- Azerbaijan will set up customs checkpoints along sections of the strategic Armenian Goris-Kapan highway.
- Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov have held talks in Paris.
- The EU has called for the immediate release of all POWs between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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Aggressive rhetoric from Baku raises risk of new war, Pashinyan
By Mark Dovich Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned at a press conference Monday that aggressive rhetoric from Azerbaijan and its repeated attempts to place blame on Armenia for the lack of forward movement in ongoing normalization relations raise the risk of a new war in the region. In fact, Pashinyan said, Azerbaijan is the one purposefully stalling normalization talks in order to “build up legitimacy for a new war.” He specifically accused Baku of canceling high-level meetings with Armenian officials, breaking promises to return Armenian prisoners of war, and refusing to budge on efforts to delimit the border and […]
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“Azerbaijan is trying to build up legitimacy for new war,”
The next meeting of the special envoys for Armenia-Turkey normalization talks will take place on July 1 in Vienna. Azerbaijan is trying to build up legitimacy for a new war by blaming Armenia for the lack of progress in peace talks, says Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Armenia’s service sector, which includes retail, tourism, entertainment, and banking, grew by 24.9% between January to May 2022.
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Pashinyan says judicial recording scandal overshadows reform efforts
By Mark Dovich At a press conference Monday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan broke his silence on the growing public outcry over a recording that appears to show a top judicial official pressuring his predecessor to resign, saying the scandal “overshadows the whole process of judicial and legal reforms.” “I always say that our biggest problem is the judicial system (and) that we don’t have any real successes here,” he added. Ruben Vardazaryan, the former head of the Supreme Judicial Council, was formally dismissed from his position last week, days after he released a recording in which Gagik Jhangiryan, at […]
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Pashinyan’s comments on Lachin corridor refocus attention on residents’ future
By Mark Dovich Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed at a press conference Monday that “in case of a change” in the route of the Lachin corridor, some Armenian communities there “will pass to Azerbaijan’s control,” refocusing attention on the still-unclear future for the region’s residents. However, he refused to go into any detail about what the handover will mean in practice, only saying that the “problems…will be solved with the help of the Artsakh (Karabakh) government.” The Lachin corridor is a strategically important strip of land surrounding a road patrolled by Russian peacekeepers that, at present, connects Armenia with […]
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Pashinyan blames Azerbaijan, Turkey for lack of progress in normalization
By Mark Dovich Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan slammed Azerbaijan and Turkey at a Monday evening press conference for the lack of forward movement in ongoing efforts to normalize relations, adding that Azerbaijan is “trying to build up legitimacy for a new war” by placing blame on Armenia instead. Most notably, Pashinyan accused Baku of canceling a meeting, apparently scheduled for Monday in Brussels, between Armenian Security Council head Armen Grigoryan and Hikmet Hajiyev, the Azerbaijani president’s foreign policy advisor. The prospect of a meeting between the two officials had not previously been reported. Pashinyan added that Azerbaijan had broken […]
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Turkey once again denies flight permit to FlyOne Armenia
The US Congress has received a decision from President Joe Biden’s administration to again waive section 907, a piece of legislation that restricts most U.S. aid to the Azerbaijani government. Armenian private airline FlyOne Armenia has been denied a permit by Turkish aviation authorities for its flight to Lebanon. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens.
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Biden administration again waives restrictions on aid to Azerbaijan
By Mark Dovich The U.S. Congress on Friday received a decision from President Joe Biden’s administration to again waive section 907, a piece of legislation restricting most U.S. aid to the Azerbaijani government. The decision prompted disapproval from a number of Armenian-American groups, as well as from Senator Bob Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In a statement, Menendez said he was “deeply disappointed” to see section 907 waived and would “continue to conduct rigorous oversight of any and all assistance to Azerbaijan.” Meanwhile, the Armenian Assembly of America reaffirmed that it “strongly opposes” the waiver, and […]
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CivilNet, other media outlets call on Pashinyan to hold face-to-face
By Mane Berikyan A group of Armenian news outlets, including CivilNet, issued a statement Sunday calling on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to return “the practice of open communication with the media,” amid concerns that the format of today’s press conference restricts their ability to freely ask questions. Earlier that day, Pashinyan announced on Facebook he would be holding an online press conference Monday evening to answer questions sent in advance from media outlets and NGOs. His last several press conferences, including the most recent one in January, have been held online due to COVID-19 precautions. “During those press conferences, the […]