Armenian News Network / Groong

 

Groong: Week in Review

 

ANN/Groong

November 1, 2020

Table of Contents

 

Panelists

Your Hosts

Introduction

Subscribe and Listen to us on...

Topic This Week: The War in Artsakh

Diplomacy: DOA cease fire proposals and Iranian mediation

Back to Geneva

Offers of support from across the political spectrum

Updates on the war

Wrap-up

Keywords

 

Panelists

          Asbed Kotchikian

     Suren Sargsyan

Your Hosts

          Hovik Manucharyan

          Asbed Bedrossian

Introduction

 

Hello, and welcome to the Armenian News Network, Groong, Week in Review for Sunday November 1, 2020. Today we continue to discuss the War in Artsakh, we’ll be talking to our guests about the following major topics:

      Summary of diplomacy

      Iranian mediation offers

      Negotiations in Geneva

      Support from ex-presidents

      Updates on the war

To talk about these issues, we have with us:

 

Asbed Kotchikian, who is a senior lecturer of political science and international relations at Bentley University in Massachusetts.

 

And

 

Suren Sargsyan, who is the founder and a President at the Armenian Center for American Studies, a research center based in Yerevan.

 

This episode was recorded on Friday October 30th while the ceasefire negotiations in Geneva were still in progress.

 

Subscribe and Listen to us on...

YouTube           Apple            Google         Spotify       Facebook

 

Topic This Week: The War in Artsakh

Diplomacy: DOA cease fire proposals and Iranian mediation

Just several hours ago today, October 30, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Jeyhun Bayramov and Zohrab Mnatsakanayan met in Geneva.

Before we talk about Geneva however, we should note that over the past month a ceasefire was attempted several times, first mediated by Moscow, then by Paris, and the latest attempt was by Washington on October 25.

After the failure of the latest US-mediated efforts, Iran seems to have stepped up its diplomacy and is circulating some kind of a settlement proposal among different parties. Over the past few days, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, visited first Baku, then Moscow, he was in Yerevan yesterday, and just today he flew to Ankara.

      Araghchi emphasized Azerbaijan's territorial integrity in Baku. How is Iran’s proposition going to make sense to Armenia? What are Iran’s main priorities in finding a permanent solution?

      Previously, we noted that the US had been pretty disengaged from all of this. What is the US contribution so far?

Back to Geneva

This is the second time (that we know of) that the foreign ministers met directly since their meeting in Moscow:

      What is the substance of these discussions?

Offers of support from across the political spectrum

Bargavach Hayastan leadership is in Russia meeting with Zhirinovsky from United Russia. Robert Kocharyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan have expressed willingness to visit Moscow. What do we expect from these discussions?

Updates on the war

What sort of updates do we hear from Armenian and Artsakh government sources about the state of the front?

Wrap-up

 

That concludes our program for This week’s Groong Week in Review. We hope it has helped your understanding of some of the issues from the previous week. We look forward to your feedback, and even your suggestions for issues to cover in greater depth. Contact us on our website, at groong.org, or on our Facebook PageANN - Groong”, or in our Facebook Group “Groong - Armenian News  Network.

 

 

Special thanks to Laura Osborn for providing the music for our podcast. I’m Hovik Manucharyan, and on behalf of everyone in this episode, I wish you a good week. Thank you for listening and we’ll talk to you next week.

 

Keywords

Armenia, Artsakh, Azerbaijan, Karabakh Negotiations, Geneva, Iran, Turkey

Additional: Suren Sargsyan, Asbed Kotchikian, Russia, France, United States, OSCE Minsk Group, Ceasefire, Aliyev, Pashinyan, Abbas Araghchi, Robert Kocharyan, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Gagik Tsarukyan, Putin, United Russia, Bargavach Hayastan, Prosperous Armenia