Latest news in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, summary May 13-17, 2024

● President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko’s visit to Azerbaijan continues. Yesterday, the presidents of both countries held meetings and made statements to the press. Ilham Aliyev invited Belarus to participate in the post-war reconstruction of territories: “I invited Belarusian companies to actively participate in the restoration of the Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur zones. The scale of the work we are and will be carrying out is grand.”

●  Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev is visiting the United States. He has already has met with Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs John Bass, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Yuri Kim, and Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Robert Gilchrist.

●  “The peace agreement that will be signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia is a historic opportunity,” said the President of Turkey during a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Georgia in Ankara.

●  “We completely reject the recent statement by the French Minister of Internal Affairs Gerard Darmanin against Azerbaijan regarding alleged links between Azerbaijan and the leaders of the independence movement in New Caledonia, made in his interview to France-2 on May 16, 2024. First and foremost, we strongly condemn the offensive remarks from the French side towards Azerbaijan and call for an end to the defamatory campaign against Azerbaijan with unacceptable accusations such as mass murder of Armenians,” stated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

●  The Baku court extended the preliminary detention period for former minister of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Ruben Vardanyan by 5 months.

●  Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited former leaders of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic detained in Baku. One-on-one meetings were held with the detainees, and conditions were created for them to communicate with their families.

●  The “Astara” terminal, a key part of the North-South international transport corridor, has been put into operation. This will increase transit shipments along the North-South route by 10-15% by the end of the year, according to Azerbaijan Railways.

●  A journalist from the Russian propaganda channel “Zvezda,” reporting on protests against the foreign agents law in Tbilisi, falsely claimed that posters plastered on the parliament walls depicted Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera. In reality, the images were of Georgian symbolist poet Titsian Tabidze, executed during Stalin’s purges in 1937. These posters are being distributed across Tbilisi by the opposition party “European Georgia”.

● “During my first conversation with Charles Michel, I expressed our readiness for consultations. In my second conversation, I reiterated our complete openness to any consultations related to this law,” said Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.

●  A tragic incident in Kvemo Kartli, where a brother killed his own sister. He initially hit her with a car and then stabbed her. The young man has been arrested, and an investigation is underway under Article 11-109 of the Criminal Code – intentional homicide of a family member under aggravating circumstances.

●  “In Turkey, we believe that the events unfolding in Georgia will ultimately benefit the Georgian people,” President Erdogan stated during a press conference on the occasion of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s visit to Turkey.

●  Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov claims to have communicated with representatives of the Georgian parliament on May 15.

“They say, ‘We will expel them [Russian emigres] from the country because they are actively supporting NGOs,'” he said during the program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov,” without specifying whom he had spoken with.

●  The authorities have declared today a day off to mark the Day of Sacredness of the Family, a holiday established by the Georgian Orthodox Church several years ago in response to the international Day Against Homophobia observed on May 17th. As part of the celebration, a “cross procession” is planned.

●  Executive Secretary of the ruling “Georgian Dream,” Mamuka Mdinaradze, has said he will participate in the procession. “Let no one try to oppose the future, progress, and development of our country on one side, and Georgian identity, family respect, culture, faith, and traditions on the other!” he said.

●  Residents of the border village of Kirants are protesting again. They say that after the ongoing delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the village will have lost 2 houses and 57 land plots to Azerbaijan, and about 15 other households will find themselves “in Azerbaijan’s cross hairs” directly on the border.

●  A major fire broke out overnight in Yerevan, consuming six pavilions of the “Shopping City” trade center. The blaze raged for nearly four hours, with 10 firefighting units from the Interior Ministry’s rescue service battling the flames. By morning, the fire was extinguished.

●  Regional, humanitarian and other issues were discussed in Strasbourg by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and PACE President Theodoros Roussopoulos.

●  “Georgia welcomes the beginning of delimitation of the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Georgia’s prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze said.

● The Georgian Parliament overrode the president’s veto and endorsed amendments to the Election Code, which entail the abolition of quotas for women in party lists for parliamentary elections.

Only one deputy supported the President’s veto rationale, while 28 were against it.

Thus, the parliament abolished the requirement that one out of every four candidates on party lists must be female. The initiative originated from the opposition party “Girchi”.

● Georgian animal welfare organizations have appealed to the ruling “Georgian Dream” party, urging them not to proceed with the contentious “foreign agent” law. In their joint statement, they say that the Georgian government does not offer financial support to these organizations, leaving them reliant on nternational grants. Should the “foreign agent” law be enacted, these organizations would be compelled to halt their operations.

