Day: November 13, 2023
YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—An Armenian parliament commission probing the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh has invited the region’s last president Samvel Shahramanyan to testify before its members, the ad hoc body’s head has told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Andranik Kocharyan said they were now waiting for Shahramanyan’s response to the invitation.
“We sent the invitation letter to the representative headquarters of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.] a short while ago and are waiting for him at the commission,” he said.
Late last week Kocharyan said that the parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances of the 44-day war had intended to invite the former president of Nagorno-Karabakh Arayik Harutyunyan, who, however, is in a Baku prison now after being arrested by Azerbaijani authorities in October, some two weeks after a lightening one-day offensive by Azerbaijani forces caused the exodus of virtually all ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.
He said that the commission also intended to invite Jalal Harutiunyan (no relation to the former Nagorno-Karabakh leader) who led the Karabakh defense army during most of the 2020 war, but the latter is now facing criminal charges as part of a war-related investigation, which according to Kocharyan is an obstacle to his appearing before the commission.
Kocharyan said that instead they decided to get answers to a number of questions from the last president of Nagorno-Karabakh, Shahramanyan, who was elected by the region’s parliament on September 9, only ten days before Azerbaijan’s latest military operation.
Shahramanyan signed a decree on September 28 disbanding the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” from January 1, 2024, which he later hinted was done under pressure from Azerbaijan to allow a safe escape for the local ethnic Armenian population to Armenia.
“Naturally, we would like to hear from Mr. Shahramanyan answers to the questions related to claims of high treason, the existence of saboteurs and information that was available before the start of the war,” the head of the commission said.
During the 2020 war Shahramanyan, who has a rank of major general, served as a minister in Nagorno-Karabakh’s government in charge of military patriotic upbringing, youth, sports and tourism. Before that he served for three years as director of Nagorno-Karabakh’s National Security Service.
As members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly prepare to meet to in Yerevan, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan made new demands when he met with the president of the group in Baku on Monday.
Aliyev emphasized the “new realities” in the Caucasus when he met with Pia Kauma, the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the APA news agency reported.
He told the visiting official that “the latest developments in the region should be considered in the context of Armenia’s 30-year-long occupation and military aggression against Azerbaijan.”
“It would not be the right approach to put forward views on the future of the region without considering the consequences of this invasion and aggression,” Aliyev warned.
The Azerbaijani leader also made another jab at what he called the “completely unsuccessful” efforts by the OSCE at mediating the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict — a view he vocally articulated before launching an all-out attack on Artsakh in 2020.
He told Kauma that there are new “conditions” under which Azerbaijan would agree to live in peace with Armenia.
Around 350 members of parliament from 57 OSCE member states will descend on Yerevan when it hosts the organization’s autumn meeting from November 18 to 20. The decision to hold the international assembly in Armenia was made in June.
Azerbaijan, will not participate in the Yerevan meeting.
Members of several delegations have already expressed their wish to visit, during the timeframe of this meeting, Armenia’s borders where the EU mission conducts monitoring.
Azerbaijan has strongly condemned France’s recent reported shipment of military equipment to Armenia, according to local media, which also reported that Baku was preparing to purchase more Israeli-made air defense system in a deal worth $1.2 billion.
Azerbaijani media outlets reported the France has sent a “significant number” of Bastion armored personnel carriers and related equipment to Armenia via Georgia.
Over the weekend, some Azerbaijani media outlets also published photographs and video purportedly showing the unloading and storage of the armored vehicles and their spare parts at the Georgian port of Poti.
In a statement on Monday, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizade said that the transfer of military equipment to Armenia “only bolsters Armenia’s military potential and its ability to carry out destructive operations in the region.”
“France is pursuing wrong interests in the region. Armenia and France must discontinue their policy of armament and militarization in the region. These countries need to realize at last that there is no alternative to peace and cooperation in the region,” Hajizadeh added.
Late last month Armenia and France signed a number of agreements on cooperation in the military sphere. Sebastien Lecornu, France’s defense minister, confirmed that his country would be delivering three GM200 radars and Mistral missiles to Yerevan as part of those deals. According to French officials, Paris will also help Armenia modernize its military.
Armenia’s defense ministry spokesperson Aram Torosyan told News.am on Monday that he could not disclose any information on whether French military equipment was brought into Armenia.
“Apart from the official announcements and statements regarding cooperation between Armenia and France in the defense sector, we cannot disclose any additional information at this time,” Torosyan told News.am.
Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to France Leyla Abdullayeva last week confronted Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a panel discussion held as part of the Paris Peace Conference also on the issue of French military supplies to Armenia.
Pashinyan replied, by saying: “Every sovereign country has the right to have an army and acquire weapons… Azerbaijan also buys a huge amount of weapons. Azerbaijan’s budget for acquiring weapons is three times more than that of Armenia.”
In Paris Pashinyan again voiced hope for a peace accord with Azerbaijan in the coming months if the Baku “reaffirms the three principles that have already been agreed upon.”
In his speech earlier at the conference Pashinyan outlined those principles, including mutual recognition of each other’s Soviet-era borders, a corresponding mechanism for delimitating the Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier and agreement that future transport arrangements in the region will respect the principles of “sovereignty, jurisdiction, reciprocity and equality of all countries.”
The issue of normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be on the agenda when European Union foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday, France’s foreign minister Catherine Colonna said in a press briefing.
She said it is imperative that the EU foreign ministers council “to clearly articulate its support for Armenia—Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
To this end, Colonna emphasized the importance of strengthening the mandate and capabilities of the EU mission in Armenia, as well as providing assistance to Yerevan through the European fund.
“I believe it is important for our council to succinctly and resolutely adopt this measure today,” said Colonna referring to the Monday’s meeting. “It is time to do that since we have been talking about this for several weeks now.