Day: April 29, 2024

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met on Monday with a group of residents of a border village in Armenia’s northern Tavush province that has been the epicenter of continuing protests against his decision to make territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.

The Armenian government did not immediately issue a statement on Pashinyan’s meeting with the mayor and a dozen other residents of the village of Kirants. The latter looked unhappy and were reluctant to talk to the press as they emerged from the government building. Some of them said only that they did not hear anything new from Pashinyan.

Gegham Nazaryan, an opposition parliamentarian who spoke to them privately, likewise claimed afterwards that Pashinyan “said nothing new.”

“The residents were left in uncertainty and panic again,” Nazarian told reporters. “People are already thinking about the worst because none of the demands, requests or reasonable proposals made by the village of Kirants were accepted.”

In his words, Pashinyan admitted that even his latest concessions to Baku will not guarantee the security of Kirants and nearby communities.

Kirants is one of the four Tavush villages adjacent to border areas that are due to be handed over to Azerbaijan as part of what the government calls the start of the demarcation of the Armenian- Azerbaijani border. Hundreds of villagers joined by other residents of Tavush and other parts of Armenia have been blocking a local section of a key national highway since April 20. Some of them clashed with riot police on Friday.

People, among them opposition politicians and activists, continued to briefly block roads in Yerevan and other parts of the country over the weekend and on Monday in a show of solidarity with the Kirants protesters led by Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the head of the Tavush diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In Gyumri, local antigovernment activists organized a car procession for the same purpose.

Meanwhile, law-enforcement authorities pressed criminal charges against six protesters arrested following violent incidents that happened last week.

Three of them reportedly clashed with the driver of a military vehicle that reportedly tried to ram into a crowd blocking another Tavush highway. Videos posted on social media showed the driver jumping onto the crowd from the roof of the SUV belonging to the Yerkrapah militia led by Sasun Mikaelyan, a political ally of Pashinyan.

The driver was not prosecuted for his actions. The authorities indicted the three protesters instead, saying that they illegally stopped the vehicle and damaged its windscreen and one of the wheels.

The three other detainees were charged with “hooliganism” stemming from a separate incident that occurred in the provincial town of Noyemberian. Armenian opposition leaders reject the accusations as politically motivated, saying that the authorities are trying to stifle the protests.

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhum Bayramov, are scheduled to meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The date of the meeting has not been announced.

“As we reported, there is an arrangement between the ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan to meet at the suggestion of Kazakhstan. It is specified that the meeting will take place in Almaty,” Armenia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan said Monday.

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan last week announced about Kazakhstan’s proposal to host talks and voiced his government’s support for the talks. Late last week, Armenia’s foreign ministry also signaled that it was open to such a meeting.

The talks were proposed by Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who during his visit to Armenia on April 15 and following his meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, announced that his country is ready to “provide a platform for negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry emphasized on Monday that talks will be held exclusively between Mirzoyan and Bayramov, saying that Astana is simply hosting the meeting.

“We are planning such negotiations in Almaty. We are now in contact with our colleagues in Azerbaijan and Armenia. The upcoming negotiations will be held exclusively between the parties. We are not talking about the mediation of Astana, we are only providing goodwill services,” Aybek Smadiyarov, a spokesperson for Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry told the Russian Tass news agency.

Samadiyarov said that his country’s president, during his recent visits to Azerbaijan and Armenia, had mentioned the importance of establishing a strong and long-term peace between the countries.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to adhere to international human rights obligations and commitments during a telephone conversation on Sunday.

Blinken also called on Aliyev to “release those unjustly detained in Azerbaijan.”

The secretary of state spoke to Aliyev and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyn to voice support for the recent agreement between Yerevan and Baku on border delimitation. The agreement reached earlier this month saw Armenia ceding four villages in the Tavush Province to Azerbaijan, without receiving guarantees from Baku on a similar handover of Armenian territory currently under Azerbaijani control.

“The Secretary commended President Aliyev for last week’s announcement that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to use the 1991 Alma Ata declaration as the basis for border delimitation and emphasized its importance to the two sides concluding a durable and dignified peace,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Sunday.

The Secretary urged President Aliyev to keep up the momentum with his Armenian counterpart, reiterating U.S. willingness to support those efforts. Secretary Blinken underscored our desire for a strong U.S.-Azerbaijan bilateral relationship, noting our efforts to cooperate on mutual energy, climate, and connectivity goals, and to ensure the success of COP 29 in Baku,” Miller added.

During his call with Pashinyan Blinked reaffirmed U.S. support for “progress between Armenia and Azerbaijan on a durable and dignified peace agreement.” 

“Secretary Blinken reiterated that the United States welcomes Armenia and Azerbaijan’s agreement to use the Alma Ata Declaration as a basis for border delimitation,” Miller said in a similar statement issued following Blinken’s phone conversation with Pashinyan on Sunday. 

“Secretary Blinken noted ongoing U.S. efforts to support Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for Prime Minister Pashinyan’s vision for a prosperous, democratic, and independent future for Armenia,” Miller added in his statement.

Видеообращение к участникам 12-й международной встречи высоких представителей, курирующих вопросы безопасности • Президент России https://t.co/dGbH6SXLvA

— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) April 29, 2024