RFE/RL Armenian Report – 10/09/2017

                                        Monday, October 9, 2017
Russian-Led Alliance `Ready' To Defend Armenia
 . Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov, head of the joint chiefs of
staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, at a news
conference in Yerevan, 7Oct2017.
Russia and other ex-Soviet republics making up the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO) are committed to jointly defending Armenia
against foreign aggression, the Russian-led security bloc's top
military commander said over the weekend.
Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov, head of the CSTO joint chiefs of
staff, stressed at the same time that such military intervention would
have to be approved by all member states.
"The armed forces of the organization are tasked with protecting the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of CSTO member states," Sidorov
told a news conference in Yerevan. "This happens at the request of the
leadership of a particular member state and the decision is made by
the Collective Security Council."
"I'm not going to tell you about our red lines now," he said. "I can
only tell you that if, God forbid, one of our states needs real
assistance then our collective forces # will be ready to come and help
accomplish tasks set in the [CSTO] statutes and decisions of the
Collective Security Council. I think that the Republic of Armenia must
have no doubts about that."
Sidorov specifically referred to a possible dispatch to Armenia of
troops from the CSTO's joint rapid-reaction force which was set up by
Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in
2009. In his words, the Collective Operational Reaction Forces (CORF)
currently number over 20,000 soldiers, most of them army commandos.
Armenia - Kazakh special forces take part in a Collective Security
Treaty Organization exercise at the Marshal Bagramian Training Center,
7Oct2017.
The Russian general spoke to reporters as about 1,000 reconnaissance
troops from the six CSTO member states concluded a two-day exercise at
the Armenian army's Marshal Bagramian Training Center about 50
kilometers west of Yerevan. A larger number of CORF soldiers as well
as Armenian army units and Russian troops stationed in Armenia began
joint wargames there on Monday.
The CSTO's Central Asian member states, notably Kazakhstan, have warm
ties with Azerbaijan have repeatedly signed pro-Azerbaijani
multilateral declarations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, prompting
strong criticism from Armenia. Kazakhstan also forced the cancellation
of a planned summit of the Eurasian Economic Union in Yerevan in the
immediate aftermath of the April 2016 fighting in Karabakh. The move
was widely construed as a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan.
Armenian, Azeri Leaders Agree To Meet, Say Mediators
Russia - President Serzh Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani counterpart
Ilham Aliyev start Russian-mediated talks in St. Petersburg,
20Jun2016.
The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to meet soon for
fresh negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, U.S., Russian and
French mediators said after their latest trips to Yerevan and Baku on
Saturday.
"Both Presidents confirmed their readiness to reengage in negotiations
with the purpose of reaching a peaceful settlement to the conflict,"
the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group said in a joint statement.
"Information on the forthcoming summit will be released by the
respective sides in the near future," they added without giving any
dates.
The mediators met with Armenia's Serzh Sarkisian on Friday and
Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev on Saturday to finalize preparations for the
summit. According to the statement, they also spoke in the two
capitals about "possible topics" that will be on the agenda of the
Aliyev-Sarkisian meeting.
The two presidents most recently met in May and June 2016 shortly
after four-day deadly hostilities around Karabakh that nearly
denigrated into an all-out war. They agreed to allow the OSCE to
deploy more field observers in the conflict zone and investigate truce
violations occurring there. They also hinted at progress towards a
peaceful settlement.
The peace process again stalled in the following months, however. The
Azerbaijani government has since been reluctant to implement the
agreed safeguards against renewed fighting, saying that they would
cement the status quo.
The mediating powers hope a fresh Armenian-Azerbaijani summit will
help to break the current deadlock. It is not clear whether they have
made any further changes in a framework peace accord on Karabakh that
was originally drafted by them a decade ago.
Sarkisian announced in July a "preliminary agreement" on holding the
next meeting of the presidents this fall. "My expectations from the
meeting are not big," he said.
OSCE Official Praises Armenian Media, Civil Society
 . Harry Tamrazian
FRANCE -- French Secretary of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir
leaves the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, March
30, 2017
A senior official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe monitoring press freedom has heaped praise on Armenia's
"diverse and vibrant" media and civil society during a visit to
Yerevan.
In a weekend interview with RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am),
Harlem Desir, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, also
expressed concern at violent attacks on Armenian journalists and urged
the authorities to hold their perpetrators accountable.
"We think that it's very important to avoid any impunity regarding
attacks against journalists," he said. "Any state of impunity will
just be an incitation towards more violence against journalists."
Desir singled out the July 2016 dispersal by riot police of an
opposition demonstration in Yerevan, which left over two dozen
reporters and cameramen, among them three RFE/RL correspondents,
injured. Virtually all of them were assaulted by plainclothes men.
Human rights activists believe that the attackers were police officers
or government loyalists. No policemen have been prosecuted in
connection with the violence.
Desir said he will convey his concerns to senior officials in
Yerevan. He was due to meet with Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian
and the chief of the Armenian police, Vladimir Gasparian.
Despite these concerns, Desir seemed encouraged by the Armenian media
landscape. "I think Armenia is a country where there is a strong
commitment to freedom of expression and freedom of the media," he
said. "There is a very diverse and vibrant civil society and media,
especially online media."
