Day: September 24, 2023

13:21, 24 September 2023

A lightning military operation, lasting barely twenty-four hours, has put an end to the dream of an independent Nagorno Karabakh. This was announced by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, after proclaiming the “reintegration” into the country of the entire region, inhabited until now by slightly more than 120,000 people, mainly ethnic Armenians. Since December 2022 the enclave had been completely encircled following the blockade by Azeri troops and activists of the Lachin corridor, the territory’s only connection to Armenia.

The security of the road had been taken over by Russia, which had erected interposition troops and aspired to mediation work. Absorbed in its energies by the war it was waging against Ukraine, Russia neglected to pay attention to this commitment, all the more so since the Kremlin had warned of Armenia’s pro-Western fickleness with the consequent cooling of relations with Moscow. 

For President Aliyev, this victory, which puts an end to thirty years of frozen conflict, represents an obvious strengthening of his international position. His main supporters also share part of this triumph: Erdogan’s Turkey, confronting Armenia since the genocide of 1915, which Ankara refuses to recognize as such, and Netanyahu’s Israel, which supplies arms to Azerbaijan, an equipment that has proved sufficient and decisive for the triumph of Baku. 

The last issue of this war is to determine the fate of the Armenian inhabitants of the failed republic of Artsakh, the name with which they had baptized the territory and whose capital they had established in Stepanakert. After being subjected to a nine-month siege, with a lack of food, water and medicine, many have gone into hiding, fearful of being put to the sword by the victorious troops. This was dramatically stated to Agence France Presse by Armine Hayrapetian, the spokeswoman for the government of the separatist republic of Artsakh, who warned of the “massacres” which, in her opinion, the Azeris would undertake as soon as they entered the capital. 

More likely, however, is that an agreement will be reached on the evacuation of the 120,000 Armenians, to be hosted by Yerevan. In addition to the human crisis that this entails, there will undoubtedly be a political crisis in Armenia itself. Its current government of Nikol Pashinyan has already been accused of passivity and of not having done enough to defend and help its beleaguered countrymen. This pressure will be accentuated by the arrival of these refugees, who will bring to the country not only bitterness over the tragedy of their exile and the hardships suffered, but also reproaches to the “Armenian motherland” for not having effectively defended her children. 

The two countries, Armenia and Azerbaijan, will further accentuate their animosity and differences. Both had gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1918, but both were again swallowed up by the USSR, which determined that Nagorno-Karabakh would remain an autonomous territory within the then Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. 

Like many other peoples forcibly subdued by the central power in Moscow, the two countries appeased their mutual enmity, but it flared up again as soon as the Soviet Union disintegrated. Three years of war, between 1991 and 1994, ended with the ethnic Armenian rebels conquering most of the territory, invading in the process other surrounding regions of Upper Karabakh, inside Azerbaijan, which were not in dispute. 

Baku never recognized the borders that emerged from that confrontation; it always claimed the territory arguing that the Azeri population living in Upper Karabakh had been expelled and massacred by the Armenians, and the tension resulted in periodic skirmishes that would again reach their climax in the 2020 war, when Armenia and Azerbaijan crossed mutual accusations of shelling civilian settlements.

The cease-fire agreement that halted hostilities, later punctuated by new clashes, was broken last December, when Azerbaijan closed the Lachin corridor and began the encirclement by hunger and thirst that has now concluded with the lightning military operation that is supposed to be definitive, although in this as in so many other stories in history nothing can ever be taken for granted forever and ever.

STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan :Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh began a mass exodus by car on Sunday towards Armenia after Azerbaijan defeated the breakaway region’s fighters in a conflict dating from the Soviet era.

The Nagorno-Karabakh leadership told Reuters the region’s 120,000 Armenians did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan for fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing.

Those with fuel had started to drive down the Lachin corridor towards the border with Armenia, according to a Reuters reporter in the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

Reuters pictures showed dozens of cars driving out of the capital at night towards the corridor’s mountainous curves.

