Monday,
Pashinian Rebukes Aliyev After Fresh Summit
• Emil Danielyan
Austria -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian greets the U.S., Russian and
French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group before talks with Azerbaijan's
President Ilham Aliyev, Vienna March 29, 2019.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday accused Azerbaijan’s
leadership of making misleading statements on his latest meeting with
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Pashinian at the same time stood by his largely positive assessment of the
peace talks held in Vienna on Friday.
“I think that we have a new atmosphere, a new situation, new messages, new
prospects and new understandings in the negotiations, and it is not clear why
the Azerbaijani side should avoid or be afraid of accepting these facts,” he
said in a live Facebook broadcast.
Pashinian was specifically upset with Aliyev’s claim that “the format of
negotiations remained unchanged” as a result of the Vienna summit. The
Azerbaijani leader referred to Pashinian’s regular calls for Nagorno-Karabakh’s
direct involvement in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks which have been rejected
by Baku.
“When the Azerbaijani side says ‘the important thing is that the negotiating
format remains unchanged’ they mean to imply that they emerged victorious from
these discussions,” complained Pashinian. “This is first and foremost incorrect
within the framework of the logic which we have agreed upon. Namely, not to
look for winners and losers.”
Ever since he swept to power in May last year, Pashinian has repeatedly said
that he does not have a mandate to negotiate on behalf of Karabakh’s ethnic
Armenian leadership and that the latter should therefore become a full-fledged
negotiating party.
He again claimed on Monday that this does not mean Yerevan is seeking changes
to the negotiating format, arguing that the Karabakh Armenians were directly
involved in the peace process in the 1990s. He said he and Aliyev discussed the
matter at Vienna but failed to reach any agreements.
“Does this mean that the issue has been removed from [the agenda of]
discussions?” the Armenian premier went on. “Of course not. It means that we
are going to continue discussions on this topic.”
Austria -- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (L) and Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian meet in Vienna, March 29, 2019.
The Vienna summit, which lasted for over three hours, was Pashinian’s and
Aliyev’s fourth face-to-face contact since September. In a joint statement with
the U.S., Russian and French mediators, the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers described it as “positive and constructive.” The two leaders
discussed “key issues of the settlement process and ideas of substance” and
“recommitted to strengthening the ceasefire,” according to the statement.
Pashinian and Aliyev echoed that assessment in their public comments made in
the Austrian capital. “The negotiating process has been given new impetus,” the
Azerbaijani president told the TASS news agency.
It remains unclear whether two sides made any progress towards a compromise
settlement favored by the United States, Russia and France. A framework peace
accord drafted by the three mediating powers over a decade ago calls for
Armenian withdrawal from virtually all seven districts around Karabakh. In
return, Karabakh’s predominantly ethnic Armenian population would be able to
determine Karabakh’s internationally recognized status in a future referendum.
The U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group
reaffirmed this peace formula, also known as the Madrid Principles, in a joint
statement issued on March 9. They said “any fair and lasting settlement” must
involve “return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani
control; an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh providing guarantees for
security and self-governance; a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh;
future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a
legally binding expression of will.”
Speaking at a March 19 news conference in Yerevan, Pashinian said that the
Madrid Principles are open to different interpretations and therefore need to
be clarified. He said on Monday that he raised the matter with Aliyev and the
mediators at the Vienna meeting.
“Can we say at this point that we received those clarifications and answers to
our questions?” added the prime minister. “No because these are very extensive
questions, and unfortunately it was not possible to get answers to those
questions as a result of a single discussion.”
Nevertheless, Pashinian said, he and Aliyev agreed to continue discussions on
the proposed settlement, including through their foreign ministers.
Armenian Vice-Minister Held For ‘Bribery’
Armenia -- The main entrance to the National Security Service building in
Yerevan.
An Armenian deputy minister of health was arrested while allegedly receiving a
hefty bribe over the weekend.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said on Monday that the official,
Arsen Davtian, was caught red-handed in his office. It claimed that the unnamed
director of a medical institution paid Davtian a “particularly large amount of
money” in return for securing greater government funding for his hospital.
An NSS statement said both men will be prosecuted on corruption charges. It
said that unlike Davtian, the hospital chief was not arrested because of his
old age and poor health.
The security service added that it is continuing to investigate possible
corrupt practices in payment of government subsidies to state-owned and private
hospitals, a process which has been overseen by Davtian.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian, who helped Davtian become vice-minister in May,
said later on Monday that his deputy will deserve “strict” punishment if
convicted. “Such [corrupt] practices are inadmissible and condemnable,” he
wrote on Facebook.
“We voice our support for law-enforcement bodies in their fight against
corruption,” Torosian added on behalf of his staff. “We sincerely believe that
disclosure of corruption and other illegal practices in the [healthcare] system
will help to root them out and make the system healthy.”
Davtian was detained one month after Torosian effectively engineered the arrest
of two government officials accused of attempting to personally benefit from
government-funded supplies of medical equipment to three hospitals.
