No violations recorded in the area of responsibility of peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh – MoD Russia

Armenia is not ruining its relations with any country, Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan said at a press briefing when asked to comment on opinions that the Armenian government is ruining relations with Russia.

“Armenia wants to be treated fairly, it wants the obligations regarding its borders to be fulfilled. And for this Armenia will do anything. There are no emotions here, it’s not a matter of liking or disliking. There are obligations and we will follow the implementation of those obligations and we will try to protect our borders and the lives of our [troops] by all possible means,” Simonyan said.

Asked to comment on Russian media reports and whether or not a shift of political course is possible, Simonyan said: “Excuse me but perhaps it is the Russian side that wants to change its political course because Armenia hasn’t done anything in that direction. After the revolution, there was a lot of talk about the withdrawal of the Russian military base, withdrawal from the CSTO, and other things. An unequivocal statement was done in this regard. There is no such need, there is no such thing. It is a fact isn’t it, we see that it is the CSTO itself that has withdrawn from Armenia and not Armenia from the CSTO. If the CSTO has left, then they should notify us about that so that we’ll be able to protect our borders with some other mechanisms,” Simonyan said.

The deployment of an observation mission by the EU is an important step – Andrea Wiktorin 
The European Union fully hopes that the deployment of the observation mission is an important step and will give an opportunity to reduce the tension on the border, the head of the EU delegation in Armenia announced today.

The ambassador considered important the cooperation of the Armenian government and the necessary support to the EU technical assessment mission.

“The Armenian authorities not only welcomed the arrival of the observation mission but also provide the necessary support to carry out the activities. So the work has begun.

The purpose of the observers’ activity is to submit reports to the headquarters. The deployment of an observation mission by the EU is also an important step. We fully hope that this will make it possible to ease the tension on the borders, and implement confidence-building functions, which will further make the process of signing the peace agreement smoother,” Andrea Wiktorin, the head of the EU Delegation to Armenia said.

Azerbaijan, which promises the security of the rights of the people of Artsakh, has been keeping the Stepanakert airport closed for 30 years – HRD of Artsakh

Azerbaijan, which promises to protect the rights and security of the people of Artsakh, has been keeping the Stepanakert airport closed with its threats for 30 years, depriving the people of Artsakh of this most important opportunity to exercise their right to free movement.  In 2012, when the Stepanakert airport was put into operation after renovation, the Baku authorities announced in a direct text that they would destroy the civil aircraft flying to Stepanakert.  Artsakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.

 “The cases of civilian infrastructure targeting that we witnessed during the 2020 war were a clear indication that the Azerbaijani leadership is ready and capable of resorting to any kind of military crime, including the targeting of civilian aircraft.

Stepanakert airport was built in 1974, after many demands from the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to create the possibility of air communication with Armenia.  Stepanakert-Yerevan and Stepanakert-Baku and opposite directions were operating.  However, against the current demand, the authorities of Soviet Azerbaijan had set a very limited number of flights to Yerevan.
 
Various sources testify that parallel to the Artsakh movement, Azerbaijan started taking action to close the airport. This was done through large-scale construction in the neighboring Ivanyan community, residential houses were being built right next to the runway to obstruct the airport’s operations and to stop it for good.
 
Civilian transportation from Stepanakert airport stopped in 1992, as a result of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh. Around 100.000 civilian flights are carried out every day in the world, transporting people from one place to another, but none of these flights reach Stepanakert.
 
The policy of discrimination and hatred towards the people of Artsakh was expressed and is expressed in any action taken by Azerbaijan.  We expect courage from all structures and individuals interested in the protection of human rights to see, record, and oppose the criminal activities of Azerbaijan,” wrote the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh.

I would like it to be signed by the end of this year: Pashinyan talked about the signing of the peace treaty

I want and will want it to be concluded by the end of this year. How realistic is it? Me and the Government will make all possible efforts to make it realistic, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this during the NA question-and-answer session, answering the questions of Lusine Badalyan, deputy of the “Civil Contract” party, about whether it is possible to sign a peace treaty by the end of the year and to what extent this treaty means friendship with enemies.

“There is an important circumstance that we hope, and it is an important detail, that the delimitation works will be completed before the signing of the peace treaty. How realistic is it?  If we take into account that in Prague we have reached an agreement that this will happen on the basis of the borders of 1991, it can be realistic, because those borders are, in fact, known. 

The following circumstance is also very important:  as we mentioned before, an internationally visible dialogue should be started between NK and Azerbaijan, and this is a very important circumstance. There should be certain visible mechanisms for the rights and security and protection of the Armenians of NK.  It would be great and I would be very pleased if we could do that.  From our side, we are ready to make maximum efforts to make what you said happen,” said Pashinyan.

The Kremlin commented on the upcoming Putin-Pashinyan-Aliev meeting with your

Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian President, informed the journalists about the preparation of the tripartite meeting between the Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Peskov noted that earlier it was reported that such a meeting would take place, gazeta.ru writes.

 “We hope that this will happen, we will make an additional decision regarding the place and time,” said the Kremlin spokesperson.

On October 24, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, announced that Vladimir Putin invited Aliyev and Pashinyan to Russia for another trilateral summit to discuss a number of trilateral and bilateral issues.  The diplomat noted that Moscow is worried that the West is trying to transfer “confrontational schemes developed in Ukraine” to Transcaucasia.  Nevertheless, Zakharova emphasized, the attempts of foreign forces to fight Moscow and Yerevan will not succeed.

Armenia and Azerbaijan should decide whether Putin’s invitation is useful for them or not – US Department of State 

US State Department spokesman Ned Price, at the request of a journalist, referred to the statement of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, that “the West is engaged in self-promotion and is trying to push Russia out of the region.”

 “First, we dispute the characterization of our efforts as self-promotion.  There is nothing self-promoting about trying to end years of conflict and years of flare-ups that have led to violence and ultimately death among Armenians and Azerbaijani citizens alike.

As the Secretary of State emphasized, we are committed to the peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  We have encouraged both leaders to meet in a format that works best for them.  We believe that direct dialogue is key to solving problems and achieving lasting peace,” Price said.

Referring to the scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 31, the representative of the State Department said: “Ultimately, Armenia and Azerbaijan must decide whether President Putin’s invitation will be useful or suitable for them in their quest for sustainable peace.  Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia and its continued brutal incursion into Ukraine demonstrate that Moscow has little respect for its neighbor’s sovereignty and is unlikely to be a reliable, long-term partner.  But, in the end, this will be a decision that should be made by Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Other News

• On October 26, Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan received the members of the OSCE needs assessment mission.  The OSCE needs assessment mission was headed by Colonel Robert Arkadiusz Tkachik, the representative of Poland presiding over the OSCE.

• Armenia is not ruining its relations with any country, Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan said at a press briefing when asked to comment on opinions that the Armenian government is ruining relations with Russia.

• The head of the Russian RT TV channel, media manager Margarita Simonyan said that her entry to the Republic of Armenia was banned.

• There are hundreds of proposals, options, and opinions, but there is no document on the table.  Today, on October 26, the Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan mentioned this in a conversation with journalists in the National Assembly.