Monday,
Armenia, Azerbajan Continue Prisoner Swap
• Narine Ghalechian
ARMENIA -- People stand at a Russian military plane with some of Armenian
captives upon its arrival at a military airport outside Yerevan, December 14,
2020
Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged on Monday more prisoners under a
Russian-brokered deal that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh November 10.
Officials said a Russian plane carrying four Armenian prisoners and the dead
body of another captive landed at Yerevan’s Erebuni airport in the evening. The
commander of Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in Karabakh, General Rustam
Muradov, told reporters there that two Azerbaijanis were freed and flown to Baku
earlier in the day.
According to human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakian, two of the freed Armenians
are soldiers while the two others civilians.
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian said they are already examined by doctors
and will receive “necessary medical and psychological aid” in hospital.
“The process of exchange of prisoners will continue,” Avinian wrote on Facebook.
The November 10 truce agreement calls for the exchange of all prisoners of war
(POWs) and civilians held by the conflicting sides. The first such exchange
occurred on December 14, with Azerbaijan releasing 30 Armenian prisoners of war
(POWs) and 14 civilian captives, most of them residents of Karabakh.
The latest swap raised to 54 the total number of Armenian and Karabakh Armenian
prisoners freed so far. Dozens of others remain in Azerbaijani captivity. Their
precise number is still not known.
Armenian officials and lawyers say that Azerbaijan has admitted holding fewer
Armenian POWs than were captured by it during the six-week war. Sahakian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that there is “irrefutable evidence” of about 40 POWs
not acknowledged by Baku.
A Karabakh official said last week that 40 civilian residents of Karabakh remain
unaccounted for. He said he hopes that most of these missing persons are held
captive in Azerbaijan or are hiding in areas seized by the Azerbaijani army
during the war.
Baku has so far confirmed the deaths of two Karabakh Armenians held in
Azerbaijani captivity.
Armenia Raises Tax For Army Compensation Scheme
• Anush Mkrtchian
ARMENIA -- A wounded Armenian serviceman with heavy burns, who claimed that
Azerbaijani forces had used phosphorus munitions against him, undergoes
treatment at a hospital in Yerevan, December 8, 2020
The National Assembly approved on Monday a government proposal to sharply
increase a special tax to compensate the families of thousands of Armenian
soldiers killed or seriously wounded during the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
A law enacted in Armenia in late 2016 allows the closest relatives of soldiers
who die or become gravely disabled while on combat duty to receive 10 million
drams ($20,000). Wounded soldiers suffering from less serious disabilities are
eligible for 5 million drams in compensation.
In addition to these one-off payouts, the families of killed or maimed army
officers, contract soldiers and conscripts receive monthly pensions ranging from
100,000 to 300,000 drams for 20 years.
The compensation scheme is be financed from a special fund to which every
working Armenian has contributed 1,000 drams ($2) a month until now. The
six-week war with Azerbaijan has drastically increased the number of people
covered by the compensation scheme, forcing the current government to boost the
fund’s revenues accordingly.
A government bill passed by the Armenian parliament in the first reading will
significantly increase and diversify the fixed tax. Public and private sector
employees will now pay from 1,500 drams to 15,000 drams depending on their
monthly wages.
They will be divided into five income brackets that will determine the amount of
their monthly contributions to the insurance fund. The minimum sum will be
levied from people earning up to 100,000 drams a month, compared with 3,000
drams set for wages ranging from 101,000 to 200,000 drams. People making 1
million drams or more will pay the highest tax.
For their part, individual entrepreneurs will have to pay from 18,000 drams to
180,000 drams.
The parliament tentatively approved the bill even though some of its
pro-government and opposition members described the quasi-proggressive tax as
unfair.
In particular, Gevorg Papoyan of the ruling My Step bloc argued that citizens
earning 201,000 drams will have to contribute 2.7 percent of their income to the
insurance fund while only 0.85 percent of a monthly wage of 1 million drams will
have to be deducted for the same purpose. He said the government should ease the
financial burden on such citizens at the expense of high earners.
Another My Step deputy, Artak Manukian, similarly urged the government to
introduce a new tax bracket for wages exceedings 2 million drams and collect
25,000 drams from them.
It was not immediately clear if the government will agree to make such changes
before trying to push the bill through the parliament in the second and final
reading.
Government officials said earlier that the state fund has already begun
compensating participants of the recent war or their families.
Iran Reaffirms Interest In Closer Ties With Armenia
Iran -- Ali Shamkhani (R), the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security
Council, meets with Armenian Ambassador Artashes Tumanian, Tehran, December 27,
2020.
Iran has reportedly reaffirmed its intention to continue seeking closer
relations with neighboring Armenia after the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif discussed with his Armenian
counterpart Ara Ayvazian regional security and bilateral ties in a phone call on
Monday.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Zarif and Ayvazian explored
“prospects for cooperation aimed at addressing new regional challenges.”
“The interlocutors emphasized the importance of further stepping up
[Armenian-Iranian] contacts and dialogue at various levels, based on
centuries-old friendly relations between the two peoples. They reiterated mutual
readiness to deepen the close cooperation in bilateral and multilateral
formats,” read a ministry statement.
The two ministers spoke one day after the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National
Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, met with Artashes Tumanian, the Armenian
ambassador in Tehran.
“Shamkhani expressed the Iranian authorities’ readiness to deepen cooperation
between the two countries in these difficult times for Armenia,” the Armenian
Embassy in Iran said in a statement on the meeting.
The embassy said Tumanian briefed Shamkhani on “the situation in Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh as well as regional developments.” It gave no other details.
