Tuesday,
Major Ally Rebukes, Warns Pashinian
Armenia - Aram Sarkisian speaks at the founding congress of the Yelk alliance
in Yerevan, 21 January 2017.
The leader of a party represented in Armenia’s current government has deplored
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s harsh attacks on alleged
“counterrevolutionary” elements in the country, saying that he is alienating
political groups that helped him come to power.
Aram Sarkisian warned that they could no longer back Pashinian’s plans to force
snap parliamentary elections in the coming months.
Pashinian launched the verbal attacks following the start of campaigning for
the September 23 municipal elections in Yerevan which his Civil Contract party
hopes to win by a landslide. Speaking at a campaign rally last week, he claimed
that “political forces portraying themselves as guardians of the revolution”
are secretly collaborating with the former ruling Republican Party (HHK) in a
bid to get more votes in the polls.
Pashinian, who led last spring a protest movement that brought down Armenia’s
previous HHK-controlled government, did not name those forces. Observers
believe that he referred to at least some of the other parties that are
represented in his cabinet. Those are Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia
(BHK), Dashnaktsutyun as well as the Republic and Bright Armenia parties.
The latter make up, together with Civil Contract, the Yelk alliance that
finished third in the last parliamentary elections held in April 2017. Republic
and Bright Armenia refused to back Pashinian when he launched the
anti-government mass protests in April.
Despite the rift, Pashinian gave his Yelk partners two ministerial posts in his
cabinet formed in May. Still, the three parties subsequently failed to agree on
a single mayoral candidate in Yerevan. Bright Armenia and Republic fielded
their own candidate, Justice Minister Artak Zeynalian, who is now challenging
Civil Contract’s Hayk Marutian.
Armenia - Leaders of the opposition Yelk alliance hold an anti-government rally
in Yerevan, 19Jan2018.
The Republic leader, Aram Sarkisian, described as “nonsensical” suggestions
that his party is secretly collaborating with the HHK when he campaigned for
Zeynalian late on Monday. He also emphasized the fact that parliament deputies
from Republic, Bright Armenia, the BHK and Dashnaktsutyun helped Pashinian
become prime minister on May 8. “How can you say such things about the team
that has worked with you?” he said, appealing to the premier.
“If you want to form a government only with those who marched with you, to
reckon only with them and to build [a new] Armenia only with them, I have
nothing to say to you,” Sarkisian went on. “But you must think about how you
will be going about holding pre-term [parliamentary] elections.
“The two parties listed by me and the four other members of our [Yelk]
parliamentary faction have stood with you and said that they support fresh
elections. I can now see these people wondering whether they should keep up
that support.”
“These people, who helped you once, may not help you this time around,” warned
the veteran politician.
Sarkisian said that ordinary Armenians also do not like what he sees as
Pashinian’s divisive and inflammatory rhetoric.“I am deeply convinced that our
people … are sick and tired of fighting against each other,” he said.
Armenian Ex-Presidents Invited To Government Events
• Sisak Gabrielian
Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (L) and his predecessor Robert Kocharian
visit Gyumri, 7 December 2008.
The government said on Tuesday that it will invite the three former presidents
of Armenia to attend this week’s official celebrations of the country’s
Independence Day.
The September 21 events will mark the 27th anniversary of a referendum in which
the vast majority of Armenians voted for secession from the disintegrating
Soviet Union. They include an official reception that will be held at the
former presidential palace in Yerevan where Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and
most of his staff currently work.
“All three presidents will be invited to the Independence Day events,” said
Eduard Aghajanian, the chief of Pashinian’s staff.
Pashinian swept to power in May after weeks of nationwide mass protests that
forced Armenia’s longtime leader, Serzh Sarkisian, to resign. Sarkisian served
as president of the republic for the past ten years. He tried unsuccessfully to
extend his rule by becoming prime minister following the country’s transition
to a parliamentary system of government.
Sarkisian’s predecessor, Robert Kocharian, was controversially arrested in July
on coup charges stemming from a 2008 post-election crackdown on opposition
protesters in Yerevan. An Armenian appeals court freed him from custody more
than two weeks later.
Kocharian denies the charges as politically motivated. Immediately after his
release he announced his return to active politics.
Pashinian has repeatedly defended Kocharian’s prosecution, while denying
issuing any pressure on law-enforcement bodies investigating the 2008 violence.
In a September 11 speech, he branded the ex-president a “criminal” and
“traitor.”
The 43-year-old premier has also had an uneasy relationship with Armenia’s
first president, Levon Ter-Petrosian. He played a prominent role in
Ter-Petrosian’s opposition movement that was targeted by Kocharian in 2008.
Pashinian subsequently spent about two years in prison on charges stemming from
that crackdown.
