Wednesday, Armenia, Azerbaijan Trade Barbs Over Pashinian Rhetoric The building of Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Yerevan Official Yerevan has responded to the condemnation by Azerbaijan of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s statement made at an August 5 rally in Stepanakert that “Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] is Armenia.” In a statement released late on Tuesday, Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs chided counterparts in Azerbaijan for “being unable to maintain norms of diplomatic ethics” and launching “personalized attacks”. It went on to say that authorities in Baku misunderstood “the context and contents” of Pashinian’s speech that concerned “the promotion of a pan-Armenian agenda of unity, solidarity, development and prosperity of Armenia, Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] and the [Armenian] Diaspora.” Armenian’s Foreign Ministry also accused Azerbaijan of ethnic hatred towards Armenians and stated that authorities in Baku “bear immediate responsibility for the creation of dangers to the security and existence of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.” “The Republic of Armenia remains the sole guarantor of the Karabakh people’s security, freedom and preservation of its inalienable human rights, including the right to development and self-determination,” the Armenian Ministry said, at the same time reaffirming Armenia’s position that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be settled peacefully. In condemning Pashinian’s “Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] is Armenia” remark Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on August 6 that it amounted to a “serious blow” against the negotiation process conducted with the mediation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group. “Azerbaijan will never put up with the occupation of its territories and will continue its efforts on their liberation and the return of forcibly displaced people to this land that was seized from us,” it added, as quoted by Azerbaijani media. Armenia and Azerbaijan are locked in a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated region that has been de-facto independent from Baku after a three-year war in the early 1990s, in which an estimated 30,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Despite a 1994 ceasefire, loss of life has continued in the conflict zone in recurrent border skirmishes and sporadic fighting. The internationally mediated peace process has so far failed to produce a lasting settlement of the conflict. ‘Missing Documents’ On 2008 Post-Election Crackdown ‘Retrieved’ • Sargis Harutyunyan Artur Vanetsian, director of the National Security Service of Armenia, August 6, 2019 Most of the documents on the 2008 post-election crackdown that were missing from the National Security Service (NSS) have been retrieved and attached to the criminal case, the agency’s director told reporters. Artur Vanetsian said at a press briefing on Tuesday that the retrieval of the documents became possible due to an internal investigation. He added that the files have now been referred to the Special Investigation Service that conducts the probe of the “March 1, 2008” case. Asked whether any new circumstances have emerged due to the new documents attached to the case, Vanetsian said: “I won’t answer in detail. I’ll just say that yes, there were some very interesting documents that I think the body conducting the investigation will soon speak about.” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian first spoke about the missing documents at the NSS during his press conference on May 8. He said then that “prior to their resignation the previous authorities destroyed some materials at the National Security Service.” The prime minister described it as a crime. The documents in question concern the events in Yerevan on March 1-2, 2008 in which 10 people, including two security officers, were killed as authorities used force to quell opposition demonstrations protesting fraud in presidential elections. Robert Kocharian, who was outgoing president at that time, is now in detention on charges stemming from his alleged role in suppressing the nonstop demonstrations. The former president, in particular, is accused of overthrowing the constitutional order by involving the army in the domestic political matter. Armenia Mulls Introducing Compulsory Health Insurance System A new health insurance concept will be presented for broad public discussions in Armenia in the coming months, the country’s health minister said on Wednesday. In a Facebook post Arsen Torosian said that the introduction of the compulsory system will take place in the next few years. Simultaneously, Torosian also created a poll on his Facebook account, showing that nearly 80 percent of its respondents positively assess the idea. “As the poll results have been summarized, we can say that a large part of our society is ready to put in place a [compulsory] health insurance system, which will happen in the next few years. I want to say that this is a system aimed at providing social protection to our citizens and not a financial system like voluntary insurance. It will