Tuesday,
Pashinian Satisfied With ‘Productive’ Talks With Putin
• Hovannes Movsisian
• Artak Hambardzumian
RUSSIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L), Belarus' President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Russian President Vladimir Putin, walk during a
Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting in Sochi,
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Tuesday described as “very
productive” his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin which was
held in Sochi on Monday.
“We discussed a very broad range of issues and it was a very productive
meeting,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). He declined to
elaborate.
Pashinian confirmed that the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh was also on the agenda
of the talks with Putin. “It was a general discussion. We didn’t really go into
details,” he said.
In his opening remarks at the talks, the Armenian premier, who took office on
May 8, reaffirmed his commitment to maintaining “strategic allied relations”
with Russia. “I can assure you that there is basically a consensus on this
issue in Armenia, and nobody has cast doubt and, I think, will cast doubt on
the strategic importance of Russian-Armenian relations,” he said.
For his part, Putin told Pashinian that he regards Armenia as “our closest
partner and ally in the region” and hopes Russian-Armenia ties will “develop as
steadily as has been the case until now.”
Neither the Kremlin nor the Armenian government issued any statements on the
results of the Putin-Pashinian encounter which took place in the presence of
other senior Armenian and Russian officials.
The two leaders met in the Russian Black Sea city just hours before a summit of
the five former Soviet republics making up the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
Like other leaders of the Yelk alliance, Pashinian criticized last year
Armenia’s membership in this and another Russian-led bloc, the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). However, he made clear that he will not
withdraw from the EEU and the CSTO after massive street protests organized by
him led to the resignation of the country’s longtime leader, Serzh Sarkisian,
on April 23.
“It’s an interesting format,” Pashinian said when asked about his impressions
of the EEU summit in Sochi. “It was very interesting.”
RUSSIA -- Participants walk along an embankment after a Supreme Eurasian
Economic Council meeting in Sochi,
While in Sochi, Pashinian also held separate meetings with the presidents of
Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
An aide to the Armenian premier, Ruben Rubinian, insisted that he managed to
“dispel possible concerns” of Russia and other EEU member states regarding the
new Armenian government. None of them actually voiced such concerns, he said.
“Both in separate meetings and at the general [EEU] session, we reaffirmed our
positions voiced before and after Mr. Pashinian was elected prime minister,”
Rubinian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
“That doesn’t mean there are no problems [within the EEU] or that those
problems must not be solved,” he said. “The key thing is that we gave our
partners and allies no reason to doubt or to be concerned about Armenia’s
continued adherence to agreements signed in the past.”
Chief Armenian Prosecutor Says He Won’t Resign
• Sisak Gabrielian
Armenia - Artur Davtian attends a parliament debate in Yerevan on his
appointment as prosecutor-general, 14Sep2016.
Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian said on Tuesday that he will not
step down following the April 23 resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian
whose Republican Party (HHK) nominated him for the post in 2016.
Davtian said that the law-enforcement agency headed by him is independent and
must not be affected by the change of the country’s government.
The 39-year-old was appointed as prosecutor-general by the National Assembly in
September 2016. The HHK held and still holds the majority of seats in the
parliament. He was Yerevan’s chief prosecutor until then.
Opposition lawmakers, including Nikol Pashinian, voted against Davtian at the
time. They accused prosecutors of routinely opening politically motivated
criminal cases, ensuring the impunity of violent government loyalists and
executing other government orders.
Speaking in the parliament on Tuesday, Davtian also defended the April 22
detentions of Pashinian and two other opposition lawmakers who organized
nationwide protests against Sarkisian’s attempt to cling to power. He said they
were taken into custody for holding “illegal” demonstrations.
“I can assure you that there were no political motives,” he told lawmakers.
“Nobody instructed me to do anything. I performed by professional duties.”
Pashinian was detained just hours after a 3-minute tense meeting with Sarkisian
held in the presence of journalists. His arrest only stoked the anti-government
protests. Pashinian was set free the next day shortly before Sarkisian
announced his resignation.
Davtian admitted that then Deputy Prime Minister Karen Karapetian strongly
influenced his decision not to ask the parliament to lift Pashinian’s immunity
from prosecution and to order his immediate release. He said Karapetian spoke
on behalf of the parliament majority.
Davtian told reporters that the criminal cases opened in connection with the
Pashinian-led protests have not been closed despite the regime change. Asked
whether prosecutors may still press criminal charges against Pashinian, who was
elected prime minister on May 8, he said: “We all are equal before the law.”
Davtian also disagreed with Pashinian’s assertions that there are political
prisoners in the country. “I regard these differences as normal for a
rule-of-law state,” he said.
Pashinian has yet to indicate whether he will press for Davtian’s resignation.
He replaced the heads of Armenia’s police and National Security Service one day
after taking office.
Armenian PM Expects Fresh Elections In 2018
• Hovannes Movsisian
ARMENIA - Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan addresses lawmakers during
a parliament session to elect a new prime minister in Yerevan on May 8, 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian suggested on Tuesday that fresh parliamentary
elections sought by his political team will be held in Armenia later this year.
Pashinian demanded the conduct of such elections immediately after tens of
thousands of his supporters demonstrating in the streets of Yerevan forced his
predecessor Serzh Sarkisian to resign on April 23. Observers believe that he
and his political allies would win them by landslide.
Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) holds the majority of seats in
the current parliament. It is therefore in a position to block key bills
drafted by Pashinian’s government.
The premier was asked by reporters about fresh elections as he walked from one
ministry building to another to present newly appointed members of his cabinet
to their staffs. “We will discuss that,” he said.
“I think this year,” he replied when asked about possible election dates.
The idea of snap polls is supported in principle not only by Pashinian’s Yelk
alliance but also the two other parliamentary minority factions: the Tsarukian
Bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Both groups have received
ministerial posts in the new government.
The HHK’s position on the issue remains unclear. Senior representatives of the
formerly ruling party have only signaled that it will likely approve the
Pashinian government’s policy program which will be submitted to the National
Assembly by the end of this month.
Pashinian seemed confident about the program’s approval by lawmakers. But he at
the same time warned: “I also think that nobody should succumb to a temptation
to wrongly interpret the political situation.”
Under the Armenian constitution, pre-term general elections will have to be
called if the prime minister resigns and the parliament twice fails to elect a
new premier.
Press Review
“Haykakan Zhamanak” says Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian mainly “ascertained their positions” on bilateral
relations at their first meeting held in Sochi on Monday. “The Russian side
needed to make sure that Armenia is not going to make drastic changes of its
foreign policy orientation,” writes the paper. “The Armenian side had to make
sure that Russia considers events taking place in Armenia to be Armenia’s
internal affair. Each side had to become convinced that the other is inclined
to cooperate, develop ties and so on. All the signs are that both sides got to
see what they wanted to clarify.”
“Aravot” says that Pashinian and his political team now enjoy the
“unconditional support” of most people in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora.
The paper says that the latest and previous regime changes in the country were
“good at least in the sense that change is better than stagnation.” “New
momentums, new approaches allow us to review the not-so-distant past, learn
lessons and try to move forward,” it says. “This is especially true for the
first (1990) and third (2018) regime changes which directly involved the
society.”
“Zhoghovurd” says that a new and controversial pension system introduced by
former President Serzh Sarkisian’s administration is supposed to become
mandatory on July 1 for all Armenians born after 1976. The paper says that
Armenia’s new Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mane Tandilian actively
campaigned against the pension reform before being elected to the Armenian
parliament last year. It wonders whether Tandilian will now try to implement
“what she campaigned for” or leave the new system intact.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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