The indicted officials held senior positions at the State Oversight Service
(SOS), a government agency tasked with combatting financial irregularities in
the public sector. They both deny the corruption charges.
Torosian has repeatedly pledged to eliminate widespread corruption in the
Armenian healthcare system. In July, the minister sacked Ara Minasian, the
longtime director of Yerevan’s Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, after
accusing him of embezzling at least 545 million drams ($1.1 million) in public
funds.
Law-enforcement authorities brought corruption charges against Minasian shortly
afterwards. The latter rejected them as baseless and politically motivated.
A prominent doctor, Minasian is the father of former President Serzh
Sarkisian’s son-in-law Mikael Minasian, who enjoyed considerable political and
economic influence in Armenia until last spring’s “velvet revolution.”
Sacking Of Armenian Opera Chief Sparks Protests
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Artists of the Armenian national opera theater protest outside the
main government building in Yerevan, April 1, 2019.
Amid continuing angry protests against the sacking of the acclaimed
Armenian-American director of Armenia’s national opera theater, the government
pledged to at least delay the appointment of his successor on Monday.
Constantine Orbelian, a San Francisco-born conductor and pianist, was named as
artistic director of the Alexander Spendiarian National Opera and Ballet
Theater in Yerevan in 2016 and became its director general as well a year
later. He is widely credited with breathing a new life into one of the
country’s most important cultural institutions chronically underfunded by
successive post-Soviet governments.
Acting Culture Minister Nazeni Gharibian dismissed Orbelian as chief executive
on Thursday, saying that he is not legally allowed to combine the two
leadership positions. She also argued that the 62-year-old U.S. citizen is not
fluent in Armenian.
Orbelian rejected the decision as illegal and said he will challenge it in
court. Most actors and musicians of the state-run theater also condemned his
dismissal, demanding that Gharibian be sacked instead.
Armenia- Artists of the nationla opera theater stage a protest action in
support of Constantine Orbelian, 30Mar2019.
In an unprecedented protest, many of them walked on stage just before a ballet
performance on Sunday to voice their indignation in front of hundreds of
spectators. They threatened to go on strike if Orbelian is not reinstated. The
audience responded with applause.
Scores of other artists, among them the directors of other state-run theaters,
voiced support for the protesting staff by signing an open letter to Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Dozens of opera and ballet staffers rallied outside outside the main government
building in Yerevan on Monday, leading Pashinian to meet with their
representatives.
Pashinian defended the legality of Orbelian’s dismissal at the meeting. He also
pointed to the latter’s frequent trips abroad and, citing the Armenian Finance
Ministry, alleged financial irregularities committed by the theater
administration in 2017.
Armenia - Constantine Orbelian, the director of the national opera theater
controversially sacked by the government, Yerevan, March 29, 2019.
Pashinian at the same time made clear that he is open to hearing the artists’
counterarguments. In that regard, he announced that the theater will be run by
one of Orbelian’s deputies for the time being.
“Keep working as usual,” the premier told them. “I will wait for your arguments
and we will jointly make decisions.”
Gharibian said on Friday that she has already appointed a new opera director
and will introduce him or her to the theater staff on Monday. The acting
minister did not attend Pashinian’s meeting with the protesters’
representatives even though she was seen entering the prime minister’s office.
The protest leaders seemed satisfied with the meeting. One of them, conductor
Harutiun Arzumanian, said they will study written justifications for Orbelian’s
sacking and respond to Pashinian in writing.
“The prime minister said if it turns out that even one of the submitted
[government] arguments is false the official who submitted them will be
immediately fired,” Arzumanian told reporters.
Russia ‘Thanked’ For Karabakh Mediation
Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian (L) in the Kremlin, December 27, 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin on the
latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit and reportedly praised Russia’s efforts to
help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during a phone call on Monday.
In a statement, the Kremlin said Pashinian “informed” Putin about the results
of his March 29 talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held in Vienna
and “expressed gratitude to the Russian side for its weighty mediating role in
the negotiation process.”
“Vladimir Putin reaffirmed Russia’s readiness to further assist in the search
for solutions to the key aspects of the [Karabakh] settlement, including in the
OSCE Minsk Group framework,” added the statement.
Russia has long been co-heading the Minsk Group with the United States and
France. Diplomats from the three mediating powers were present at the Vienna
summit along with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers.
An Armenian newspaper claimed last week that Foreign Minister Zohrab
Mnatsakanian paid a confidential visit to Moscow ahead of the summit. The
Foreign Ministry in Yerevan did not deny the report.
Pashinian’s press office likewise said that the prime minister discussed the
Vienna talks with Putin. It did not elaborate.
The two leaders also discussed Russian-Armenian ties, the office said, adding
that they stressed the importance of the upcoming meeting in Moscow of a
Russian-Armenian intergovernmental commission on bilateral cooperation. The
commission mainly deals with economic issues.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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