provide for the elimination of so-called catastrophic health expenditures for all those involved in the system, expenditures that in some cases have led to the impoverishment of families,” the minister wrote. “With the introduction of the new system, all currently applied state guarantees will remain in force. In the coming months we will also present the concept of health insurance for a broad public discussion,” Torosian added. Earlier, in creating the poll, Torosian said that the health insurance will require that every working Armenian make monthly deductions of 3-5 percent from his or her salary and will concern citizens of all age groups. Health insurance will cover the basic scope of polyclinic, emergency and hospital care and free home remedies for a number of illnesses, the minister added. Kocharian Lawyers Insist On Public Trial • Naira Nalbandian Lawyers of former Armenian President Robert Kocharian Aram Orbelian (center) and Hovhannes Khudoyan (right) at a press conference in Yerevan, August 7, 2019 Robert Kocharian’s lawyers insist that the former Armenian president charged with overthrowing the constitutional order in connection with the 2008 post-election crackdown on the opposition be tried in a public process. The team of lawyers spoke about this at a press conference on Wednesday, also claiming that the investigation of the case is being “artificially dragged out” in order to keep their client in custody for as long as possible. Kocharian was first arrested in July 2018 and was accused of ordering the military to get involved in quelling opposition-led demonstrations in the wake of a disputed 2008 presidential election. Armenia’s constitution stipulates that the army be used only to defend the country against an external aggression and does not allow it to be used in domestic affairs. During the past year the ex-president was twice released on bail, but both times prosecutors appealed the rulings at higher courts and the rulings were overturned, with Kocharian returned to prison. Kocharian denies the charges and claims the case against him is politically motivated. Aram Orbelian, one of Kocharian’s lawyers, told reporters today that his client “has in fact been imprisoned indefinitely without being able to appeal the decision on his detention.” “It’s been almost a month and a half that there is no development in the case, no process is taking place, which is obviously a gross violation of human rights under the Armenian Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In other words, a person cannot be imprisoned indefinitely without any judicial oversight,” said Orbelian. According to the lawyer, in addition to their seven petitions to the European Court of Human Rights, they are also considering the possibility of applying to the UN Human Rights Committee and taking further steps domestically. Lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan stressed that Kocharian’s defense team demands that their client’s rights be honored and the public trial be continued. “We insist on a public trial, regardless of the presence of the judge and the prosecution’s participation,” the lawyer said, without elaborating. BBC Names Karabakh General Allegedly Involved In 2008 Crackdown In Armenia • Heghine Buniatian • Naira Nalbandian Riot police troops in downtown Yerevan, March 1, 2008 A general of Nagorno-Karabakh’s armed forces led the operation on the suppression of post-election demonstrations in Armenia in 2008 and his group, visited by former Armenian presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, had expressed readiness to “shoot at people,” the BBC Russian Service writes in its August 7 article, citing documents of the investigation that it says it got “exclusive access” to. Based on the documents, the BBC suggests that Armenian investigators think that fire at demonstrators was opened by a Karabakh task force led by General Samvel Karapetian (also known as Oganovsky), whose group was housed in the basement of the presidential administration. Then outgoing President Robert Kocharian and his future successor Serzh Sarkisian, who served as prime minister at that time, several visited the group there, the BBC writes, adding that Armenian investigators are also checking the roles of two influential businessmen – Gagik Tsarukian and Samvel Aleksanian – who may have financed the Karabakh task force’s stay in Yerevan during the days of the demonstration. Both Tsarukian and Aleksanian, the publication says, deny their roles in the 2008 events. The BBC says when interrogated as a witness in August 2018, Major-General Karapetian confirmed that he commanded Karabakh detachments that were deployed in Yerevan in 2008. The BBC says it has a copy of the protocol of the interrogation that lasted for four hours. At the time of the interrogation Karapetian served as deputy defense minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, but stepped down in April 2019. “According to investigators, Karapetian formed a special group of 20 from his subordinates, which was housed in the basement of the presidential residence on Marshal Baghramyan Avenue [in Yerevan]. There, members of the group ‘were visited several times by President Robert Kocharian and [the president-elect] Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian,’ the investigator said during the interrogation of Karapetian. All members of the group expressed their readiness to ‘shoot at people’ if there was an order, and it was this group that shot at the protesters on March 1, [2008] according to the investigation. During the interrogation, Karapetian denied all charges and stated that ‘no one gave the order to shoot at people.’ Similar charges against Karapetian were voiced during interrogations of several more witnesses. The witnesses could not confirm or deny information about his role in the March 1 events,” the BBC said in its report. Responding to the BBC story, lawyers of Kocharian, who is currently in detention on charges of overthrowing the constitutional order by illegally involving the military in quelling the 2008 demonstrations, denied that materials of the case against their client contain “a single circumstance that would corroborate” the assumptions made in the BBC story. “I insist that in the case presented to us there is not a single piece of testimony in which this circumstance is confirmed. I will tell you more – had there been at least one testimony corroborating this circumstance, it would have already been included in the indictment and published in various possible ways,” Kocharian’s lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan said at a news conference in Yerevan on Wednesday. Khudoyan and his colleague Aram Orbelian also insisted that none of the witnesses confirmed the circumstances laid out in the BBC story and that the assumptions are based on the questions posed to witnesses by their interrogators. “The problem is not that someone confirmed it and we are saying that he was wrong. In fact, it has been totally refuted, at least according to the materials provided to us and according to the information that is known to us,” said Orbelian. Ten people, including two security officers, were killed as Armenian authorities used force on March 1-2, 2008 to quell nonstop opposition demonstrations protesting against the outcome of a disputed presidential election. According to the investigation, the victims died of different causes, including gunshot wounds, injuries from fragments of tear gas canisters and blunt objects. Orbelian referred to this circumstance to refute the allegation that a task force had been employed to shoot at the crowd. He implied that if it had been the case, most, if not all, of the victims would have died because of gunshots. Seda Safarian, who represents the interests of a victim in the ‘March 1’ case, however, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) on Wednesday that there is testimony in the case that confirms the involvement of a Karabakh task force in the suppression of demonstrations in Yerevan. She also said that what was published by the BBC is not something new. “In organizing all this both presidents [Nagorno-Karabakh natives Kocharian and Sarkisian] were not sure that Armenia-born Armenians will agree to shoot at Armenia-born Armenians... and both felt confident only when they deployed Karabakh forces in Armenia,” Safarian claimed. In an interview with the local online publication, Tert.am, Karapetian today called the BBC story “a tale”. The prosecutors in the case have refused to comment on the BBC article “lest it should damage the course of the investigation.” Talking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) later on Wednesday, the author of the BBC article, Grigor Atanesian, stressed that they would not publish it if they had any doubts about the veracity or origin of the document. He, however, refused to disclose the source of the information. Press Review “Zhoghovurd” describes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s speech at a rally in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital of Stepanakert on August 5 as “tactically and strategically important.” “Pashinian’s teams should start taking immediate steps for the realization of the long-term goals outlined by the prime minister and this should become a priority agenda for each minister in the sphere he or she is in charge of,” the paper writes, giving some specific examples of how ministries should work to stimulate population growth in the country. “Aravot” also comments on Pashinian’s vision of Armenia’s strategic goals. “Pashinian will not stay in the prime minister’s office until 2050 and, naturally, no one will be able to demand an account from him politically. But how to do so that the country’s next leaders take the path outlined today? It is very simple. It is necessary to start drafting and implementing programs that will not raise objections of the next government that will come to succeed the current one,” the daily says. Lragir.am describes Pashinian’s speech at the rally in Stepanakert as “historic” and “symbolic” in a number of senses: “One of the key symbolic points was the farewell to the first generation of the Karabakh movement politically and more so functionally… The prime minister’s speech ushered in a change of generations for the ‘grand Armenian project’ ahead of the new stage of its implementation.” (Lilit Harutiunian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org