● “We are all shocked by the news from Tbilisi. What we are witnessing happening in Georgia is terrible. We have seen this scenario before in Putin’s Russia”: Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

● Foreign Ministers of four countries – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Iceland – joined the protest rally against the “foreign agent” law held in front of the parliament building in the evening yesterday.

● “This law is just a symptom of the course taken by the Georgian authorities, and this course is not towards the European Union. We are returning to the EU with a clear signal – this path is wrong, and the responsibility for it lies not with the Georgian people, but with the Georgian authorities,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna at a press conference earlier.

● Prime Minister Kobaqidze promised that the parliamentary elections in October will be held “according to the best European democratic standards and practices”.

● A ceremony marking the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping contingent from Karabakh took place at the Khojaly airport.

●  The ninth meeting of the delimitation commission was held at the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The parties agreed on the protocol describing the segments of the border line between the populated areas of Baganis Ayrim (AR) – Baganis (RA), Ashagy Askipara (AR) – Voskepar (RA), Heyrimli (AR) – Kirants (RA), and Kyzyl Gadzhily (AR) – Berkaber (RA). The date and venue of the next meeting will be agreed later.

●  Construction of the Hankendi-Shusha-Lachin highway is scheduled to be completed by 2025, according to the Azerbaijani State Highway Agency. The total length of the road is 34 km, and it will include the construction of two bridges, four tunnels, and drainage pipes.

● Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko arrived in Baku for a state visit.

●  President Aliyev condemned the armed attack on the Prime Minister of Slovakia. “I am shocked and appalled by the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico. I strongly condemn this attack. My thoughts are with Prime Minister Fico, his family, and Slovak people. I wish him the soonest recovery”, the president wrote on X.

●  The pretrial detention period for former leaders of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Saakyan, Araik Arutyunyan, David Babayan, David Ishkhanyan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, and David Manukyan has been extended by another 5 months, according to the Binagadi District Court in Baku.

● Economist Gubad Ibadoglu, who was recently transferred from pretrial detention to house arrest, announced that his Democracy and Prosperity Party was suspending its activites.

●  Azerbaijan extradited two individuals wanted internationally to Uzbekistan, according to the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office. The men were arrested in February and are accused of fraud.

●  The delimitation commissions chaired by the Deputy Prime Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on a protocol describing the segments of the border line between the populated areas of Baganis (RA) – Baganis Ayrim (AR), Voskepar (RA) – Ashagy Askipara (AR), Kirants (RA) – Heyrimli (AR), and Berkaber (RA) – Kyzyl Gadzhily (AR).

●  Yerevan and Baku cannot even imagine a peace process because they simply do not know what it is, and this ignorance breeds a sense of uncertainty and anxiety, said the Armenian Prime Minister at the EBRD international forum in Yerevan. “Space flights used to be hard to fathom, too, but people achieved them because they were ready to learn something new,” he said.

●  While Nikol Pashinyan was speaking, a protest rally gathered outside the building where the forum was taking place. Its participants were demanding his resignation.

● An Azerbaijani court extended the pretrial detention period for another 5 months for former leaders of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic — Bako Saakyan, Araik Arutyunyan, David Babayan, David Ishkhanyan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, and David Manukyan.

●  The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed as “speculation” reports that Russia had offered Armenia to withdraw its border guards.

“The reality is that the discussions between Russian and Armenian leaders [earlier in May] involved the topic of withdrawing Russian border guards from certain Armenian border regions adjacent to Azerbaijan, in connection with their completion of the tasks previously assigned to them,” the ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

●  “If the law goes forward without conforming to EU norms and this kind of rhetoric and aspersions against the US and other partners continue, I think the relationship is at risk”, Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien said fin his remarks to media following negotiations in Tbilisi.

“Just a few examples: the US has about $390 million in assistance that we are planning to spend with Georgian authorities. Half on military assistance, a little more or about another third roughly on economic development projects, and more on building institutions along with some for civil society.  All that has to be under review if we are now regarded as an adversary and not a partner. And if the law goes forward out of conformity with EU norms and there’s undermining of democracy here and there’s violence against peaceful protesters – peaceful protestors, then we will see restrictions coming from the United States. Those tend to be financial and/or travel restrictions on the individuals responsible for those actions and their families”, he said.

●  James O’Brien also commented the Georgian informal leader’s refusal to meet with him.

