Armenian
News Network / Groong
Guests
Hosts
Introduction
Hello,
and welcome to the Armenian News Network, Groong,
Week in Review. This show was recorded on Monday, May 23, 2022. This week we’re
going to talk about the following major topics:
● “Agenda of Peace” Negotiations Continue
● State of the Opposition Protests
● Iran-Armenia Relations
● CSTO Leaders Meeting in Moscow
To talk about
these issues, we have with us:
Benyamin Poghosyan, who is the Chairman of the Yerevan based think
tank Center for Political and Economic
Strategic Studies,
Topics This Week
“Agenda of Peace” Negotiations Continue
Same here, of
course. OK let’s go to our first topic.
In March,
Azerbaijan published its 5-point Peace proposal to Armenia. Two weeks ago
Edmon Marukyan discussed Armenia’s 6-point response, which we’ve only heard described to the
Armenian press; we haven’t really seen the document itself. We’ll link to what
we know in our show notes.
Over the weekend,
Pashinyan, Aliyev and the EU’s co-president Charles Michel held a trilateral
summit in Brussels to continue negotiations towards Pashinyan’s
“Agenda of Peace”.
Today, Charles
Michel put out a statement about what was achieved at the meeting. A broad
summary of it:
● The Armenian-Azerbaijani border commission will
meet on the border to start its work. By the way, today Azerbaijan published the makeup of its commission. And so did
Armenia.
● Transport links will be unblocked: primarily
referring to Azerbaijan-Nakhichevan links, but also referred to “various parts
of Armenia via Azerbaijan”. Some principles were agreed upon about border
administration, security, customs, and fees.
● Negotiations will continue towards a peace
agreement.
● The EU will continue to advance economic
development in the region, and help “prepare the populations for peace”.
What does this
outcome mean?
Also over the
weekend, Opposition MP Artur Ghazinyan leaked what he
believes to be the 7-point draft agreement that was going to be discussed in Brussels. The
seven points mentioned were:
- The two sides recognize each other's
territorial integrity;
- Artsakh gets cultural autonomy in Azerbaijan;
- Armenia provides a corridor connecting the
western territories of Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan, which should have the
same status as the corridor connecting Artsakh to Armenia;
- Armenia may have limited contract-basis
armed forces, with limited numbers and arms.
- The Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan
guarantee the safety and security of mutual investments;
- Communication unblocking must be
implemented in stages. Communications of the southern regions will be
blocked in the beginning.
- Demarcation and delimitation of borders
should be implemented within the borders that existed since 1991.
Ghazinyan is very sure of his sources, but we have no
confirmation.
There’s no secret
about the fact that the two countries are discussing each other’s territorial
integrity, Artsakh’s status, corridors, etc. But there were a couple of details
which struck me:
● Point 4 mentions that Azerbaijan is trying to
impose on Armenia some level of disarming and demilitarization.
● Point 6 prioritizes Azerbaijan-Nakhichevan
unblocking over all others.
● Point 7 says that Border discussions will be
based on borders that existed in 1991.
Specially the
point on demilitarization seems to me to encroach on Armenia’s sovereignty.
What should we make of these specific assertions?
Iran-Armenia Relations
Over the course
of the past week there were a number of notable updates in relations with Iran.
● Iran and Armenia are negotiating the renewal of the 20-year “Gas for
Electricity” agreement from 2004. Economist Suren Parsyan
thinks that these negotiations are a consequence of
Iran retaliating to a number unilateral abrogations
of the agreement by Armenia.
● Iran and Armenia agreed to increase trade and cargo transportation.
Armenian minister Gnel Sanosyan
said that the current levels are considered low, and there is room for much
greater economic activity which the new road can sustain.
● Russian deputy FM Rudenko again referred to the 3+3 platform. We thought this idea was dead.
● Turkish-Armenian Normalization representative
Ruben Rubinyan updated
Iran’s rep with details of the process.
● I also read on Twitter that Iran declined to visit Shushi and opted to remain at a conference in Baku.
This relationship
has been deeply neglected on the part of the Pashinyan government, is there an
activation of relations between Armenia and Iran afoot?
CSTO Observer Status for CIS
Pashinyan was in Moscow for a high-level CSTO meeting. Russian president Putin is interested in
hearing from CSTO leaders about the war in Ukraine. He also proposed to grant CIS observer status in the CSTO. The
CIS includes Azerbaijan.
●
Should
Armenia acquiesce?
●
Can
Armenia navigate the Ukraine war between Russia and the West and remain a
neutral party?
State of the Opposition Protests
Hovik, there was
a very large march and rally on Saturday, culminating in France Square of
Yerevan. We discussed these on our Live broadcast on Twitter after the rally,
we also shared it in our Facebook group.
By the way, to
our listeners, we have been doing almost daily (or in Yerevan, nightly, Live
broadcasts on Groong’s Twitter space. We’ve talked to
a lot of opposition leaders, relatives of fallen soldiers who are seeking
justice in Armenian courts, and so on. Hovik and Alison Tahmizian
Meuse have been conducting the nightly updates and conversations, so please
follow us on Twitter in order to be notified of when we’re going on the air.
You actually do not even need a Twitter account to listen, only to speak.
But anyway, for
those who listen to our podcasts, Hovik can you give us a brief update on the
week’s protest events? Highlights, lowlights, and any other public information
on the plans going forward?
Some of the lives
I’d like to highlight are:
● May 12, Karen Vrtanesyan
- Policy of Division
● May 20, Yeghishe Zakunts - Tsor unit
family/parents
Most notable day
of the week was May 20, which started with a protest in front of the
presidential residence (related to Lithuanian state visit) and ended at the Shengavit First Instance Court.
Lowlight of the
week is all the political prisoners that still remain in jail and new arrests,
including:
● Narek
Mantashyan - accused of attempting to steal a flag
○ Nov. 10 2020
○ Prosecution fought tooth and nail and went to
court only to receive permission to detain Mantashyan
pre-trial in December 2021, more than one year after.
● Igor
Khachaturov - accused of hitting policeman (based on one testimony)
○ Similar to Jahangiyran’s
precedent-setting case, which 12 years ago was tossed out for the same reasons
(according to Yervand Varosyan).
● Armen
Grigoryan - insulted people on national grounds
● Тарон Манукян, Гор Саркисян, Арсен
Мартоян, Гор Матевосян, Геворг Мурадян - not sure if they ended up being released or not
○ Old men provoking
○ There’s also video of one of the old men hitting
protesters on the head with an egg
○ Protesters are accused of hooliganism which is a
more serious crime and allows the police to detain participants for a longer
period of time. The potential sentence could exceed 5 years.
● Avetik Chalabyan -
bribery attempt
Topics from the Panelists
1. Hovik
- Tone deaf ambassadors
Wrap-up
That
was our Week in Review show, and we hope it helped you catch up with
some of the issues in and around Armenia from this past week. As always, we
invite your feedback and your suggestions. You can find us on most social media
and podcast platforms, or our website Groong.org.
Thanks
to Laura Osborn for the music on our podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe to our
channel on YouTube, Like
our pages and follow us on social media. On behalf of everyone in this episode,
we wish you a good week, thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next week.
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Keywords
Benyamin
Poghosyan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, South Caucasus, Turkey, Russia,
Transportation Links, Corridors, Borders, Peace Negotiations, Iran, Iranian
Gas, Turkmenistan,, EU, European Union, CIS, CSTO,
Opposition, Protests, Yerevan, France Square, JCPOA, Iran Nuclear Deal,