Monday,
Senior U.S. Official Visits Armenia
Armenia - George Kent (R), the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for
European and Eurasian affairs, meets with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in
Yerevan, .
A senior U.S. State Department official met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
in Yerevan on Monday for talks that reportedly focused on regional security and
the Armenian government’s ambitious reform agenda.
A government statement said Pashinian briefed George Kent, the U.S. deputy
assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, on wide-ranging
reforms planned by his cabinet and its efforts to combat corruption. Armenia is
“firmly going down the path of democratic development,” he said.
The statement cited Kent as saying that the United States is interested in
Armenia’s democratization and economic development. The U.S. is therefore ready
to assist Pashinian’s government in implementing the promised reforms, the
diplomat was reported to add.
The outgoing U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Richard Mills, revealed last week that
Washington provided Armenia with $14 million in additional aid following last
spring’s dramatic change of the country’s government.
In a September 21 message to Pashinian, U.S. President Donald Trump praised the
mass protests that brought the 43-year-old former journalist to power in May.
“A peaceful, popular movement ushered in a new era in Armenia, and we look
forward to working with you to help you execute the will of your people to
combat corruption and to establish representative, accountable governance, rule
of law buttressed by an independent judiciary, and political and economic
competition,” wrote Trump.
Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, is due to visit Yerevan later
this month as part of a tour of Russia and the three South Caucasus states.
Bolton said last week that the main purpose of the trip is to “advance American
interests on a range of security issues.”
Pashinian’s press office said international efforts to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and other “regional challenges” were also on the
agenda of the Armenian leader’s talks with Kent. But it did not elaborate.
Pashinian has expressed readiness to “strengthen and expand” Armenia’s
relationship with the U.S. But he has ruled major changes in Armenian foreign
policy traditionally oriented towards Russia
Pashinian Reaffirms Resignation Date
• Sisak Gabrielian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian talks to reporters in Yerevan, 1
October 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian will tender his resignation on Tuesday to ensure
that snap parliamentary elections are held in Armenia in early December, his
spokesman said on Monday.
Under the Armenian constitution, the current parliament will be dissolved if it
fails to elect another prime minister within two weeks after Pashinian’s
resignation. None of the parliamentary factions is expected to try to replace
him by another premier.
The largest of those factions, which represents Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK), said on October 9 that it “did not and does not have an
intention to nominate a candidate” for the post of prime minister if Pashinian
steps down. The premier met with the top HHK lawmakers the following day.
Pashinian told the France24 TV channel afterwards that he will resign “by
October 16.” That means, he said, that the snap elections will take place in
the first half of December.
Pashinian’s press secretary, Arman Yeghoyan, did not specify whether he will
announce the resignation at an extraordinary cabinet meeting scheduled for
Tuesday. He said only that ministers will discuss amendments to the Electoral
Code drafted by an ad hoc government commission.
The HHK faction leader, Vahram Baghdasarian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service
that its members will also meet on Tuesday to discuss the draft amendments. The
meeting will be held at the government’s request, he said.
Pashinian, who controls only a handful of seats in the current National
Assembly, stepped up his push for the early elections after his alliance won
more than 80 percent of the vote in the September 23 municipal elections in
Yerevan.
On October 2, the HHK and two other parliamentary parties passed a bill that
could have made it harder for the government to force the elections in
December. The move sparked angry protests by tens of thousands of Pashinian
supporters who rallied outside the parliament building in Yerevan.
The constitution allows Pashinian to continue to perform his prime-ministerial
duties at least until the inaugural session of the new parliament. Observers
believe that his political team will have a comfortable majority in it.
U.S. Envoy Upbeat On Democracy In Armenia
• Harry Tamrazian
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills delivers a farewell speech at
the American Chamber of Commerce in Yerevan, 9 October 2018.
Richard Mills, the outgoing U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, sounded optimistic on
Monday about Armenia’s chances of becoming an established democracy after the
recent dramatic change of its government.
“I am [optimistic] because I know it’s what the Armenian people want,” Mills
told RFE/RL’s Armenian service in an interview.
“Armenians know what they want and they will achieve that goal,” he said. “So
I’m confident. I think the democratic future here is bright.”
In that context, Mill pointed to last spring’s mass protests that brought down
the previous Armenian government, saying that they resulted from public demand
for sweeping changes in the country.
“What we saw in April and May were Armenian-led developments… Armenians wanted
a new society, a political will to solve problems,” he said.
The envoy, who is completing his more than three-year tour of duty in Armenia,
admitted, though, that he was not sure about the outcome of the protest
movement when it was launched by Nikol Pashinian, then an opposition leader, in
Gyumri.
The nationwide protests forced Armenia’s longtime leader Serzh Sarkisian to
resign on April 23. The Armenian parliament elected Pashinian prime minister on
May 8 under relentless pressure from scores of his supporters demonstrating in
Yerevan and other parts of the country.
Mills said that Pashinian has since been rapidly evolving from a protest leader
into a head of government.
“I’m impressed with the gravitas that he has,” he said, drawing parallels
between the 43-year-old former journalist and John Adams, one of the American
founding fathers who served as second president of the United States from
1797-1801.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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