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, August 8, 2022.
Here are the major topics we’ll touch on today:
● Azerbaijan Attacks Artsakh Again
○ Armenian & Artsakh Authorities Evacuating Berdzor & Aghavno Population
● Avetik Chalabyan
Re-arrested
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
Azerbaijan Attacks Artsakh
On
Wednesday August 3, Azerbaijan carried out drone, mortar and grenade attacks against
Artsakh defense positions. This was a continuation from Monday’s attacks, and
two Armenian Artsakh defense forces soldiers were killed, and there were 19
injured, 4 of them seriously. One Azerbaijani soldier was killed, as well.
Currently, the situation is still considered tense and just this Saturday an
Armenian soldier was wounded, this time on the Armenian side in Sotk.
All
these incidents were accompanied by urgent calls between Armenian and Russian
leaders. Pashinyan and Putin talked on the phone two times this week, including
a discussion today. Earlier in the week, foreign ministers Mirzoyan and Lavrov
also had a call.
The
flare up appears to center around Azerbaijan’s demand this week to stop using
the Lachin/Berdzor corridor to connect Armenia and
Artsakh as well as nebulous demands by Azerbaijan to remove all Armenian armed
units from the territory. Armen Grigoryan, Armenia’s
chair of the NSC, has called this demand “illegitimate”, and contradictory to
Point 6 of the November 2020 agreement.
Azerbaijan,
meanwhile, is calling this an “anti-terror operation” in retlatiaion
for the alleged killing of one of their soldiers, and they claimed that they
took additional hills around the Western borders of Artsakh.
We’ve
said this before, it sounds like some of the “peace agenda” negotiations are
not going to Aliyev’s pleasure, and when that happens
he starts killing people.
Questions:
● What is not going right for Azerbaijan?
The
deadline to move out of Aghavno & Berdzor is now set for August 25.
● What do we know about the alternate road that
Armenia is to construct?
Let’s
note that just before the weekend, Erdogan and Putin met in Sochi, reportedly
for a 4+ hour meeting, where the situation in Artsakh was on the agenda. Erdogan,
upon his return from the summit also reiterated Azerbaijan’s demand about
demilitarization, stating:
“Azerbaijan naturally does not want any illegal armed elements on its
territory”.
It’s
interesting to note that Russia has uncharacteristically blamed Azerbaijan for violating the ceasefire multiple times this
week, including for incidents that took place both on Monday and Wednesday.
● Does this mean that Azerbaijan has not
coordinated with Russia about its demands on the Lachin/Bedrzor
corridor?
● How far is Aliyev willing to push Russia?
● Why is there such a discrepancy between
statements from different Armenian leaders about the use of the alternate road:
○ Pashinyan says there’s no agreement and that we
have until Nov. 2023 to agree on a plan for the road, but in April there was a
tender announced for building a road between Tegh and
Kornidzor.
○ Harutyunyan says they’ve provided their
agreement on the road;
○ Armen Grigoryan said
in late June that there is still more than 1.5 years
○ Is it possible for the Armenian side to not have
known about this bypass road, that it was being built, and that as soon as it
was ready, Azerbaijan would turn on pressure to use it?
Avetik Chalabyan Re-arrested
Last
week we didn’t get a chance to talk about Avetik Chalabyan,
who was suddenly released from jail after two and a half months of prison
detention. Hours after his release, his brother Ara Chalabyan
resigned from his position at the Armenian Central Bank where he had reportedly
been under pressure to resign by Central Bank of Armenia president Martin
Galstyan.
But
the saga didn’t end there. This week a court decided to send Avetik Chalabyan back to prison while he awaits trial for his
charges, even though prosecutors did not even request further detention, but
rather suggested that Chalabyan may stay free on
bail.
● What happened?
About
the presiding judge, Mnatsakan Martirosyan: widely seen as pro-government for any current
government.
Topics from the Panelists
1. Benyamin
- NK authorities not countering Azerbaijani threats
2. Hovik
- Bravo to Armenia’s Chess team!
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.
Groong
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Keywords
Benyamin Poghosyan, Armenia, Artsakh, Nagorno
Karabakh, Azerbaijan, Berdzor, Lachin, Aghavno, Nikol Pashinyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, Turkey, Russia,