The Armenians of Karabakh, a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously beyond its control, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

The Armenians are not accepting Azerbaijan’s promise to guarantee their rights as the region is integrated.

“Ninety-nine point nine percent prefer to leave our historic lands,” David Babayan, an adviser to Samvel Shahramanyan, president of the self-styled Republic of Artsakh, told Reuters.

“The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a disgrace and a shame for the Armenian people and for the whole civilised world,” Babayan said. “Those responsible for our fate will one day have to answer before God for their sins.”

The Armenian leaders of Karabakh said that all those made homeless by the Azerbaijani military operation and wanting to leave would be escorted to Armenia by Russian peacekeepers.

Reuters reporters near the village of Kornidzor on the Armenian border saw some heavily laden cars pass into Armenia. Armenia said 377 refugees had arrived by Sunday evening.

It was unclear when the bulk of the population might move to Armenia.

FEARS OF VIOLENCE

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has faced calls to resign for failing to save Karabakh. In an address to the nation, he said some aid had arrived but a mass exodus looked inevitable.

“If proper conditions are not created for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their homes and there are no effective protection mechanisms against ethnic cleansing, the likelihood is rising that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see exile from their homeland as the only way to save their lives and identity,” he said, according to an official transcript.

The situation could change the delicate balance of power in the South Caucasus region, a patchwork of ethnicities crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines where Russia, the United States, Turkey and Iran vie for influence.

Last week’s Azerbaijani victory appears to end one of the decades-old “frozen conflicts” of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. President Ilham Aliyev said his “iron fist” had consigned the idea of an independent ethnic Armenian Karabakh to history and that the region would be turned into a “paradise”.

Armenia says more than 200 people were killed and 400 wounded in the Azerbaijani military operation.

FIRST KARABAKH WAR

Nagorno-Karabakh lies in an area that over centuries has come under the sway of Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and Soviets. It was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. In Soviet times it was designated an autonomous region within Azerbaijan.

As the Soviet Union crumbled, the Armenians there threw off nominal Azeri control and captured neighbouring territory in what is now known as the First Karabakh War. From 1988-1994 about 30,000 people were killed and more than a million people, mostly Azeris, displaced.

In 2020, after decades of skirmishes, Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, won a decisive 44-day Second Karabakh War, recapturing territory in and around Karabakh. That war ended with a Russian-brokered peace deal that Armenians accuse Moscow of failing to guarantee.

The Armenian authorities in the region said late on Saturday that about 150 tonnes of humanitarian cargo from Russia and another 65 tonnes of flour shipped by the International Committee of the Red Cross had arrived in the region.

With 2,000 peacekeepers in the region, Russia said that under the terms of the ceasefire six armoured vehicles, more than 800 small arms, anti-tank weapons and portable air defence systems, as well as 22,000 ammunition rounds, had been handed in by Saturday.

Space for 40,000 people from Karabakh had been prepared in Armenia. Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, has said the Armenians, who are Christian, can leave if they want.

Pashinyan blamed Russia publicly on Sunday for failing to do enough for Armenia which he said would review its alliance with Moscow.

“Some of our partners are increasingly making efforts to expose our security vulnerabilities, putting at risk not only our external, but also internal, security and stability, while violating all norms of etiquette and correctness in diplomatic and interstate relations, including obligations assumed under treaties,” Pashinyan said in his Sunday address.

Russian officials say Pashinyan is to blame for his own mishandling of the crisis, and have repeatedly said that Armenia, which borders Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia, has few other friends in the region.

(Reporting by Reuters in Stepanakert, Azerbaijan; Felix Light near Kornidzor, Armenia, and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Writing by Lidia Kelly and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Peter Graff, David Holmes and Barbara Lewis)

Baku, May 2, AZERTAC

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev, a group of employees of the State Security Service organized another climbing to the “Heydar Peak” located at an altitude of 3751 meters above sea level.

Despite the difficult terrain and severe climate, the participants reached the place on time, and paid tribute to the National Leader.

