Armenia will not cede any extraterritorial land corridors to Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday following renewed threats by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has again threatened to forcibly open a land “corridor” that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province.
Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to have failed to put the finishing touches on an agreement to establish cross-border transport connections during the latest round of negotiations mediated by Russia.
The political party of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has suffered another setback in Syunik as its candidate lost a municipal election in the southern province’s town of Kapan to a pro-opposition incumbent major over the weekend.
Armenia’s political leadership continued to downplay on Friday the effective closure of an Azerbaijani-controlled section of a strategic highway connecting the country to neighboring Iran.
The government said on Wednesday that it will form an ad hoc commission to organize the funeral of Vano Siradeghian, a prominent politician and former interior minister who died late last week more than two decades after fleeing Armenia.
Armenia accused Azerbaijan of serious human rights violations as the two South Caucasus nations that fought a six-week war last year faced off at the United Nations court in The Hague on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said on Wednesday that he and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov will meet again soon for peace talks mediated by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
Iran strongly opposes any redrawing of borders in the South Caucasus, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday.
About two dozen civilian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh remain unaccounted for one year after the outbreak of the Armenian-Azerbaijani war, according to the authorities in Stepanakert.
A senior member of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) criticized on Wednesday Armenia’s efforts to embark on a dialogue with Turkey, saying that Ankara continues to set unacceptable preconditions for normalizing bilateral ties.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili stressed the importance of political stability in Armenia after holding talks with his Armenian counterpart Nikol Pashinian in Tbilisi on Wednesday.
Armenia wants to normalize its relations with Turkey but will not accept any preconditions set by Ankara, a senior Armenian official said on Tuesday.
A wealthy businessman insisted on Friday that he is running for parliament on the ruling Civil Contract party’s ticket to help Armenia’s current government stay in power and continue its policies, rather than increase his fortune.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s defeat in the upcoming parliamentary elections is a necessary condition for addressing grave security challenges facing Armenia, a spokesman for former President Levon Ter-Petrosian insisted on Monday.
Edmon Marukian, the leader of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK), on Tuesday ruled out a power-sharing agreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian that would enable the latter to remain in power after snap general elections expected in June.
Former President Robert Kocharian has said that he will team up with two or three Armenian opposition parties to participate in snap parliamentary elections expected in June.
One of the two opposition parties represented in Armenia’s parliament on Monday denounced the authorities for seemingly abandoning plans to hold fresh parliamentary elections and said they will only radicalize their political foes and other critics.
Russia should set up a second military base in Armenia to guarantee the South Caucasus country’s territorial integrity after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the leader of a major Armenian opposition party said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian continued to reject calls for his resignation and accused his political opponents of trying to create “anarchy” in Armenia as he faced more street protests on Wednesday.
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