The Region in Brief

Armenia

The Subcommittee on Security and Defense (SEDE) joined the European monitoring mission in Armenia to patrol the Hakari bridge at the entrance to the Berdzor Corridor on June 21. SEDE, which is a subcommittee of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, is on a three-day visit to assess the security situation in border areas between Armenia and Azerbaijan and tour the EU Mission headquarters in Goris. The visit comes amid Azerbaijan’s recent closure of the Berdzor Corridor to humanitarian cargo.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan testified to an ad hoc parliamentary committee on June 20 examining the causes of Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 Artsakh War. The committee, which has questioned dozens of government officials behind closed doors since it was created last year, is boycotted by the opposition parliamentary factions. Pashinyan accused the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces of falsely denying reports that Azerbaijani forces were advancing on Shushi. He also admitted that he could have stopped the war three weeks earlier if he had accepted a Russia-brokered agreement that would have maintained Armenian control over Shushi.

An Azerbaijani soldier has been convicted of murdering an Armenian citizen and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Huseyn Akhundov crossed the border into Armenia and murdered 56-year-old Hayrapet Meliksetyan, a security guard for a mining company in Syunik province, on April 12. Agshin Bebirov, another Azerbaijani soldier who crossed the border with Akhundov, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. Azerbaijan has condemned the charges, claiming that the soldiers accidentally entered Armenia due to heavy fog.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan’s land borders remain closed three years after their closure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the World Health Organization declared in May that the coronavirus is no longer a global emergency, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that he does not intend to reopen the borders. The border closure has had significant economic consequences, especially for border regions that rely on trade and tourism. Air travel, in the meantime, has been reinstated without restrictions. Azerbaijan Airlines, which holds a monopoly on air travel, has increased its prices and recorded a net profit for the first time in its history in 2022, according to the company’s vice president.

Georgia

The father of an imprisoned protester has sewn his eyes and mouth shut in his latest attempt to demand his son’s release. Beka Grigoriadis has held a non-stop protest outside of the Georgian parliament since May 29. Police officers have prevented him from setting up a tent, while he has been charged twice with disobeying and verbally abusing the police. Grigoriadis’ son Lazare was arrested in March while participating in mass protests against the foreign agent draft law. Lazare faces up to 11 years in prison if he is found guilty of throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers and setting a police car on fire.

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Lillian Avedian

Lillian Avedian is the assistant editor of the Armenian Weekly. She reports on international women's rights, South Caucasus politics, and diasporic identity. Her writing has also been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Democracy in Exile, and Girls on Key Press. She holds master's degrees in journalism and Near Eastern studies from New York University.