Pashinian fell out with Ter-Petrosian after being released from prison in 2011.
The two men met in July for the first time in years.
11 Charged With Vote Buying In Yerevan
• Anush Muradian
Armenia - Mayor Taron Markarian votes in municipal elections in Yerevan,
14May2017.
Eleven persons, including a senior local government official, have been charged
with buying votes for the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) in last year’s
municipal elections in Yerevan, it emerged on Tuesday.
The criminal case stems from irregularities that were reported by the
opposition Yelk alliance on eve of the May 2017 elections won by the HHK and
its top candidate, Yerevan’s incumbent Mayor Taron Markarian.
Yelk representatives found scandalous documents in a trash bin outside an HHK
campaign office in the city’s Arabkir district. Most of them purportedly
detailed vote buying operations by government loyalists, including sums of
money and guidelines on how to buy votes.
Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) claimed to have conducted an
inquiry. It closed the criminal case in August 2017, citing a lack of evidence.
The SIS launched a fresh probe shortly after one of Yelk’s leaders, Nikol
Pashinian, swept to power in a wave of mass protests that brought down
Armenia’s HHK-led government in May.
According to a senior official from the law-enforcement agency, Davit
Kostandian, SIS investigators have found compelling evidence of vote buying in
favor of the HHK. Kostandian said that the illegal operation was led by Hrayr
Antonian, the head of a department at Yerevan’s municipal administration, and
Stepan Sahakian, the executive director of a supermarket chain owned by an
HHK-linked businessman.
The SIS official claimed that Arabkir residents were paid 10,000 drams ($21)
each for pledging to vote for the HHK and Mayor Markarian. He did not specify
how many votes were bought in this fashion, saying only that Antonian and
Sahakian claim to have spent 48 million drams and 15 million drams respectively
on vote bribes.
Neither man could be reached for comment on Tuesday. Kostandian said they and
the nine other suspects have pleaded guilty to the accusations. Markarian, who
resigned as Yerevan mayor under government pressure in July, has not yet been
questioned by the SIS, added the official.
Another document found by Yelk in 2017 contained the names of police officers
who pledged to earn the HHK a particular number of votes. The document was
allegedly faxed from a telephone number belonging to the Armenian police.
Kostandian said that all of those policemen have been questioned by SIS
investigators. But he declined to elaborate.
Vote buying was widespread in just about every major election held in Armenia
in the last two decades. The HHK, which is headed by former President Serzh
Sarkisian, was accused by its opponents and media of heavily relying on the
practice in the last parliamentary polls held in April 2017.Observers from the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that they were marred
by “many credible reports” of vote buying.
The new Pashinian-led government has pledged to prevent vote buying in the snap
mayoral elections that will be held in the Armenian capital on Sunday. Earlier
this month it pushed through the parliament legal amendments that significantly
toughened punishment for the illegal practice.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” seeks to rationalize mounting political tensions in Armenia
resulting from the ongoing mayoral race in Yerevan. “Political struggle is
quite brutal in practically all countries,” writes the paper. “And
paradoxically, that brutal and tough character often reflects the fact that a
particular election is really competitive. That is to say that nothing is
predetermined in advance.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” dismisses critics’ allegations that Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian is increasingly showing authoritarian tendencies and needs to be held
in check by strong opposition. The pro-Pashinian paper acknowledges that these
claims are now also backed by individuals and groups who “honestly” want the
current government to be accountable. “The executive branch, namely Pashinian’s
team, has no influence on the judicial system,” it says. “In fact, the judicial
system is engaged in an overt sabotage against the prime minister’s team and
pursues concrete goals: to discredit the ongoing fight against corruption and
abuses.” The paper argues that the Armenian parliament is also not controlled
by Pashinian.
“Hraparak” expresses concern over Monday’s police raid against an Armenian
media outlet that circulated leaked phone calls between the heads of the
National Security Service (NSS) and the Special Investigative Service (SIS).
The paper argues that other news organizations also publicized the scandalous
recordings last week. It suggests that the Yerevan.today publication was raided
because of its alleged ties to former President Robert Kocharian. The
authorities, it says, may have tried to bully the publication or keep up public
support for their declared anti-corruption efforts.
Interviewed by “168 Zham,” a Russian political commentator, Stanislav Tarasov,
sees a renewed risk of a major escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“Armenia’s recently elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has made differing
and at times contradictory statements and moves on the conflict’s resolution,”
says Tarasov. “At the start of his tenure Pashinian said that Nagorno-Karabakh
is a party to the conflict and must be involved in the negotiation process. But
further processes followed the previous logic.” He suggests that Pashinian is
still undecided about his national security strategy.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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