Day: April 22, 2024

Armenia’s National Security chief Armen Grigoryan told Armenpress that the Russian forces will head to Goris and Simian in the Syunik Province, where they will remain for temporary period of time.

Videos posted on various media outlets showed the peacekeeping convoy entering Armenian on the Hakkari bridge, the site of a 10-month standoff between Armenians and Azerbaijanis last year during Baku’s blockade of Artsakh.

“In order to be deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh and carry out peacekeeping activities, the Armenian government allocated temporary deployment sites to the Russian peacekeeping units in Goris and Sisian. The location was also chosen with the aim of ensuring the normal operation of the Lachin Corridor,” Grigoryan said.

“Since the Russian peacekeeping troops are leaving Nagorno Karabakh, they obviously cannot stay in the Republic of Armenia. A group of peacekeepers and a motorcade headed for the temporary deployment sites in Goris and Sisian to organize their closure,” Grigoryan added.

The Kremlin was asked to comment about the Russian peacekeepers’ withdrawal. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, saying his decision to recognize Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Artsakh prompted the early departure of the troops.

“This [withdrawal] corresponds to the current realities that have developed in the region after Armenia recognized the borders of Azerbaijan as of 1991,” Peskov told Russian state television. “The geopolitical realities there have changed, and there are no functions left for [the peacekeepers] anymore.”

The post Russian Peacekeepers Continue Withdrawal from Artsakh, Arrive in Armenia first appeared on The South Caucasus News.

Sites

Angry Tavush Residents Protest Land Handover to Azerbaijan

Post author By Mike Nova
Post date April 22, 2024

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Hundreds of residents of border villages in Armenia’s northern Tavush province blocked a key national highway for the third consecutive day on Monday in protest against the Armenian government’s decision to hand over four adjacent areas to Azerbaijan.

The government officially announced the unilateral concessions on Friday right after a fresh round of Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on the delimitation of the long border between the two South Caucasus states.

The four areas used to be occupied by small Azerbaijani villages captured by Armenian forces in 1991-1992. For its part, Azerbaijan seized at the time large swathes of agricultural land belonging to several Tavush villages. None of that land will be given back to Armenia under the terms of the preliminary border deal reached on Friday.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan defended the deal welcomed by Western powers, saying that it will help to prevent another war with Azerbaijan. However, many residents of the Tavush villages close to the contested border areas are strongly opposed to it, saying that they would lose access to their existing agricultural land, have trouble communicating with the rest of the country and be far more vulnerable to Azerbaijani armed attacks.

The Armenian opposition groups have also condemned Pashinyan’s latest concessions to Baku, They argue that the areas in question are strategically located along one of the two main Armenian highways leading to the Georgian border as well as the pipeline supplying Russian natural gas to Armenia via Georgia.

Azerbaijan would gain control of a section of that highway adjacent to the Tavush village of Kirants as a result of the planned Armenian troop withdrawal. Scores of residents of Kirants and several other border communities rallied there early on Saturday in a bid to scuttle the land handover to Baku. They were joined by Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the outspoken head of the Tavush Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

“The delimitation process must take place in a comprehensive, package manner, with clear rules and maps, in accordance with Armenia’s laws, through a referendum, and with international guarantees,” Galstanyan insisted on Monday.

The protesters unblocked the road section on Saturday night after Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian agreed to meet with the heads of the village administrations on Monday. They blocked it again the following morning amid reports that the Armenian military is about to start de-mining the border areas in preparation for their handover to Azerbaijan. The military did not comment on those reports.

“They told to us to open the road so that they give us an answer on Monday,” one woman from Kirants told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But they fooled us. We woke up this morning and witnessed another incident. That’s why we don’t trust in their words anymore.”

“We will keep spending nights here,” said another protester. “For a couple of times, police forces came here to try to convince us to reopen the road, but that obviously hasn’t happened.”

There were strong indications of unfolding de-mining work outside the nearby village of Voskepar on Monday. A group of angry villagers confronted military personnel who appeared to be trying to clear a contested area next to a 7th century Armenian church of landmines. They demanded an immediate halt to the apparent de-mining. Bishop Galstanyan also arrived at the scene, effectively urging the military to defy Pashinyan’s withdrawal orders.

Riot police cordoned off the church to keep Voskepar residents and other protesters from approaching it and disrupting the mine clearance seen as a preparation for the area’s handover to Azerbaijan. The tense standoff there continued for a few hours, with the protesters eventually given access to the church.

The post Angry Tavush Residents Protest Land Handover to Azerbaijan first appeared on The South Caucasus News.

Sites

Yerevan Concerned about Baku’s Rhetoric on Armenia’s Military Reforms

Post author By Mike Nova
Post date April 22, 2024

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a group of reporters from Great Britain on Monday that his government is concerned about the threats being made by Azerbaijan regarding Armenia’s efforts to reform and strengthen its military capabilities.

“We are worried about a number of statements coming from Azerbaijan regarding the reforms and modernization of the Armenian army,” Pashinyan said during a joint interview with a journalist from the United Kingdom who interviewed him in Yerevan.

“If we look at the percentage of the military budgets of Azerbaijan and Armenia, there is a significant imbalance here, but even in the conditions of this imbalance, Azerbaijan is reacting very aggressively to the reforms of Armenia’s Armed Forces and the acquisition of weapons and equipment, although we all understand that these acquisitions are exclusively for defense purposes,” Pashinyan added.

“I have said on several occasions that no country can challenge another country’s right to have a combat-ready military. I think that having a combat-ready army is also important for peace, for creating the right balance of power. And this is also the reason why, when Azerbaijan raises these issues, we also do not leave those statements unanswered,” Pashinyan said.

He explained that the purchase of weapons by Armenia is not more than 15 to 20 percent of the weapons purchased by Azerbaijan, both financially and in terms of volume, and is mainly of a defensive nature and of defensive significance.

Pashinyan told the British journalists that Yerevan has proposed to Baku to create a bilateral arms control mechanism to prevent an arms race in the region.

“We have proposed and continue to propose that a simultaneous withdrawal of troops take place from the border recorded in the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration. We have proposed to sign a non-aggression agreement even before reaching an agreement on a peace treaty, because it is a very simple agreement , especially now that we have put the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration at the heart of our delimitation and demarcation process,” Pashinyan added.

“We are not preparing for war; we are preparing for peace. However, until we are convinced that the Republic of Armenia will not be attacked, we naturally have to develop our defense capabilities,” said Pashinyan.

“Furthermore, I have stated that aside from the 29,743 square kilometer territory, the Republic of Armenia has no ambitions in any direction: neither to the south, nor to the west, nor to the north, nor to the east. We believe that we should build and develop our sovereignty and independence on this foundation,’’ said the prime minister.

Pashinyan also discussed the pending peace treaty with Azerbaijan that is being negotiated, saying that while establishing peace would benefit the international sphere, Armenia and Azerbaijan will the primary beneficiaries of that peace.

The prime minister boasted that, during that past five months, Yerevan and Baku have reached two major agreements, one of which was Armenia’s official decision on Friday to cede four villages in the Tavush Province and receive nothing in return from Azerbaijan.

The post Yerevan Concerned about Baku’s Rhetoric on Armenia’s Military Reforms first appeared on The South Caucasus News.