They raised the National Flag of the Republic of Azerbaijan, placed a poster with the name and emblem of the State Security Service, as well as a commemorative stone plaque made of a piece of rock taken from the natural deposits in the liberated territories and depicting the 100th anniversary of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev on the top.

Suren Surenyants, political scientist:

“As expected, the Washington round of Mirzoyan-Bayramov talks turned out to be ineffectual. I think that the negotiations in Washington were doomed to such an outcome for at least two reasons:

1) the Armenian-Azerbaijani institution of direct dialogue cannot work effectively, if only because there is a power imbalance between Yerevan and Baku, where Azerbaijan is trying to impose its entire agenda on Yerevan;

2) we may like or dislike Russia’s policy, but it is obvious that without the participation of Moscow it is impossible to achieve a resolution of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. Russia is not only the main moderator in the South Caucasus, a key mediator in this conflict, but also, in fact, a party and participant in this conflict, which also follows from the logic of the November 9 [2020] tripartite statement on the cessation of hostilities in Karabakh.

Of course, it does not follow from what has been said that the Moscow round of talks will be crowned with success. In general, it is difficult to imagine the resolution of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations without consolidated international efforts in this direction. And those cannot be in the conditions of a global conflict between Russia and the West, international chaos.

This situation, of course, creates new risks for the security of Armenia, such as the expulsion of Armenians from Artsakh.”

Ruben Mehrabyan, political scientist:

“A statement of the persistence of differences on key issues means that Aliyev is still firmly resisting, hoping that the Kremlin, after the meeting in Washington, will arrange another “St. Petersburg”, as it was after Vienna in 2016, put pressure on Yerevan, help Baku in once again slipping out from under American pressure, after which he will give another go-ahead to lawlessness in the interests of Moscow and Baku.

And this means that Yerevan MUST prevent this.

And this means leaving Moscow alone with its beloved Baku, thereby contributing to the consolidation of pressure on Baku, bringing its positions closer to Washington and Brussels.

But we are told from Prague that “a visit to Moscow is planned” [during an official visit to the Czech Republic, Pashinyan himself announced this].

Why a visit to Moscow?

I want to warn you: your incomprehensibly beloved Moscow, where you are going to go, went over your agent Serzhik [former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan] and did not spare him. Don’t think that it will spare you.

In short, you should not crawl back into this hole. Theres nothing for us there.

Meanwhile, what is called the peace agenda is a stubborn struggle for peace against the enemies of the world, and above all, against the aspirations of Moscow, which is the main enemy of the world.”

Comments from Baku

Azerbaijani MP Rasim Musabekov explained the lack of a documented agreement after the talks in America with Russian pressure on Yerevan:

“At the talks in Washington, Armenia balked at its demands and frustrated the initialing of the agreement with Azerbaijan. The continuation of negotiations in Moscow was announced. From there, the encouragement followed. The repair of the main gas pipeline in the Stavropol Territory has been completed and gas supplies to Armenia interrupted on May 1 have been restored.”

The MP also expects “an encouraging gesture from the Kremlin in the form of the beginning of the passage of Armenian trucks with agricultural products through the Lars crossing, which was stopped during the ministerial meetings in Washington.”

The mountain gave birth to a mouse. This is how Azerbaijani political scientist Farhad Mammadov summed up the talks in Washington.

“Progress… finish line… exhausted Blinken… And that’s it?! And all from the inconsistency of the position of the Americans themselves! At one time, they did not point to the occupier, did not apply sanctions against Armenia, but, on the contrary, supported it financially and politically.

There are topics on which there is no common understanding. Then Baku will take more steps to finalize it before the next meeting. The diplomatic battle will continue in Russia, it will be interesting…

The Americans need Azerbaijan to give up the enclaves… as I understand it from Pashinyan’s statement made in Prague – that’s exactly what… to help Pashinyan retain power…

And the Karabakh Armenians will remain in limbo…” he added.

Former Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Tofig Zulfugarov noted that the negotiations were difficult.