“The Prime Minister said [Bidzina Ivanishvili] would not see me because we have him under de facto sanctions. There are no sanctions on him at this point.  For such an influential individual to be that badly misinformed is shocking and disappointing.  For the Prime Minister to say that that is a reason that one of Georgia’s most important partners cannot meet with this citizen is to elevate that individual interest above the country’s constitutional commitment to working more with international partners and joining the EU and NATO.”

● Georgian PM found the talk of possible sanctions from the US “not serious” and spelling “damage” to the US, rather than Georgia.

“We do not want to damage the reputation of the United States, and we urge our partners to consider partnership rather than taking counterproductive steps,” Irakli Kobakhidze said.

● Throughout the day, while the Georgian parliament was adopting the law on “foreign agents” and protests were taking place outside its walls, which were later harshly dispersed by special forces, negotiations were ongoing as heads of parliamentary committees from six EU countries visiting Tbilisi tried to find a way out of the situation.

The government had refused to meet with them, and only Nikoloz Samkharadze, the chairman of the parliament’s committee on international relations from the ruling Georgian Dream party, consented to engage in dialogue.

“The ruling party of Georgia must be prepared for the consequences. This concerns reputational damage. They will have to pay a high price for this. Talk of sanctions, the main sanction could be the devaluation of the candidate status. We know where Moldova and Ukraine stand, but where is Georgia now?” said Michael Roth, chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs, at a briefing in Tbilisi.

● In the evening, Michael Roth and his colleague parliamentarian from Lithuania, Žygimantas Pavilionis, came to the parliament building to support thousands of Georgians who’d gathered there again to protest the adoption of the foreign agents law.

“Dear friends, my president stood here in 2008 [during the Russo-Georgian war] alongside other presidents. And here we stand again. Tomorrow in the U.S. Senate, together with other parliamentarians, we will issue a statement calling this law Putin’s law. We must stop Putin in Ukraine and Georgia. You will be members of the European Union and NATO,” said Žygimantas Pavilionis, addressing the protesters.

● In an interview with CNN, President Salome Zurabishvili of Georgia expressed her readiness to lead the pro-European front in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

However, she emphasized that she does not plan to directly participate in the elections but will only serve as a guarantor of the pro-Western course for opposition parties and civil society.

●  “The negotiation process between Baku and Yerevan continues to advance the peace agenda,” stated President Ilham Aliyev during a meeting with the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Jan Borg.

“OSCE has done nothing to facilitate the return of Azerbaijani territories, and the Minsk Group’s negotiation process has only served to prolong the occupation. Azerbaijan has raised the issue of abolishing this group, and there is no reason why the Armenian side would not agree to it,” Aliyev added.

●  Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister outlined the conditions for reaching a peace agreement with Armenia. “The treaty must be comprehensive and not include issues that would become subject to renegotiation over time,” said Jeyhun Bayramov.

●  The Speakers of the parliaments of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Sahiba Gafarova and Alen Simonyan, will meet in Geneva on May 16th. The meeting will take place within the framework of the 6th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament.

●  “In June, 370 families, totaling 1,450 people, will already be living in Shusha,” announced Vusala Fataliyeva, Deputy Head of the city’s executive authority.

●  “Construction of the Lachin Airport is 65% complete,” stated Rahman Gurbanov, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Transport. The full completion is planned for 2025.

●  “The detention period of former president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Arkady Ghukasyan, has been extended for another 5 months,” reported the Binagadi District Court.

●”Gas can start flowing to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic through the Igdır-Nakhchivan pipeline as early as this winter,” announced Turkey’s Minister of Energy, Alparslan Bayraktar, during the signing ceremony of a cooperation agreement with Azerbaijan in the natural gas sector.

●  “Turkey has reached an agreement for the transportation of Turkmen gas through Azerbaijan and Georgia.”

●  Heavy rains have washed away the garbage dump in the Goychay district. A large amount of water scattered tons of plastic and other waste around the village of Garabaghgal. The situation is under control now, the police reports. Relevant agencies have been mobilized, and the area has been cleaned up.

●  Protests in Yerevan continue. Demonstrators calling for Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation are blocking streets and marching with the slogan “Armenian, Armenia, Homeland, God!”

● Leaders of the protest movement met “to exchange views” with three former Prime Ministers of Armenia – Hovik Abrahamyan, Grant Bagratyan, and Vazgen Manukyan, as well as with representatives of the parliamentary faction “I Have the Honor” and the Republican Party.

