Weekly update
25 December
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi's conservative government had approached Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to sign a three-way gas-swap deal. According to middleeasteye.net the only official detail about the swap contract was disclosed by Iran's oil minister, Javad Oji. He said that Iran would receive between 1.5 and two billion cubic metres of gas from Turkmenistan at the Sarakhs border crossing and deliver the same amount to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan at Iran's Astara border. "I think this contract only has political importance for the establishment. This is the price that Iran must pay to keep Azerbaijan happy," the expert concluded. The opening of the 21km corridor, which Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has persistently demanded following the 2020 war, would effectively cut off Iran's access to the Caucasus through Armenia. Despite solid opposition by Iran and Armenia to the Zangezur passageway, experts believe that if Turkey and Russia decide to permit Azerbaijan to use the corridor, neither Iran nor Armenia has the power to go against it. "Armenia follows what Russia decides upon, so there is not much space left for Iran to play a role. If tomorrow Russia orders Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Zangezur corridor and hand it over to the Russian peacekeepers, Armenia will do that. As they did in Karabakh to end last year's war." According to the veteran diplomat, even during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war, Iran was not the most influential country in the region, and its efforts to broker a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia were unsuccessful. However, at that time Tehran could at least host the fighting neighbours for peace talks.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-azerbaijan-approach-increase-economic-ties
24 December
Armenia is interested in concluding a peace treaty and launching negotiations on it, in line with Armenpress PM Pashinyan said in an online press conference, answering the question if it’s possible to conclude a peace treaty with Azerbaijan in the context of unblocking transport infrastructures and providing security guarantees. The Prime Minister emphasized that due to the propaganda chaos, constant attempts are made to create the impression that the Armenian authorities are against demarcation and delimitation. He assured that there is no such thing. "There is an impression that we are against the peace treaty and the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Of course, we are not against, of course, we are for, we are interested in it," he said. Armenia also wants to open communications, and it will move forward in all those directions. Pashinyan considers it normal that during these talks Azerbaijan will try to make its interests more expressive, and Armenia will try to make its interests better expressed. “But if we manage to formulate a model of peace that will be beneficial to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, then perhaps the negotiating table will be less of a field of conflict or opposition, but rather an opportunity of understanding the other side's point of view, come to some acceptable provisions from those points of view and to form some type of a new scheme“, the PM said, adding that there clearly were such preconditions in Sochi and Brussels. According to Pashinyan, after Sochi, however, events took place that seriously called into question that conversation. Fortunately, no such events have taken place following the Brussels meeting.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1071656.html
23 December
The government of Azerbaijan has demanded that Google remove the Armenian names of places in Artsakh from its Maps application, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry reported Thursday. In line with asbarez.com “We would like to bring to your attention that in addition to including the official names of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region in the Azerbaijani language within the Google Maps application, the issue of using fake names in the Armenian language has been raised before Google via official diplomatic channels,” said Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva, who was referring to names of cities and towns in Artsakh currently being occupied by Azerbaijan. According to her, a letter was sent to the company’s management regarding the “distortion of the names of the territories of Azerbaijan,” and a list of “official geographical names” of the relevant territories was submitted to the company. “Moreover, we would like to recall that in May of this year we presented a national report prepared by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan at the annual session of the UN Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN),” added Abdyllayeva, who explained that the report contained a list of 4,589 settlements officially standardized and approved in Azerbaijani, English, and Russian, “as well as the names of 125 geographical places located and identified in our territories affected by the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.” “Resolutions adopted by the United Nations Conference on Standardization of Geographical Names do not allow changes in standardized geographical names by any competent public authority of any state, and such changes cannot be recognized by the United Nations,” said Abdullayeva, who urged Azerbaijanis to appeal to Google since “this application is based on the principle of individual requests and approaches of users.”
