Monday, June 5, 2017 Karabakh Army Chief Expects More Truce Violations . Hovannes Movsisian Nagorno-Karabakh - General Levon Mnatsakanian, commander of the Karabakh Armenian army, addresses military personnel, 10Dec2016. Azerbaijan will likely ratchet up tensions along "the line of contact" around Nagorno-Karabakh in the months ahead, the commander of Karabakh's Armenian-backed army claimed over the weekend. "Azerbaijan will certainly do everything keep up tensions on the frontline," Lieutenant General Levon Mnatsakanian told reporters in Stepanakert. "It will increasingly seek to inflict damage on us, while we will do everything to respond accordingly and, if need be, if we find it expedient, deal a final blow." Mnatsakanian said that in the past several months truce violations around Karabakh have been much less serious than they were last year, which saw heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in April known as "the four-day war." Over the past year the Karabakh Armenian army has reinforced its frontline positions with new defense fortifications, more weapons as well as special equipment such as night-vision surveillance devices. The latter helped it fight back in late February two Azerbaijani commando raids that left at least five Azerbaijani soldiers dead. In Mnatsakanian's words, Azerbaijani special forces have not attempted more such incursions since then. "As regards gunshots fired from various weapons, they have decreased sharply since 2016," added the general. Truce violations on the Karabakh frontlines have periodically intensified this year. In the most recent escalation, Azerbaijani forces fired guided missiles at an air-defense system of Karabakh's Defense Army on May 16. The latter retaliated with mortar fire targeting Azerbaijani military facilities. The U.S., Russian and French mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group condemned the "significant violations of the ceasefire." In a May 18 statement, they urged the parties to "take all necessary measures to prevent any further escalation in the conflict zone." A senior official in Stepanakert insisted on Friday that continuing armed incidents are unlikely to escalate into a full-scale war. Ombudsman Deplores Prison Health Care In Armenia . Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - An ambulances leaves a prison hospital in Yerevan 6Mar2017. People serving prison sentences in Armenia often lack access to adequate health services and have to turn to their cellmates for medical assistance, the country's human rights ombudsman said on Monday. Arman Tatoyan drew this conclusion in a special report based on interviews that were conducted by representatives of his office as well as civic activists in various Armenian prisons last year. The report paints a grim picture of prison healthcare with concrete examples of unnamed inmates who claimed to have lacked proper treatment and medication for their illnesses and disabilities. One of them, a visually impaired person, is said to have been discharged from a prison hospital in Yerevan and sent back to jail despite being able to move around unaided. According to the report, another prisoner underwent only X-ray screening when he was hospitalized after suffering a broken leg. He subsequently relied on cellmates, rather than doctors or other prison staff, to meet his basic needs. "These practices are unacceptable," says the report. It also says that convicts in need of medical aid are not always transferred to prison or civilian hospitals in violation of European conventions and norms adopted by Armenia. It also cites cases of sick prisoners not being provided with necessary medicines. According to Tatoyan, law-enforcement authorities blame this on a lack of public funding for medical care in the penitentiary system. The ombudsman dismissed this explanation. Almost 3,900 persons served prison sentences or were under pre-trial arrest in Armenia as of September 2015, up from around 3,000 in 2005. According to the Council of Europe's Annual Penal Statistics (SPACE) released in March, 38 inmates died in Armenian prisons in 2014. Activists monitoring prison conditions in the country say such deaths primarily result from a lack of adequate and quick medical aid. Sarkisian Confronted By Protesters In Yerevan . Narine Ghalechian Armenia -- President Serzh Sarkisian speaks to protest#rs in Yerevan, 5June, 2017. President Serzh Sarkisian was confronted on Monday by about a dozen angry people dispossessed by a government-backed private construction company that demolished their homes in Yerevan years ago. The protesters are former residents of an old neighborhood in the city center that was due to be redeveloped by the now bankrupt company, Glendale Hills. The latter signed in 2007 contracts with over 100 owners of local houses who agreed to cede their land and properties in return for its formal pledge to give them new homes in apartment buildings which were due to be constructed in the area. The redeveloped project was never implemented. Around half of those families have still not received apartments or financial compensation. Some of those people gathered outside Sarkisian's residence early in the morning in the hope of speaking to the president and asking him to intervene. They waited for more than two hours before the presidential motorcade emerged from the secluded compound and stopped just outside it. "Mr. President, we have been homeless for ten years," one woman told Sarkisian after he got out of his limousine and approached the small crowd. "We have been badly mistreated, just like street dogs." "Mr. President, I had personally appealed to you," complained another woman. "You said you will see to it that my problem is urgently solved. We have still not received an answer." "Is it you who brought the journalists here?" replied a visibly irritated Sarkisian. "Why are they hindering us?" "They are not," retorted one of the women. "Alright, [officials] will come and look into the matter in the next two days," the president said before leaving the scene. The protesters argue that the Armenian government was a party to their 2007 contracts with Glendale Hills and must therefore help make sure that they are implemented. As one of them put it: "If the company is now liquidated, it means that the state must address the issue." Either they must pay us or give us apartments." Some displaced residents fear that they will only be offered rundown apartments in the city outskirts in breach of the developer's contractual obligations. Hundreds of Yerevan families were displaced in the 2000s during a massive redevelopment of parts of the city center. Many of them were forced out of their mostly old homes after refusing financial compensation which they believe was set well below the market value of their properties because of government corruption. Some appealed to the European Court of Human Rights after having their lawsuits against the government rejected by Armenian courts. The Strasbourg-based court has ordered the Armenian authorities to pay additional compensations to dozens of such families. Press Review (Saturday, June 3) "Hayots Ashkhar" is critical of a report by the International Crisis Group which claims that Armenia and Azerbaijan are closer to a renewed war for Nagorno-Karabakh than ever before. The paper notes that the report comes ahead of international mediators' fresh visit to the conflict zone and "seems to be somewhat depreciating" their efforts to step up the difficult search for a compromise peace formula. "Zhamanak" says that Armenian politics is increasingly dominated by the question of what President Serzh Sarkisian will do after completing his second and final term in office in April next year. The paper complains that it has overshadowed other important issues. "The only issue on the political agenda in Armenia is government infighting and its likely outcome," it says. "The public has become a mere spectator in this process." "168 Zham" notes that official photographs of Sarkisian's meetings held with some government ministers in recent weeks exposed books in the Armenian and foreign languages that seem to have been demonstratively placed on the presidential desk. In a written response to the paper, Sarkisian said: "The books on my desk are both gifts from various individuals and books which I read or re-read when I have time. By being surrounded by books in my office, I feel protected and insured by the power of books and knowledge. As regards my literary preferences, I am currently re-reading Niall Ferguson's `Politics' and Helmut Schoeck's `Envy' as well as works of [Armenian poet] Yeghishe Charents." "Hraparak" looks at structural changes within the Armenian government that are mandated by the country's amended constitution. The paper says that as part of those changes Armenia's police and National Security Service (NSS) may be merged into a single ministry of internal affairs. Alternatively, it says, the police may be merged with the Ministry of Emergency Situations. There are already rumors that the national police chief, Vladimir Gasparian, might be sacked as a result, according to the paper. (Artur Papian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org