●  “It is time to incorporate the agreements reached with Azerbaijan into a peace treaty and sign it,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during his address at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. According to him, “despite all challenges, Armenia believes that enduring and stable peace is the truest and most desired companion of democracy.”

●  The first defense consultations between Armenia and India took place in Yerevan, according to the Armenian Ministry of Defense. Representatives from both ministries discussed the progress and prospects of Armenian-Indian cooperation in defense, including military-technical cooperation, military education, and tactical training.

● Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan will meet with his Azerbaijani counterpart Sahiba Gafarova in Geneva on May 16th.

●  Police in Yerevan have identified the mother who abandoned her newborn in a churchyard. The 24-year-old resident of the Shirak region was located on May 14th and taken to the investigative department. The infant, found by the church gardener on May 9th, was taken to the hospital, and his life is not in danger.

● At noon today, the Georgian parliament will convene to deliberate the government’s “foreign agents” bill in its third (and final) reading, amid ongoing protests.

Meanwhile, demonstrators plan a new rally outside the parliament building at 10:00 a.m. According to some reports, the protest will introduce a fresh slogan. Previous gatherings rallied behind the chant “No to Russian law! Yes to Europe!”

●  The bill will be passed no matter what, because “that’s what the people want”, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said at an emergency briefing yesterday.

●  He revealed that the Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chair of the ruling party and the country’s informal leader, had declined a meeting with the Assistant Secretary for @StateDept European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O’Brien who was arriving in Tbilisi later on May 13.

“Ivanishvili is already under de facto sanctions, with his $2 billion frozen. He’d entrusted [the money] to the West, but it ended up in the hands of the global war party. Once this blackmail and de facto sanctions end, any meeting can be arranged immediately,” Kobakhidze said.

● Vedant Patel, a Deputy Spokesperson at the U.S. Department of State, condemned the Georgian government’s actions as “inconsistent with the self-stated aspirations of the Georgian people”.

“More than 80 percent of the Georgian people want EU membership. We support that aspiration, and we urge the Government of Georgia to continue on a path of EU integration and one that’s consistent with that,” he said.

● Following the dispersal of the protest on May 13, the Office of the Public Defender reports 23 detentions, saying most of the detainees allege police brutality and display physical injuries.

● The resettlement of Azerbaijani citizens into Khodjaly will commence in the coming days, with 50 families returning in the initial phase, as reported by Ibrahim Mirzoyev of the State Committee for Refugees and Displaced Person

●  Reconstruction works have begun in the villages of Mahruslu and Zilanly in the Gubadly district. In Mahruslu, 190 houses will be built to accommodate 836 residents, while in Zilanly, 193 houses will be constructed for 926 people. The first phase of the works in these villages is planned to be completed by the end of the year.

●  SOCAR has expressed interest in participating in gas exploration in the Bulgarian waters of the Black Sea. The issue was discussed during a recent visit by Bulgarian President Rumen Radev to Baku, according to Zashtoto newspaper.

●  Joint military exercises involving Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia have begun. The exercises will focus on maneuvers related to search and rescue operations during natural disasters and will continue until May 18.

●  The international music festival “Kharibulbul,” which began in Shusha, continued its concert program in Lachin.

●  The admission plan for Karabakh University in Khankendi has been approved. The university will accommodate 1,200 students, according to Minister of Science and Education Emin Amrullayev.

●  A mud volcano eruption took place in Azerbaijan near the village of Gyuzdek in the Absheron district. The event, recorded 6 kilometers west of Gyuzdek, lasted for approximately 9 minutes, originating from a depth of 3.5 kilometers.

●  The major Turkish online shopping portal Trendyol has significantly increased prices for Azerbaijan. The cost of delivery services has more than doubled, rising from approximately 5 manats (around $2.88) to 11 manats (about $6.5)

● In Yerevan, acts of civil disobedience are disrupting roads as citizens express dissatisfaction with the ongoing process of border delimitation and demarcation with Azerbaijan, calling for Prime Minister Pashinyan’s resignation. As of now, over 170 participants of the protests have been detained.

●  Displaced individuals from Karabakh staged a protest outside the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs upon the arrival of the acting OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Jan Borg. They demanded that “the issue of their return to Karabakh be resolved”.

During a press conference, an Armenian journalist, presenting letters from Karabakh residents outlining their demands to Jan Borg, inquired whether the OSCE had “closed the Karabakh issue.” Borg responded, “The organization cannot intervene in processes between players. We respect the positions of both countries.”