On Saturday, Armenia’s Deputy Minister for Territorial Administraiton and
Infrastructures Hakob Vartanian held separate talks in Tehran with Iran’s Oil
Minister Bijan Zanganeh, his deputy Amir Hossein Zamaninia and Deputy Energy
Minister Homayoun Hayeri.
The Armenian Embassy reported that the two sides finalized agreements to prolong
and expand a long-running swap arrangement involving Iranian natural gas
supplies to Armenia and Armenian electicity exports to the Islamic Republic. As
a result of those agreements, a gas pipeline connecting the two countries will
operate at full capacity, said the embassy.
“Discussions about some technical issues concerning gas exports and
gas-for-electricity barter were postponed to the near future, after which a
long-term contract will be signed,” the Fars news agency quoted Zamaninia as
saying. The Iranian vice-minister did not elaborate.
The future of the swap arrangement hinges on the ongoing construction of a third
power transmission line connecting Armenia and Iran. It will allow the two
states to triple mutual energy supplies.
Work on the high-voltage line, which is mainly carried out in southeastern
Armenia by an Iranian company, was supposed to finish in September 2019.
However, it was delayed due to a host of factors, including U.S. sanctions
against Iran.
The Armenian Embassy said Vartanian’s talks with Hayeri focused on the “final
stage” of the construction.
Armenian Church Defends Calls For Government’s Resignation
Armenia -- Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, celebrates Easter Mass at the St. Gregory the Illuminator's Cathedral in
Yerevan, April 12, 2020.
Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has
defended his decision to add his voice to opposition calls for Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s resignation.
In a televised address to the nation aired on December 8, Garegin said Pashinian
lacks popular trust after the “disastrous” war in Nagorno-Karabakh and should
step down to prevent violent unrest and end the “deep political crisis” in
Armenia. He said he made this clear at a face-to-face meeting with the embattled
premier.
Similar statements have also been made by the two number two figure in the
church hierarchy, the Lebanon-based Catholicos Aram I, and other top clergymen
in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora. Some of them have denounced Pashinian in
unusually strong terms.
A priest in the southeastern town of Sisian publicly snubbed Pashinian and
refused to shake his hand when the prime minister visited a local church earlier
this month. The Echmiadzin-based Mother See of the Armenian Apostolic Church
pointedly declined to criticize the priest’s behavior.
Garegin insisted on Sunday that the church is not meddling in politics. “Just
like every citizen, the church is free to express its views,” he told reporters
after leading a liturgy at St. Gayane’s Church in an Echmiadzin church.
“If the expressed views are godly, in support of national interests and for the
sake of our people then they are good for the homeland,” he said.
The medieval church was surrounded by hundreds of Armenian opposition members
and supporters during and after the liturgy. They gathered there to counter
possible protests against Garegin by government backers.
Some Pashinian supporters took to Facebook last week to call for such protests
and even a disruption of the Sunday mass in Echmiadzin in response to Garegin’s
anti-government stance. The office of Armenia’s human rights ombudsman deplored
at the weekend the resulting “hate speech” and calls for violence” against the
Catholicos circulated on social media.
President Armen Sarkissian and Armenian many public figures have also urged
Pashinian to step down and hand over power to an interim government. The premier
has rejected these calls while expressing readiness to hold fresh parliamentary
elections.
Armenian Opposition Rejects Pashinian’s Offer
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Oposition leaders Ishkhan Saghatelian (L) and Vazgen Manukian (C)
attend a demonstration outside the prime minister's office in Yerevan, December
24, 2020.
Armenia’s leading opposition forces have rejected Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s offer to discuss with them the conduct of snap parliamentary
elections.
Pashinian expressed late on Friday his readiness to hold such elections next
year but again rejected opposition demands to step down. “I can abandon the post
of prime minister only if the people decide so,” he wrote on Facebook.
A coalition of more than a dozen opposition parties trying to unseat Pashinian
with street protests dismissed the proposed consultations as a “manipulative
attempt to deflect the public demand for the prime minister’s resignation.”
In a weekend statement, the grouping called the Homeland Salvation Movement said
Pashinian lost his “moral and political legitimacy” as a result of the recent
war in Nagorno-Karabakh, “betrayed our national interests” and cannot hold
democratic elections. It again demanded that he hand over power to an interim
government that would hold such polls within a year.
In separate comments, one of the movement’s leaders, Ishkhan Saghatelian,
branded Pashinian “the country’s number one evil.” “There is only one solution:
to oust the traitor,” he said.
Armenia -- Police detain an opposition protester outside the parliament building
in Yerevan, .
The Bright Armenia Party (LHK), another major opposition group which is not part
of the movement, also insisted on the prime minister’s resignation. LHK leader
Edmon Marukian claimed that the fresh elections will be rigged if they are held
by the current government.
Pashinian brushed aside the opposition claims in an interview with Armenian
Public Television aired late on Sunday. He argued that all elections held in
Armenia during his rule have been free and fair.
Pashinian would not be drawn on when exactly he believes the snap polls should
take place. The continuing coronavirus pandemic would seriously complicate their
possible conduct in the coming months.
Virtually all Armenian opposition parties have blamed Pashinian for the Armenian
side’s defeat in the recent war in Azerbaijan and demanded his resignation.
Their demands have been backed by President Armen Sarkissian, the Armenian
Apostolic Church and many public figures.
Pashinian pointed on Friday to what described as a poor attendance of the
anti-government rallies held by the Homeland Salvation Movement. He said it
shows that the opposition campaign has not won popular support.
The movement claimed the opposite in its statement. It said the embattled
premier offered to hold elections because of the ongoing protests.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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