Day: December 15, 2023
Azerbaijan said it will not withdraw its troops from the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, once again rejecting Yerevan’s proposal to simultaneously withdraw troops as talks to delimit and demarcate the border between the two countries are continuing.
“The Armenian-Azerbaijani border is not delimited, which is a rather difficult problem. If the troops are withdrawn without reaching a full agreement, who can guarantee that one of the sides will not take positions again?,” Azerbaijan’s foreign minister Jeyhum Bayramov said Thursday during a press conference in Baku.
“Today, the Azerbaijani army protects the borders of Azerbaijan, which is logical. The Azerbaijani army did not come, stand on these borders by anyone’s good will or invitation. The Azerbaijani army has liberated its lands after 30 years of bloodshed and is standing at the borders today. Our principle approach is that only Azerbaijani soldiers can protect the border of Azerbaijan, it cannot be trusted to a third party; it is the sovereign right of Azerbaijan,” added Bayramov.
“We advise Armenia to pay attention to our constructive proposals. In this case, matters can proceed positively,” Bayramov added.
Ruling Party lawmaker Arsen Torosyan called Bayramov’s approach “baseless” and accused Azerbaijan of rejecting Armenia’s proposal as a way to strengthen Baku’s position during negotiations.
“If Baku’s true intention is to achieve peace, then they should agree to this and other already announced principles,” Torosyan said.
“They [Azerbaijani officials] are advancing a strange notion that there are no maps and there is no delimitation, where in reality all those elements exist. With the 1991 Alma Ata Declaration, both republics became independence with their Soviet administrative borders,” Torosyan pointed out.
According to official Yerevan, since the 2020 War, Azerbaijan has occupied some 150 square kilometers of territory in Armenia’s Syunik, Vayots Dzor and Gegharkunik provinces. Torosyan said that if the two countries recognize each other’s borders based on the Alma Ata Declaration, then territorial integrity will be reaffirmed with the borders.
“The issue is the delimitation and demarcation of the entire border, not only with Azerbaijan but also Nakhichevan. During the conflict, both the recent encroachments and clashes in the 1990’s, the violated borders must be reinstated,” added Torosyan.
WASHINGTON—Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) sent a letter to House and Senate leadership on Friday urging them to include robust humanitarian aid for Armenia in President Biden’s National Security Supplemental funding request. This comes as Armenia is supporting more than 100,000 refugees displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) by the unprovoked military attacks by Azerbaijan in September 2023, and up to 150,000 refugees in total since the 44 Day Conflict in 2020.
“After systematically starving the people of Artsakh with a 10-months-long blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road that connected Artsakh with the outside world, Azerbaijani forces launched a large-scale attack on Artsakh on September 19, resulting in at least 200 dead and 400 wounded, including children, women, and the elderly, and prompting nearly the entire population to flee for their lives. By the time a UN mission was sent—far too late—to review conditions on the ground, the team reported hearing that only ‘between 50 and 1,000 ethnic Armenians remain in the Karabakh region.’ The majority of those refugees are now in Armenia, where they arrived in desperate condition and in need of aid,” Schiff wrote in the letter.
“We understand the Armenian government has identified a need to allocate more than $1.5 billion toward the long-term housing needs of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, but significant and sustained support from the international community and United States will be needed to address the short- and medium-term needs of refugees. Alleviating human suffering and meeting the urgent humanitarian needs of the refugees now in Armenia must be a top priority. The national security supplemental must include a robust level of U.S. humanitarian assistance for Armenia sufficient to address the scope of the challenge and demonstrate the U.S. commitment to Armenia’s flourishing democracy, as the Armenian people continue to face unprovoked military aggression and threats of genocide at the hands of its autocratic neighbor,” Schiff added.
“While the security and human rights situation in the South Caucasus remains complex, the United States must also continue to push for accountability for crimes committed in the context of Azerbaijan’s unprovoked military attacks against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh since September 2020, take steps to deter future Azerbaijani aggression, and reaffirm support for Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Alleviating human suffering and meeting the urgent humanitarian needs of the refugees now in Armenia must be a top priority. The national security supplemental must include a robust level of U.S. humanitarian assistance for Armenia sufficient to address the scope of the challenge and demonstrate the U.S. commitment to Armenia’s flourishing democracy, as the Armenian people continue to face unprovoked military aggression and threats of genocide at the hands of its autocratic neighbor,” Schiff also said in the letter.
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NPR News: 12-15-2023 5PM EST
YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—The Armenian government will pay a Russian company up to $65 million to modernize the Metsamor nuclear power and extend the life of its sole operating reactor until 2036.
The funding will take the form of a “budgetary loan” to be provided to the state-owned plant’s management. The latter will sign a relevant contract with Rusatom Service, which is part of Russia’s Rosatom state nuclear agency.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s cabinet formally approved the contract during a weekly session held on Thursday. It said Rusatom Service will carry out the upgrade of Metsamor from 2023-2026 in close coordination with Armenian nuclear energy specialists.
The Metsamor reactor, which generates roughly 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity, went into service in 1980 and was due to be decommissioned by 2017. Armenia’s former government decided to extend the 420-megawatt reactor’s life by ten years after failing to attract funding for the construction of a new and safer nuclear facility.
Russian and Armenian specialists essentially completed Metsamor’s first major modernization in 2021. Armenian officials have since repeatedly said that the Soviet-era facility, located 35 kilometers west of Yerevan, can safely operate until 2036.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, praised those safety upgrades monitored by the UN nuclear watchdog when he visited Armenia and inspected Metsamor in October 2022.