Tuesday,
Pashinian Warns Radical Group
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Leaders of the Sasna Tsrer party start their election campaign in
Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has issued a stern warning to a newly formed
nationalist party whose members stormed a police base in Yerevan more than two
years ago.
Pashinian said on Monday that the Sasna Tsrer party and its supporters will
“feel the taste of asphalt” if they attempt to destabilize the political
situation in Armenia before or after the December 9 parliamentary elections.
Sasna Tsrer is a rebranded version of Founding Parliament, a radical movement
that challenged the former Armenian government. It is one of 11 political
forces running in the elections.
Sasna Tsrer’s list of election candidates is topped by Varuzhan Avetisian, the
leader of an armed group that seized the police base in Yerevan’s Erebuni
district in July 2016. The three dozen gunmen demanded that then President
Serzh Sarkisian free Founding Parliament’s jailed leader, Zhirayr Sefilian, and
step down.
They laid down their weapons after a two-week standoff with security forces
which left three police officers dead.
Armenia - Gunmen occupy a police station in Yerevan, 23July2016.
Despite standing trial on serious charges, Avetisian and the vast majority of
the other arrested gunmen were set free shortly after Pashinian came to power
in May in a wave of anti-Sarkisian protests.
Sefilian was also released from prison following the “velvet revolution.” The
Lebanese-born activist, who received Armenian citizenship only this month, is
not eligible to run for the parliament. But he is participating in the election
campaign of his and his allies’ party strongly opposed to any Armenian
concessions to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Avetisian has stated during the campaign that the National Assembly to be
elected on December 9 will have to be dissolved within two years because
Armenia is now in a post-revolutionary “transitional period.”
Pashinian, whose My Step alliance is expected to win the upcoming polls,
reacted furiously those statements when he campaigned in Armenia’s northwestern
Shirak province on Monday.
“Have you have decided that you have a right to determine the length of the
parliament’s and sometimes even people’s life?” he appealed to the Sasna Tsrer
leadership during a campaign rally. “I’m telling you: make no mistake, this is
not Serzh Sarkisian’s weak and spineless government.”
“Let nobody interpret our smiles and courtesy as weakness. There have been
several such cases, and those who thought so felt the taste of asphalt,”
Pashinian said, alluding to high-profile detentions of some members of
Sarkisian’s entourage and their bodyguards.
The prime minister added that the new parliament will fully serve its five-year
term set by the Armenian constitution.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with relatives of police
officers killed in a 2016 standoff with opposition gunmen, 28 June 2018.
Sasna Tsrer condemned the premier’s remarks in a statement issued on Tuesday.
“Pashinian made unfounded statements, using threats and phrases having an
offensive subtext,” it said.
Avetisian defended his statements. He said they do not mean that Sasna Tsrer is
now demanding the holding of fresh elections by 2020.
“It is first and foremost a prediction,” Avetisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian
service. “Many other politicians and political forces have made the same
forecast.”
The 2016 attack on the Yerevan police base was condemned by the United States
and the European Union. “We abhor the actions of Sasna Tsrer and others who use
violence or who threaten to harm others to serve their political agenda,”
Richard Mills, the former U.S. ambassador to Armenia, said in March 2018.
Pashinian Toughens Rhetoric Against Armenia’s Former Ruling Party
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at an election campaign rally
in Maralik, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged to “grab by the throat,” “throw to the
ground” and jail loyalists of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia
(HHK) who would try to pressure voters ahead of next month’s parliamentary
elections.
Pashinian stepped up his verbal attacks on the party led by his predecessor
Serzh Sarkisian as he toured the northern Lori province on the second day of
campaigning for the December 9 polls.
“Where are the Republican village mayors who bully their villagers in
connection with the elections or anything else?” he said at a campaign rally
held in the town of Spitak. “I say to those village mayors: be aware that I
personally will visit you, grab you by the throat and throw you out of your
offices.”
“Are there people in this country who dare to bully citizens? I will force all
of you to lie on the ground. Who are they? Which Republicans? Which oligarchs?
Which burly men? I will force all of you to lie on the ground and you won’t get
off the ground for years.”
Pashinian went on to order the Armenian police to deal with HHK-linked
“criminal elements” in a similar fashion. “Who do you think you are?” he said,
appealing to those elements. “Tell me your names. You must not come out of your
holes. You must not walk in the country’s streets. Your place is in prison and
you all -- criminals, plunderers and scoundrels -- will end up in prison.”
