Monday, 

Ruling Parties ‘Untroubled’ By Opposition Protests


        • Ruzanna Stepanian


Armenia - Civic activists protest against President Serzh Sarkisian's continued 
rule outside the ruling Republican Party's headquarters in Yerevan, 24 March 
2018.

The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and its junior coalition partner, 
Dashnaktsutyun, said on Monday that they are not worried about opposition plans 
to stage street demonstrations against President Serzh Sarkisian’s apparent 
plans to extend his rule.

Sarkisian is widely expected to become prime minister and thus remain Armenia’s 
most powerful man after serving out his final presidential term on April 9. 
Various opposition groups, notably Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, have 
pledged to rally supporters next month in a bid to scuttle his perceived plans.

Pashinian indicated last week that the focal point of his and his allies’ 
campaign will be the period between April 9 and April 17, the anticipated date 
of the new prime minister’s election by the Armenian parliament. He claimed 
that Sarkisian will be particularly vulnerable to popular pressure during that 
time because he will have no formal control over the government, the military 
and security agencies.

“I don’t take that seriously,” Vahram Baghdasarian, the leader of the HHK’s 
parliamentary faction, said, commenting on Pashinian’s statement. “Power is not 
a box which they can pick up. You need grounds to take power.”

“We have had many cases where the president of the republic was abroad or on 
vacation,” Baghdasarian told reporters. “He was substituted for during those 
times.”

Dashnaktsutyun’s Aghvan Vartanian also dismissed Pashinian’s plans. “During 
that period [from April 9-17] power won’t be lying on the street,” he said. 
“Every state body will be performing their functions.”

Pashinian’s Civil Contract is one of the three opposition parties making up the 
Yelk alliance which finished third in last year’s parliamentary elections. 
While also opposing Sarkisian’s continued rule, the two other Yelk parties have 
refused to back his plans. They say that anti-Sarkisian protests are unlikely 
to attract big crowds.

Also campaigning against Sarkisian’s “reproduction” is the For the Armenian 
State coalition of more radical opposition groups and activists, including 
Raffi Hovannisian’s Zharangutyun party. The grouping pulled a small crowd for 
its most recent rally held in Yerevan on Friday. It hopes to team up with Civil 
Contract.

“I can understand when extraparliamentary forces try to use the street,” said 
the HHK’s Baghdasarian. “It’s just a bit unclear to me why there are 
parliamentary forces willing to leave the parliament and opt for street 
protests.”

“I think that there are no grounds [for doing that,] but as I said, it’s up to 
a political force to choose its method of political struggle,” added the 
pro-government lawmaker.




Russian Official Plays Up Fresh Arms Supplies To Armenia


        • Artak Hambardzumian


Armenia - Konstantin Zatulin, deputy chairman of a Russian State Duma 
committee, speaks to reporters in Yerevan, .

Russia has supplied Armenia with more weapons and other military equipment in 
response to the April 2016 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, a senior Russian 
lawmaker said during a visit to Yerevan on Monday.

“We do realize that after the 2016 escalation, which was initiated by one of 
the parties, Armenian public opinion showed serious discontent with Russia 
regarding arms supplies to Azerbaijan on the part of Russia,” Konstantin 
Zatulin told reporters. “We very much regret that Azerbaijan found no use for 
them other than violating the ceasefire agreement on the [Karabakh] Line of 
Contact reached in 1994 with our help.”

“We have drawn conclusions regarding the breach of the military balance in the 
region and provided Armenia with state-of-the-art defense equipment which we 
had a chance to see at the [September 2016] military parade organized on the 
occasion of [Armenia’s] Republic Day,” said the deputy chairman of a Russian 
State Duma committee on relations with former Soviet republics.

Despite its military alliance with Armenia, Russia signed an estimated $5 
billion worth of defense contracts with Azerbaijan in 2009-2011. Many in 
Armenia feel that the resulting deliveries of hundreds of Russian tanks, 
artillery systems and combat helicopters to Baku encouraged the latter to 
launch the April 2016 offensive in Karabakh.

The four-day hostilities, which Moscow helped to halt, left at least 180 
soldiers from both warring sides dead.It was the worst escalation of the 
Karabakh conflict since 1994.

Visiting Yerevan earlier this month, another senior Russian lawmaker, 
Konstantin Kosachev, indicated that Moscow will scale down its future arms 
dealings with Baku. “Of course, we are reacting to what occurred in April 
2016,” said Kosachev, who chairs the foreign relations committee of the 
Federation Council, the Russian upper house of parliament.


Armenia - The Armenian military demonstrates Iskander missile systems during a 
parade in Yerevan, 21Sep2016.

The fresh Russian arms supplies to Armenia mentioned by Zatulin stem, in part, 
from a $200 million Russian loan allocated in June 2015. The Armenian military 
has used that money for buying, among other things, Smerch multiple-launch 
rocket system, thermobaric and anti-tank rocket systems and shoulder-fired 
surface-to-air missiles.

