Friday,
Putin, Pashinian Discuss Eurasian Union
Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian meet in Saint Petersburg, June 6, 2019.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
discussed Armenia’s current presidency of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)
during a phone conversation on Friday.
The Kremlin and Pashinian’s press office said they also spoke about
Russian-Armenian cooperation within the framework of another Russian-led
alliance of ex-Soviet states: the Collective Security Organization (CSTO).
Statements released by them indicated that Putin and Pashinian focused on an
EEU summit in Yerevan scheduled for October 1 as well as the possibility of
expanding the trade bloc’s “external relations.”
Earlier this week, Pashinian had similar phone calls with the presidents of the
three other EEU member states: Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. His office
said they specifically discussed prospects for the signing of a free-trade deal
between the EEU and Singapore.
“All of the phone calls related to current and long-term issues on the EEU
agenda,” Pashinian said in a Facebook post that announced his conversation with
Putin.
Pashinian is due to visit Singapore later this week. The Armenian leader spoke
with Putin from Vietnam where he arrived on Thursday on the first leg of his
tour of Southeast Asia.
Pashinian praised the EEU when he spoke at the bloc’s last summit held in
Kazakhstan in late May. Speaking about the priorities of the rotating Armenian
presidency of the EEU, he singled out planned trade deals with other countries,
including India, Egypt and Israel.
Armenian Speaker Blasts ‘Turkish Expansionism’ In Cyprus
Cyprus -- Armenian parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan gives a speech in the
Cypriot parliament, Nicosia, July 5, 2019.
Visiting Nicosia on Friday, Armenian parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan
described Armenia and Cyprus as “true friends” that share the common goal of
containing Turkey.
“For centuries, Armenians and Cypriots fought against the Ottoman yoke, and
today we, the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Cyprus, each have assumed
a special mission: to confront Turkey’s expansionist policy,” he declared in a
speech delivered in the Cypriot parliament. “And we carry out this mission by
supporting each other on vital issues.”
Mirzoyan condemned Turkey for refusing to unconditionally normalize relations
with Armenia out of solidarity with Azerbaijan. Speaking about the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he praised successive Cypriot governments’
“principled position on all issues vital for Armenia and the Armenian people.”
Mirzoyan, who is a close associated of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, went on
accuse Ankara of “illegal” commercial activities in Cyprus’s territorial waters.
Cyprus -- Foreign Ministers Nikos Christodoulides (C) of Cyprus, George
Katrougalos of Greece (R) and Zohrab Mnatsakanian of Armenia shake hands after
talks held in Nicosia, June 4, 2019.
Last month, the foreign ministers of Cyprus, Greece and Armenia pledged to
deepen relations between their countries at a first-ever trilateral meeting
held in the Cypriot capital.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said the three states will also
coordinate “the action of our diasporas in important decision-making centers
worldwide.” It was also announced that their top leaders will meet in Yerevan
earlier next year.
“I attach great importance to the trilateral format of Armenia-Cyprus-Greece
cooperation,” said Mirzoyan.
The three countries share a long history of mutual animosity with Turkey.
Meeting in 2016 with then Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, Greece’s Prime
Minister Alexis Tsipras said the Armenian and Greek peoples were both victims
of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks during World War One. Ankara
condemned that statement.
Kocharian’s Trial Still On Hold
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian talks to reporters outside a
prison in Yerevan, June 25, 2019.
The trial of former President Robert Kocharian has still not resumed despite
renewed hearings on the high-profile case ordered by Armenia’s Court of Appeals
last week.
The court overturned on June 25 a lower tribunal’s May 18 decision to free
Kocharian from prison and suspend his trial pending an important clarification
requested by it from the Constitutional Court.
One of the ex-president’s lawyers, Hovannes Khudoyan, said on Friday that the
trial remains on hold because the Court of Appeals has still not sent materials
of the case back to a district court judge in Yerevan presiding over it.
“They think in the Court of Appeals that they should keep those materials until
the deadline for appealing [against its decision] in the [higher] Court of
Cassation expires and only then return them to the court of first instance,”
Khudoyan told RFE/RL’s Armenians service. “They have no legal grounds for doing
that. They must immediately send the case back to the court of first instance.”
Khudoyan claimed that the Court of Appeals may be deliberately dragging out the
judicial process to make sure that Kocharian remains under arrest as long as
possible. He said the lower court judge, Davit Grigorian, might again free the
ex-president accused of usurping power in the final weeks of his 1998-2008 rule.
Grigorian cited a “suspicion of discrepancy” between the Armenian constitution
and the coup charge when he appealed to the Constitutional Court. It is not
clear whether the Court of Appeals ruling means that the Constitutional Court
cannot pass judgment on the matter. The latter said on June 11 that it will
decide by July 9 whether to throw out the judge’s appeal to start hearings and
ultimately rule on it.
The coup charge stems from the March 2008 clashes in Yerevan between security
forces and opposition supporters demanding the rerun of a disputed presidential
election. Eight protesters and two police servicemen died as a result.
The violence broke out less than two months before Kocharian completed his
second presidential term and handed over power to Serzh Sarkisian, his
preferred successor.
Earlier this year, Kocharian was also charged with bribe-taking. He denies all
accusations leveled against him as politically motivated.
Press Review
“Aravot” carries an editorial on the 24th anniversary of the adoption of
Armenia’s post-Soviet constitution. “Let us hope that future amendments [to the
constitution] will not reflect the existing authorities’ parochial interests
and will be enacted as a result of fair referendums,” writes the paper. It also
singles out an article of the current Armenian constitution which guarantees
the freedom of expression. “Of course sometimes there is an insurmountable gap
between what is written on paper and real life,” it says. “The Stalin-era and
Brezhnev-era constitutions [of the Soviet Union] also had such language. But
there were serious restrictions on freedom of speech in both Soviet times and
the Third [Armenian] Republic. Many of those restrictions were eliminated after
the 2018 revolution [in Armenia.]”
“If someone had said years ago that one day former President Robert Kocharian
will be under arrest and his supporters will protest outside the Armenian
government headquarters, they would have been deemed to have a sick
imagination,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” The pro-government paper says that the
“criminal duo” of Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian finally lost power last year.
It scoffs at their loyalists’ allegations about serious violations of due
process in the prosecution of Kocharian and other former officials. It says
they themselves had for years “raped” justice and rule of law in Armenia.
Lragir.am says that Sarkisian is trying to revive his Republican Party (HHK) by
demonstratively making pilgrimages to Armenian churches and other holy sites
together with senior HHK figures. The online publication says that they will
visit on Friday a 4th century sepulcher of Armenian kings located in the
central Aragatsotn province. “It would be more symbolic if they made the
pilgrimage on foot, rather than by expensive cars … and if the party
transferred a symbolic $1 million to the state treasury after every
pilgrimage,” it says tartly.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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