Pashinian did not name any village chiefs or other individuals allegedly trying
to earn the HHK voters with illicit methods. Sarkisian’s party, which was
forced out of power more than six months ago, has been the main target of his
harsh verbal attacks on his critics launched on the campaign trail.
The HHK condemned Pashinian’s “hate speech” and “threats against elected
officials” in a statement released by its campaign headquarters later on
Tuesday.
“Such behavior is unprecedented for our political culture, especially on the
part of … the prime minister bearing responsible for our security and
well-being,” said the statement.
The HHK urged Armenia’s Central Election Commission, human rights ombudsman and
foreign election observers to pay “attention” to Pashinian’s pre-election
rhetoric.
The HHK won the last parliamentary elections held in April 2017. But it is now
fighting to remain represented in the National Assembly.
Pashinian reacted furiously after HHK figures and other critics condemned one
of his close associates, Sasun Mikaelian, for saying on Monday that the success
of this spring’s “velvet revolution” was more important than the Armenian
victory in the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. He accused his political
opponents of deliberately misinterpreting Mikaelian’s statement which he
portrayed as a slip of the tongue.
Tsarukian Starts Election Campaign
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian addresses an election
campaign rally in Abovian, .
Businessman Gagik Tsarukian put the emphasis on his and Prosperous Armenia
(BHK) party’s economic programs when he launched its parliamentary election
campaign on Tuesday.
Tsarukian rallied supporters in Abovian, a town about 20 kilometers north of
Yerevan where he has held sway for more than two decades.
“You know that my words always lead to action and that I turn everything I say
into reality,” he told the crowd.
“I didn’t graduate from Harvard but I have a lot of experience,” the former
arm-wrestler said, touting his achievements in business.
The BHK, Tsarukian went on, will exempt small businesses from taxes, cut
interest rates and help create many jobs if it returns to government as a
result of the December 9 general elections. He did not specify his party’s
electoral goals and expectations.
The BHK has finished second in all parliamentary elections held in Armenia
since 2007. It was part of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s coalition
government from 2008-2012.
Tsarukian’s party reached a similar power-sharing agreement with Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian after he came to power in May this year. Pashinian fired his
BHK-affiliated ministers in October, accusing Tsarukian of collaborating with
Sarkisian’ Republican Party of Armenia.
The tycoon has since avoided public criticism of the new government. Speaking
at the Abovian rally, he echoed Pashinian’s calls for an “economic revolution”
in the country.
But he also said: “My dear people, I have trouble talking to anyone these days.
People are angry, upset and disappointed. But I must tell you, my dears, that
you all expect things to get better. And they will get better for sure.”
Participants of the rally held pictures of Tsarukian and his chief bodyguard
Eduard Babayan, who is running for the parliament on the BHK ticket in a local
constituency.
Babayan was arrested in July on charges of beating up a man. He strongly denied
the charges and was freed from custody on bail in August.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” says the December 9 elections will mark the final chapter of
Armenia’s “velvet revolution.” “After a more than 20-year break Armenia’s
citizens have formed a government safe in the knowledge that there will be no
fraud and their votes will not be stolen in the upcoming elections,” writes the
paper. “Accordingly, the legitimacy of the government will be restored.” It
notes that all election contenders agree that the victory of Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance is a forgone conclusion.
“Aravot” says that the election campaign is shaping up as a multi-partisan
bashing of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia
(HHK). “Most of what is being said about the former authorities is true but
talking only about them for more than two weeks means that neither the
participants of the election campaign nor, so to speak, the spectators care
about party platforms and ideas,” editorializes the paper. It says that in
these circumstances the election contenders do not have to “understand the real
needs of ordinary people.” “But starting from December 10 it will be
increasingly harder [for the authorities] to say that the ‘former criminal
regime’ hampers the resolution of one or another problem,” it adds.
“Zhamanak” reacts to HHK claims that Pashinian should brace for a “big
surprise” on election night. “The HHK is probably saying that it will win more
votes than expected,” writes the paper. “At the moment few believe that the HHK
will manage to clear the [5 percent] vote threshold or at least finish third in
the elections.” The paper says that the HHK’s continued presence in the
National Assembly would not be good for the country.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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