“At best, they could sign some text. Because, logically, after the meeting of foreign ministers in Washington, the heads of state should meet to sign the prepared document. After such a long meeting, a meeting of the leaders of the countries is expected. It is sensed that the United States intends to put a political end to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, because the Americans put on the negotiating table the question of a fundamental solution to the problems of the post-conflict period.”

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Persecution of believers in Azerbaijan

How Azerbaijan ended up on a special watch list due to “serious violations” of religious freedom. JAMNews presents material prepared by Meydan TV.

“I don’t want to be a citizen of Azerbaijan. Because they do not consider me as a citizen, they trample on my rights, slander, and bully me. They call us spies, traitors to the motherland. Do you see what they are accusing us of?” Rena Aliyeva, a believing Muslim woman, says.

Since the beginning of 2023, believers in Azerbaijan have been subjected to mass arrests. This is happening against the background of the aggravation of the Azerbaijani-Iranian relations. They escalated after an armed attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Iran, when the head of the security service of the embassy was killed and two of his subordinates were injured.

According to relatives of those arrested, they were all slandered and falsely accused of drug trafficking and spying for Iran.

Rena Aliyeva’s husband, Ruslan Aliyev, is a Shia Muslim. In April of this year, he was arrested on charges of drug trafficking, and subsequently the media presented him as an Iranian spy.

Rena Aliyeva claims that her husband was forced to confess to espionage, and he was arrested only because of his religious beliefs:

“They are pursuing such a policy. If the Ministry of Internal Affairs exposes these people as spies, then what does it have to do with drugs, because of which they were allegedly arrested? A spy has to have a passport, a lot of different IDs, a spy has to know a bunch of languages, he has to have an education. And my husband is a simple, uneducated person. They say that he is a traitor to the motherland, but what did he do that was so treacherous? He doesn’t have any position, he doesn’t work in the authorities, where does he get at least some information to pass it on to someone?”

“I decided, and the court does not order me”

On May 16, law enforcement agencies issued a joint statement saying that Rufulla Akhundzadeh and his son Almursal Akhundzadeh, who collaborated with the Iranian special services, developed a secret plan of action to organize an armed rebellion and assassinate officials in order to create a religious state of “Kerima” in the country.

According to the statement, part of this plan was the creation of secret groups on WhatsApp and Telegram. Ruslan Aliyev was detained as a member of one of these groups called “Qisas 313” (“Revenge 313”).

Rena Aliyeva says that her husband is a piano repairman and he joined that group solely to express his protest against the mass arrests of believers. He does not personally know Rufulla Akhundzade or his son Almursal.

“There has not yet been a trial, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is already declaring him a spy. It turns out that the ministry makes it clear that we do not reckon with the people. Then let the court do not suit. How can such a mistake be made? And they allow it because they do not consider us. Thus, the ministry seems to be telling us: “Well, suppose you catch me in a mistake, and what will you do to me? I am the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I decided, and the court does not order me.”

According to estimates by independent human rights activists, more than 500 believers are currently under arrest, 34 of whom are members of the Muslim Unity Movement (DME) created in Azerbaijan in 2015, including the leader of the movement Taleh Bagirzade and his deputy Abbas Huseynov.

Aga-Ali Yahyaev, a board member of the DME, links the recent arrests to the aggravation of Azerbaijani-Iranian relations, and considers this to be targeted pressure on Muslims who profess Shiism.

Meydan TV illustration

“We will fight in the legal plane, and at the moment, basically, we are trying to attract the attention of international organizations. Hundreds of believers are accused from scratch, for years we ourselves and our families have experienced all the bitterness and severity of these accusations,” says Yahyaev.

“He was threatened with rape with a club, a bottle”

Arrested last December on charges of drug trafficking, Mirtofig Huseynov is also a member of the Muslim Unity movement. According to his father Mirjalal Huseynov, before his arrest, he received a call from an unfamiliar number and began to ask questions about his son’s religious beliefs:

“They asked: are you the father of Mirtofig? I answered yes. Is your son a Shiite? Yes. Does he pray? Yes. These questions seemed suspicious to me, and then the son disappeared, and then I found out that he was arrested.”

