşoğlu said that his government is consulting with Azerbaijan when it comes to Armenia-Turkey normalization talks. “And that coordination must continue. Implementation of the Zangezur corridor is also important,” Çavuşoğlu said, adding that meetings of the 3+3 platform designed to unblock transport and communication links in the South Caucasus are scheduled for this year. Bayramov said that Baku supports the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia. "Azerbaijan continues to support the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. This is a chance for Armenia. Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s position is based on international principles. When the Armenian leadership and society realize that what is good for Azerbaijan and Turkey will not be bad for Armenia, then relations will develop," Bayramov said. The two foreign ministers also discussed the process to demarcate the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.
https://hetq.am/en/article/141901
Sources: mediamax.am, foreignaffairs.com, asbarez.com, azatutyun.am, armenpress.am, hetq.am