https://asbarez.com/baku-urges-google-maps-to-remove-armenian-names-from-karabakh-map/
22 December
Yerevan’s Municipal Council, by a vote of 44-10, approved a no-confidence measure that ousted Hayk Marutyan as Yerevan mayor and replaced him with Deputy Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan. According to hetq.am the ruling My Step (Im Kayl) faction of the Yerevan Municipal Council introduced the no-confidence measure, arguing that Marutyan had severed his ties with Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party and has since failed to implement the party’s campaign obligations. Marutyan headed the My Step alliance’s electoral list in the 2018 Yerevan Municipal Council election. The alliance won the election with 81% of the vote. The My Step Alliance, comprised of the Civil Contract Party, the Mission Party and various civil society representatives, was formed in August 2018 and was led by Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan. The alliance dissolved in May 2021, following an announcement that Civil Contract would participate in the 2021 Armenian parliamentary elections independently.
https://hetq.am/en/article/139331
21 December
The Executive Board of the IMF concluded the 2021 Article IV consultation and completed the fourth and fifth reviews of Armenia’s performance under its economic program supported by the SBA. The completion of these reviews will allow the authorities to draw SDR 51.43 million (about US$ 72 million), bringing total disbursements to SDR 283.09 million (about US$ 396 million). Armenia’s three-year SBA of SDR 308.8 million (about US$ 432 million), equivalent to 239.75 percent of Armenia’s quota in the IMF, was approved by the IMF’s Board on May 17, 2019 and augmented on May 18, 2020. According to armradio.am following the Executive Board’s discussion Mr. Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, made the following statement: “Following the deep recession in 2020, Armenia’s economy has begun to recover despite ongoing challenges. Uncertainty, however, remains high, including over global economic and financial conditions and the trajectory of COVID-19, and it remains important to strike an appropriate balance between the withdrawal of targeted policy support and the rebuilding of medium-term buffers until the recovery is firmly entrenched. Armenia’s performance under its program supported by an IMF Stand-By Arrangement continues to be broadly satisfactory.
https://en.armradio.am/2021/12/21/imf-projects-5%c2%bd-percent-economic-growth-in-armenia-this-year/
20 December
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian appeared satisfied on Monday with the results of his most recent talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev mediated by Russia and the European Union. According to azatutyun.am Aliyev and Pashinian held a trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on November 26 before meeting twice in Brussels last week. The Brussels talks were organized by European Council President Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron.“I want to point out that after the meetings in Sochi and Brussels I see an opportunity for us to move step by step along the path of opening an era of peaceful development for our country and the region,” said Pashinian. “At least the government of Armenia will do everything in its power to achieve progress in this direction,” he told senior officials of the country’s National Security Service (NSS). Pashinian did not go into details of the talks. He said the NSS will have to cope with more serious challenges “in this new environment” but did not elaborate. Speaking just a few hours before the December 14 meeting, Aliyev said people and cargo passing through that “Zangezur corridor” must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Pashinian swiftly rejected the demand, saying that it runs counter to Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings reached with Russian mediation. Aliyev described the talks as “productive” before meeting with Pashinian again on December 15.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31617942.html
19 December
From the 19th of December 2021 Wizz Air started operating flights on Vilnius-Yerevan-Vilnius route, Zvartnots International Airport informs. According to armradio.am flights will be operated twice a week every Wednesday and Sunday. For the availability of air tickets, their acquisition and other details, it’s necessary to visit the webpage of the airline at wizzair.com or contact the local travel agency.
https://en.armradio.am/2021/12/19/wizz-air-starts-vilnius-yerevan-flights/
18 December
The Armenian government is planning to restore 45 km of the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz section of the railway, for which it will spend about $200 million, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan told TASS on Saturday. In line with armradio.am, “According to preliminary estimates of experts, the restoration of sections of railway tracks passing through the territory of Armenia will cost about $200 million. The length of the section [passing through Armenia] will be about 45 km, and the total length of the track – about 340 km,” he noted. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the railway route connecting Armenia and Azerbaijan will operate “according to the accepted international procedures for the implementation of railway transportation, on the principles of reciprocity, within the framework of the sovereignty and jurisdictions of the countries through whose territories it passes.”
https://en.armradio.am/2021/12/18/restoring-45-km-section-of-railway-to-azerbaijan-will-cost-armenia-about-200-thousand-deputy-pm/
Sources: middleeasteye.net, armenpress.am, asbarez.com, hetq.am, armradio.am, azatutyun.am.