Mirjalal Huseynov claims that violence was used against his son during the arrest, that he was threatened with rape and thus forced to sign a confession:

“When I saw my son, he was in a bad state. I asked what happened. At first he was ashamed, but later he said that he was threatened with rape with a club, a bottle, and therefore he was forced to sign a confession.”

In a comment to Meidan TV, interior ministry spokesman Elshad Hajiyev denies the allegations made by the detainee’s father, saying they are defensive in nature.

“If not only a drug, but even nicotine is found in my son’s blood, I will not stand up for him. Why do they do this? What have we done to this state? The laws of the jungle reign in the country. There is no question of constitutional rights here. Of course, we live in a state of law, we have rights, but our rights are violated. We were left completely alone, on our own, no one is protecting us,” says Mirjalal Huseynov.

Jeyhun Mammadov, a member of the parliamentary committee on public associations and religious institutions, states that the arrests of believers are carried out by law enforcement agencies solely for security purposes. He believes that for the time being there is no need to bring this issue to the discussion of Parliament.

On May 15, the US Department of State released the 2022 State of World Religious Freedom Report.

In this report, in accordance with the law on religious freedom, Azerbaijan, along with Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan, is included in a special watch list due to “serious violations” in the field of religious freedom.

The section of the report on Azerbaijan states that the situation with religious freedom in the country is generally negative.

It is noted that the Azerbaijani government has strengthened its control over all types of religious activities.

The report also says that, according to non-governmental organizations, 19 people were arrested last year because of their religious activities, and most of them are members of the Muslim Unity movement.

“When relations between two states deteriorate, innocent people pay the price”

Rufat Safarov, a human rights activist who monitors the arrests of Shiite Muslims, says that recently the authorities have been pursuing a particularly aggressive, repressive policy towards believers:

“Believers right and left are accused of drug trafficking, isolated from society, because they share photos of high-ranking figures from among the military, cultural and religious elite of Iran on social networks. Because they don’t agree with government policy. Unfortunately, when relations between two states deteriorate, innocent people pay the price.”

According to Safarov, the protection of believers in Azerbaijan also leaves much to be desired. Sometimes society even justifies such arrests.

“I am not saying that there have never been spy networks and potential traitors on the periphery of Azerbaijan. Were and are. All these years, Iran has been extremely interested in expanding its spy network in Azerbaijan. But Azerbaijan’s official and pro-government media label people accused of drug trafficking as Iranian spies. The question arises: if this person is a spy, show us this, let us evaluate, if he is a drug dealer, then what does espionage have to do with it?”

The human rights activist also talked about the general non-observance of religious freedom in the country:

“Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan says that religion is separated from the state. Undoubtedly, we have always encouraged the secular model of the state. But today we see that political and legal structures, the central executive power interferes with religion. The appointment of imams and akhunds to communities and mosques is handled by the State Committee for Religious Affairs. And, looking at such practice, how can we say that the state does not interfere in religion?”

This is not the first mass arrest of believers in Azerbaijan. There were also sthe o-called “Nardaran” and “Ganja” cases.

“Nardaran case”

On November 26, 2015, law enforcement agencies conducted an operation in the village of Nardaran near Baku, the population of which consists mainly of religious people.

According to eyewitnesses, “people in black masks” burst into the house of the chairman of the Muslim Unity movement, Haji Taleh Bagirzade, during prayer. Two police officers and four local residents were killed, and more than 60 people were arrested.

Taleh Bagirzade. Meydan TV illustration

Law enforcement agencies made a joint statement that a lot of weapons and ammunition were seized from that house, but there were no operational footage confirming this fact.

Most of those detained during the operation claimed that they were forced under torture to sign pre-prepared protocols of confessions.

Lawyer Fazil Namazli, who defended some of the accused, says that he had never before seen such cruel torture as those suffered by the defendants in the Nardaran case.

According to him, Haji Taleh Bagirzade was arrested because he criticized the government.

