The new president of the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Arayik Harutyunyan, has made a number of appointments, bringing in former political rivals into his team as he starts his term as leader of the territory.
Masis Mailyan, who was the main rival to Harutyunyan in the elections held in March, has been re-appointed Foreign Minister.
The leader of the party that emerged second in the election, Samwel Babayan,was appointed Secretary of the National Security Council. Major General Kamo Aghajanyan was appointed Director of the National Security Service. He previously held the post of Deputy Chief of Police
The former Director of the National Security Service, Samvel Shahramanyan was appointed Minister of Military Patriotism, Youth, Sports and Tourism.
Harutyunyan yesterday met in Yerevan with Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan. It was the second meeting between the two men this week. Pashinyan wants to see better co-ordination between government and security agencies in Armenia with their counterparts in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian government directly and indirectly pays for a lot of the territory's administration and security costs and Yerevan is keen to streamline working procedures. Pashinyan once more spoke of a unified security space between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh which he said had also to be extended to other fields.
Pashinyan appears to have a good working relation ship with Harutyunyan, and this will take the wind out of the sails of critics who accuse Pashinyan of selling out on the interests of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Speaking in Baku yesterday, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev reiterated that Nagorno-Karabakh was Azerbaijani territory and indicated that he does not exclude having to use force to regain it back. He was speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate a housing complex for people displaced during the conflict in the 1990s.
source: commonspace.eu with agencies
