Following last year’s Armenia-Azerbaijan war, officials said there would soon be passenger flights at Stepanakert’s long-closed airport. Now that looks again like a distant prospect.
This appears to be the end of the two-year legal saga of Robert Kocharyan. Now he says he’s going back to politics to challenge his political nemesis, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The new law would triple penalties for insult and defamation. The government and press have had a combative relationship since the coming to power of Nikol Pashinyan, himself a former journalist.
The issue became hotter following the January 11 summit in Moscow between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, when the Armenian side walked away having failed to secure the prisoners’ return.
The handover of territory has brought Azerbaijani forces into close contact with several Armenian towns and a critical road, leading some locals to blame the central government for failing to protect them.
The messaging from Moscow has been pro-Armenia but critical of its government. And some Armenians are questioning their leaders’ flirtation, as mild as it’s been, with the West.
While Armenians have been disappointed by the lack of a strong international response to the war with Azerbaijan, the isolation also has encouraged a sense of unity and solidarity.