International organizations recognized Bagirzade as a “prisoner of conscience”.

But the arrests did not end there – after November 26, some more DME members and other believers were arrested in Baku and the regions.

“Ganja case”

On July 3, 2018, an armed assassination attempt was made on the former head of the executive power of the city of Ganja, Elmar Veliyev, and one police sergeant. A local resident, Yunis Safarov, was arrested on suspicion of the attempt. The law enforcement agencies claimed that it was a terrorist act and the main goal of Y. Safarov was the creation of an Islamic state in Azerbaijan, governed by Sharia law.

A week later, on July 10, riots broke out in Ganja. The official information said that on that day a radical religious group of 150-200 people tried to hold a rally.

Yunis Safarov. Meydan TV illustration

More than 70 people were also reported to have been arrested.

The parents of those arrested claim that their children suffered innocently.

Some human rights activists point out that serious violations took place in the Ganja case.

Human rights activist Ogtay Gyulalyev, who investigated those events, called these arrests politically motivated.

Aggravation of Azerbaijani-Iranian relations

The latest mass arrests of believers in Azerbaijan began in January 2023 after an attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Iran.

The attack took place on January 27th. The head of the security service of the embassy was killed, two of his subordinates were injured.

The President of Azerbaijan demanded an early investigation of the terrorist act and punishment of the terrorists.

The State Security Service of Azerbaijan, in turn, also announced the initiation of a criminal case into the attack on the embassy.

After that, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the detention of more than 45 “Iranian spies”, but no information about the details of this operation was made public. From the words of relatives and lawyers of the detainees, it became known that they were accused of drug trafficking.

On February 1, the Ministry of Internal Affairs again disseminated information abouta special operation in which 39 people were arrested, “under religious cover” carrying out subversive and subversive activities. But the public was not told who these people were, or under what articles they were accused.

Office made the first official statement about the operation against believers. It was reported that 32 people were arrested that day. They were charged with various charges, from espionage to drug trafficking, but the details are still not known.

Relatives of the arrested believers say they will fight to the end. But at the same time, they complain about the lack of a fair judicial system in the country, and therefore do not have much hope. From time to time they hold actions protesting against illegal arrests.

With the support of “Mediaset”

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Armen Grigoryan’s interview with Voice of America

It is possible that the meeting between Pashinyan and Aliyev scheduled for July 21 in Brussels will take place earlier. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan stated this in an interview with the Armenian service of the Voice of America. However, the government has not yet received information about changing the date of the meeting.

Grigoryan, who is in the United States on a working visit, also talked about strengthening cooperation with the United States on security issues, the possibility of a new war, Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, the functions of Russian peacekeepers and Russia’s fulfillment of its obligations.

• “Baku uses ‘coercive diplomacy’ against Yerevan” – Thomas de Waal

About cooperation with the USA. Does the alliance with Russia hinder Armenia?

The Secretary of the Security Council has been in the United States since July 4, obviously with a broad agenda for the visit. In an interview, he emphasized that Armenia uses “existing platforms” to expand cooperation with the United States in the field of security. Options are also being discussed on how to “open new doors”.

“We have made great progress. The results will be visible in the long run. Armenia is ready to move forward. Currently, Yerevan is seeking to deepen and expand the bilateral agenda with the United States,” he said.

When asked whether the fact that Armenia is a member of economic and military unions operating under the auspices of Russia hinders cooperation with the Americans, he replied that “at the moment there are no such problems.”

Grigoryan sees great potential for intensifying and strengthening the Armenian-American relations. Among the areas of cooperation, he singled out the economy and energy, while he assured that everything would be discussed – from minor issues to “broad cooperation in the field of security.”

On the CSTO and Russia: “We are waiting for the solution of the problems that have arisen”

Grigoryan said that Armenia openly discusses the problems that have arisen with the CSTO, a military alliance operating under the auspices of Russia, with the member countries of the structure. And to search for solutions, he uses the platforms of the organization itself.