Asked about the U.S. watchdog Freedom House's continuing
characterization of the Armenian media as "not free," Desir said: "We
are always attentive to classifications and ratings by Freedom House
and other NGOs. But we are not doing our ratings. We are considering
that everywhere there is need for progress. Freedom of the media is a
strong pillar of democratic society."
"There have been tremendous changes in Armenia in the past years. The
public service in Armenia is transforming because of digitalization,"
added the former French government minister.
Freedom House and other critics point to a continuing strong
government influence on the news coverage of Armenia's Public
Television and leading private broadcasters.
Desir said he heard similar complaints from civil society figures and
journalists in Yerevan. "They think that public TV is not
independent," he said, adding that there is also an "issue of
diversity" among private TV channels.
Desir, who took over as the OSCE's top press freedom official in July,
insisted that the Armenian authorities are "aware of the need" to make
the public broadcaster more independent and keep up its ongoing
"transformation which began several years ago."
Armenian Archbishop Backs Fight Against Domestic Violence
 . Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia - Archbishop Mikael Ajapahian speaks at a public discussion in
Yerevan, 9Oct2017.
A high-ranking clergyman of the Armenian Apostolic Church voiced
support for government efforts to combat domestic violence as they
were angrily denounced by socially conservative groups on Monday.
The Gyumri-based Archbishop Mikael Ajapahian spoke during a heated
public discussion in Yerevan on a relevant law drafted by the Armenian
Ministry of Justice.
The bill would introduce criminal and administrative liability for
specific cases defined as domestic violence. It would also obligate
the state to protect female victims by providing them with special
shelters or banning their violent spouses from approaching them and
even their children.
The ministry invited non-governmental organizations supporting and
opposing tougher government action against domestic violence to
publicly present their arguments. The meeting descended into chaos as
the two sides bitterly argued over the wisdom of the proposed
legislation.
Representatives of several mostly obscure groups vehemently objecting
to the government initiative stood by their claims that the West and
the European Union in particular are forcing Armenia to enact the bill
in order to weaken Armenian families. One of them, Hayk Nahapetian,
questioned official statistics showing that more than 50 Armenian
women have been beaten to death and killed otherwise by their husbands
or other relatives in the last five years. The scale of the problem is
grossly exaggerated by pro-Western civic groups, he claimed.
Armenia - A public discussion in Yerevan on a government bill against
domestic violence, 9Oct2017.
Ajapahian disagreed. "Even if there is some foreign intervention or a
desire to please some foreign forces # why should we see a
non-existent conspiracy? I personally don't see any conspiracy," he
said.
"If I have a normal family, if I am a loving father, a loving husband
or a loving son, if I love and am loved, which article of this law on
prevention of domestic violence could harm me?" the archbishop went
on. "So do not create imaginary monsters, do not fight against
imaginary monsters, and be tolerant towards each other."
Ajapahian, who leads a church diocese encompassing Armenia's
northwestern Shirak province, at the same time urged the Ministry of
Justice to "take into account and allay" concerns expressed by
critics.
Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian, also present at the discussion,
was at pains to disprove their claim that the bill paves the way for
forcible separations of children from their allegedly violent
parents. "You haven't even read the law," he told a woman who
continued to claim the opposite.
Unable to convince their opponents, a visibly irritated Harutiunian
and some civic activists campaigning domestic violence walked of the
meeting hall moments later. The minister made clear that he remains
determined to send the bill, strongly backed by women's rights groups,
to the Armenian parliament for approval.
Press Review
(Saturday, October 7)
"The joint Russian-Armenian military force has been operating since
the 1990s," Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian defense analyst, tells "168
Zham." "But the two sides have decided to trumpet its existence now in
order to deter their foes." Those may well include Azerbaijan, he
says. Felgenhauer also says that the importance of the
Russian-Armenian force should not be overestimated.
"Zhoghovurd" says that it is still not clear just when and where the
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan are going to meet. "One can only
presume that the meeting will take place before the end of this year
because the international community seems very interested in achieving
progress in the negotiation process," writes the paper. "It will
therefore seek to accelerate the process, also taking into account the
fact that not much time is left until the end of Serzh Sarkisian's
[presidential] tenure."
"Zhamanak" says that the parliamentary debates on the opposition Yelk
alliance's calls for Armenia's exit from the Eurasian Economic Union
(EEU) had less public resonance than last week's reported brawl
between Yelk's Nikol Pashinian and Artashes Geghamian, a
pro-government politician known for his pro-Russia views. The paper
speculates that the authorities may have deliberately provoked the
incident in a bid to overshadow the Yelk initiative.
"Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that Ruben Hayrapetian, the controversial
chairman of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA), is facing
renewed calls to resign following the latest humiliating defeat of
Armenia's national soccer team. The paper reminds that two years ago
Hayrapetian promised to step down if Armenia's qualifying campaign for
the 2018 World Cup in Russia ends in failure. "Hayrapetian did not
specify, though, what he would consider a failure," it says. "It may
be that he and football fans have different ideas of failure."
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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