●  “We believe that peace is possible”: The U.S. State Department commented on the May 10-11 meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Almaty .

●  Representatives of Armenia secured 7 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze medals at the European Wushu Championships for adults and youth held in Stockholm.

● The Parliament’s Legal Committee reviewed and endorsed the “foreign agent” law in its third reading. The discussion lasted only a few minutes. The bill will be discussed in its final third reading at a parliamentary session on May 14th. Deputies were only able to enter the building with the help of a large cordon of special forces. Meanwhile, outside the parliament building, a massive protest against this law was violently dispersed. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported 20 people detained. Despite the rain and fatigue, a large crowd continues to stand outside the parliament.

● Throughout the night, the area outside Tbilisi’s parliament building teemed with thousands of demonstrators as they continue their protest against the “foreign agents” bill.

● “Violent actions are planned during the upcoming protests in the next few days,” stated Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze yesterday, just hours before the scheduled start of the protest vigil outside the parliament. “We have undeniable information that aggressive youth groups, organized by the radical opposition and funded from abroad, are planning violent actions against the parliament and police tomorrow and the day after,” he said, warning, “Nothing will go unpunished.” Read more here

● Following the Prime Minister’s remarks on the “escalating” situation expected at the protests in Tbilisi, the Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs also commented. “According to our information, in the next two days, the rally will take on a violent and illegal character, including attempts to block the Georgian parliament,” said Vakhtang Gomelauri. He reiterated the Prime Minister’s assertion that the escalation at the rally would be provoked by the opposition, warning that anyone obstructing deputies from entering the parliament on the morning of May 13 would be subject to Article 222 of the Criminal Code (group obstruction of an object of particular importance), punishable by up to four years in prison.

● “The Prime Minister’s address strongly suggests that the authorities themselves are plotting provocations during the protests”, – President Salome Zourabishvili said. She urged the demonstrators to exercise utmost caution and advised law enforcement not to yield to any “intimidation” tactics employed by governmental bodies.

● Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia held a two-day meeting in Almaty. Bayramov and Mirzoyan “welcomed progress on border demarcation” and discussed preparations for a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan.

● By the end of the year, more than 25,000 former displaced persons will return to Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur, according to Head of the Presidential Administration Samir Nuriyev.

● OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Jan Borg, is embarking on his South Caucasus tour. Borg is scheduled to come to Azerbaijan after he’s visited Armenia, though the specific date of the visit has not been announced yet.

● The Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament has arrived in Uzbekistan to participate in the Asian Women’s Forum in Samarkand.

● Russia has extradited Azerbaijani nationals who were internationally wanted. Mikhail Suleymanov is accused of illegal acquisition and possession of drugs, while Elvin Gasanov, Emin Javadov, Zabit Masimov, and Teymur Mamedov are accused of fraud.

● The traditional international music festival “Kharybulbul” took place in Shusha and Lachin.

● Cutting-edge radar systems are now being installed on Azerbaijani roads. These devices are designed to detect speeding vehicles and promptly display the data on monitors positioned above the roadway.

● The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan has issued a cautionary notice regarding “a surge in social media fraud cases”. Citizens are advised against clicking on suspicious links and cautioned against placing trust in fraudulent websites.

●  A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 struck in Lankaran. The epicenter was at a depth of 18 km. The underground shocks were felt with a magnitude ranging from 3 to 6 points. There were no casualties.

●  Azerbaijani wrestler Mariya Stadnik has secured a qualification for the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Azerbaijan now has 24 athletes with licenses for the Olympics.

● In Yerevan, protests persist against Armenia’s proposed “territorial concessions to Azerbaijan”, which the protesters say would involve handing over several bordering villages. Organized by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, demonstrators are demanding the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. When questioned by journalists about potential opposition candidates to replace Pashinyan, Galstanyan emphasized that “a candidate for prime minister cannot be affiliated with any political party.” “This is a national struggle, aimed at upholding truth and justice,” he said.

● France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed support for the recent resumption of negotiations between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Almaty on May 10-11. “We encourage the continuation of border delimitation based on the principles agreed upon on April 19, 2024,” reads a statement on the ministry’s official page.

● Today, Armenia will welcome Jan Borg, the acting OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade Promotion of the Republic of Malta, for a scheduled working visit, as announced by the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s press service.

Top stories in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia from May 6-10, 2024