“We see that the CSTO member states in a certain way, at least publicly, declare the legitimacy of the problems raised by Armenia [the President of Belarus made such a statement – JAMnews]. It is very important that our partners understand the legitimacy of the issues we raise. And we expect these problems to be resolved,” Grigoryan said.

According to him, the issue of Russia’s unfulfilled obligation to supply weapons, for which it was paid, remains on the agenda of the Armenian-Russian relations:

“All problems must be openly and calmly discussed with our partners in order to find a solution. These problems are of strategic importance for Armenia. I hope that the partners have an understanding of how important these problems are for the Armenian side, and that they will be resolved.”

Armen Grigoryan’s interview with Voice of America

On a possible war: “All responsibility for the escalation lies with Azerbaijan”

According to Grigoryan, the ongoing war and geopolitical processes in Ukraine have a negative impact on the South Caucasus.

“These processes are superimposed by the maximalist policy of Azerbaijan, military rhetoric and steps taken in the form of various escalations. Azerbaijan follows this path and tries to destabilize the region. All responsibility for the escalation lies with Azerbaijan,” he said, answering a question about the likelihood of a new war.

On negotiations with Azerbaijan: “There are still unresolved issues”

During the interview, the Secretary of the Security Council touched upon key issues on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations:

• “There are issues that have not yet been resolved, but Yerevan is firmly committed to the peace agenda and is interested in the possibility of a peace agreement as soon as possible.”
• “The security and rights of the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh do not concern the territories, but the people, their rights and security.”
• “It is necessary to create international mechanisms for Stepanakert and Baku to discuss the security and rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. There is an opportunity to create such a mechanism.”
• “The international community must be involved in overcoming the conflict, because without an international mechanism it is very difficult to imagine this.”
• “There are many unresolved problems in the negotiation process. One of the most important issues is the issue of border delimitation. Will it take place on the basis of the map of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces of 1975? There is no final agreement on the cards yet.”
• “The unblocking of roads will mean the implementation of the concept of the “Armenian Crossroads”. This also includes the construction of the North-South highway. Armenia, as a country, will become a more active participant in the regional trade turnover, which will bring it additional income, and economic activity can create additional security guarantees.”

Armen Grigoryan’s interview with Voice of America

“Armenia did not deviate from its obligations”

Grigoryan was asked if his statement about Armenia’s control of its roads after the unblocking of regional communications is an attempt to amend the November 9 statement [the document that marked the end of the war in Karabakh in 2020]. He gave a negative answer, stressing that the specific functions of the Russian services were enshrined in a decree of the President of the Russian Federation of November 10.

The Secretary of the Security Council explains that the border service of Russia should only monitor whether Armenia is fulfilling its obligations or not.

“In other words, they have been given the function to make sure that the road is unblocked, that Armenia does not deviate from fulfilling its obligations. And this is subject to verification, for example, with the help of cameras,” he stressed.

“Russian peacekeepers must fulfill their function”

According to the same agreement, Grigoryan recalls, Russian peacekeepers must ensure the safety of the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh. However, since December last year, the Lachin corridor has been blocked, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with the outside world has been closed. And this is a “serious problem”. The expectations of the Armenian side regarding the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in NK did not come true.

He stressed that according to the November 2020 statement, the “presence of Azerbaijan” was not supposed to be in the Lachin corridor, Russian peacekeepers were supposed to ensure free movement along the corridor:

“Today there is no such movement. And we expect that the peacekeepers will fulfill their mission in full, so that the people living in Nagorno-Karabakh would not experience a humanitarian crisis. The ongoing crisis is deepening.”

“Oskanyan had this opportunity for 10 years”

Commenting on the proposal of former Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan to form a group of diplomats and negotiate with Azerbaijan, Grigoryan stressed:

“Vardan Oskanyan had a corresponding opportunity during his ten years in office, but if he could not do it in ten years, how will he do it in three months? The attitude towards the state is also surprising, that is, it is proposed to create a second state or a state institution for such questions. This is very frivolous. I don’t think it should be a discussion point.”

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Armen Grigoryan’s interview with Voice of America