At its September 2016 parade in Yerevan, the military also demonstrated 
medium-range Buk air-defense systems and, more importantly, Iskander tactical 
missiles. Armenia most probably received the precision-guided missiles shortly 
before or after the four-day war in Karabakh.

In October 2017, the Armenian government announced that Moscow will provide it 
with a further $100 million loan that will be spent on the purchase of more 
Russian weapons at internal Russian prices set well below international 
market-based levels. Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakarian said in December 
that the Armenian side has already finalized three defense contracts with 
Russian arms manufacturers as part of the loan agreement.

Zatulin, who is known for his pro-Armenian views on the Karabakh conflict, on 
Monday also denounced Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s recent pledge to 
“return Azerbaijanis” to Yerevan and other parts of Armenia which he called 
“historic Azerbaijani lands.” “It’s just not clear how anyone can take such a 
statement seriously,” added the veteran lawmaker.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also criticized Aliyev’s remarks last month. 
Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani leader repeated his claims last week.




Former German Envoy Again Visits Karabakh


Nagorno-Karabakh - Hans-Jochen Schmidt (R), a former German ambassador to 
Armenia, meets with Masis Mayilian, the Karabakh foreign minister, in 
Stepanakert, .

Germany’s former ambassador to Armenia, Hans-Jochen Schmidt, met with senior 
officials in Stepanakert on Monday during yet another private visit to 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Schmidt, who headed the German diplomatic mission in Yerevan from 2009-2012, 
was reported to discuss with Arayik Harutiunian, Karabakh’s state minister 
primarily responsible for economic policies, the socioeconomic situation in the 
Armenian-populated territory.

A Karabakh government statement said Harutiunian briefed him on recent economic 
developments and “a number of investment projects.”The retired German diplomat, 
for his part, “presented details of his visit and forthcoming plans.”

The two men also spoke about “prospects for cooperation between Karabakh and 
Germany in some sectors of the economy,” the statement added without 
elaborating.

Schmidt also had a separate meeting with Masis Mayilian, the Karabakh foreign 
minister. According to Mayilian’s press office, they discussed international 
efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict and the unrecognized republic’s 
contacts with the outside world.

Schmidt is known to have also visited Karabakh on at least two occasions in the 
past, most recently in September 2016. Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president, 
awarded him a “medal of gratitude” at the time. Schmidt reportedly called for 
more political and people-to-people contacts between the European Union and 
Karabakh.

“I always thought that it is impossible to be informed about Karabakh without 
visiting it,” he told the local Artsakhpress news agency. In that regard, he 
criticized Azerbaijan for blacklisting non-Armenian foreign dignitaries 
travelling to the region.

Schmidt, 70, is one of the founding members of the German-Armenian Forum (DAG), 
a group set up in Berlin in 2015 to “promote mutual understanding between 
Germans and Armenians and safeguard the interests of Armenians living in 
Germany.”




Press Review



(Saturday, March 24)

Interviewed by “Haykakan Zhamanak,” opposition leader Nikol Pashinian defends 
his decision in 2015 not to campaign against President Serzh Sarkisian’s 
controversial constitutional changes that eventually enabled the latter to 
prolong his rule. Pashinian insists that now is a better time to fight against 
Sarkisian’s continued rule. “We are capable of organizing a struggle and 
creating a platform for the people and winning,” he says. “If there is an 
expression of popular will, it will be easier to effect regime change under the 
current constitution than the previous one. Why? Because Serzh Sarkisian will 
not be president during the political processes envisioned by us.”

“Zhamanak” disagrees with Pashinian’s view that the period between the end of 
Sarkisian’s presidential term on April 9 and his anticipated appointment as 
prime minister on April 17 represents a unique opportunity for the Armenian 
opposition to seize power. The paper believes that Pashinian and his Civil 
Contract party cannot topple the ruling regime on their own. It says they are 
extremely unlikely to cobble together a broad-based opposition coalition for 
that purpose. Armenia needs a smooth and lawful transition of power, rather 
than revolutionary upheavals, it says.

A German political analyst, Susan Stewart, tells “168 Zham” that she expects 
only minor “technical” obstacles to the ratification of the European Union’s 
Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Armenia. She also 
notes that Russia did not react negatively, at least in public, to the signing 
of the CEPA in November.

“Zhoghovurd” comments on serious problems with the implementation of an 
ambitious government project to refurbish Armenia’s main highways stretching to 
the Iranian and Georgian borders. “Right from the beginning it was evident that 
this project is not cost-effective for Armenia,” writes the paper. “On the 
contrary, it will mean a waste of financial resources, part of them loans.” It 
accuses senior government officials of using the project to enrich themselves.

(Tatev Danielian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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