Friday,
New Members Appointed To Armenian Judicial Watchdog
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia -- David Khachaturian (L) and Gagik Jahangirian attend a session of the
Armenian parliament, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc installed on Friday two new
members of a state body empowered to nominate, sanction and fire Armenian judges.
The Armenian parliament appointed Gagik Jahangirian, a controversial former
prosecutor, and legal expert Davit Khachaturian to vacant seats in the Supreme
Judicial Council (SJC) in a vote boycotted by its opposition minority.
“We do not find it politically expedient to take part in the vote,” Iveta
Tonoyan, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK),
told reporters. She said her party also has “reservations” about both candidates
nominated by My Step.
“In the professional sense we have no problem with the candidates,” said Taron
Sahakian of the opposition Bright Armenia Party. “Our decision is political and
results from the fact that the opposition has been barred from participating in
judicial reforms.”
Jahangirian served as Armenia’s chief military prosecutor from 1997-2006 and was
accused by civil activists of covering up crimes and abetting other abuses in
the Armenian armed forces throughout his tenure. He always denied those
allegations.
Khachaturian is the former head of the governing board of the Armenian branch of
U.S. billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. His brother Sasun
Khachatrian runs Armenia’s Special Investigative Service, a law-enforcement
agency.
The two men joined the SJC amid tensions between Armenia’s government and
judiciary. Critics of the government say that Pashinian expects them to help
increase his influence on courts.
In recent months Armenian judges have refused to allow law-enforcement
authorities to arrest dozens of opposition leaders and members as well as other
anti-government activists. Virtually all of those individuals are prosecuted in
connection with angry protests sparked by the Pashinian administration’s
handling of the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pashinian charged last month that Armenia’s judicial system has become part of a
“pseudo-elite” which is trying to topple him after the disastrous war. Ruben
Vartazarian, the chairman of the SJC, rejected the criticism.
Jahangirian criticized Pashinian’s political team for not “purging” the
judiciary when he spoke in the parliament before Friday’s vote. He said the
government-controlled parliament should pass legislation to “get rid of judges
who committed blatant human rights violations.”
Pashinian accused judges of remaining linked to Armenia’s former leadership and
controversially urged supporters to block court buildings after a Yerevan court
released former President Robert Kocharian from custody in May 2019. His
government subsequently abandoned plans for a mandatory “vetting” of the judges
at the urging of European legal experts.
Armenian Authorities Gear Up For ‘First Phase’ Of COVID-19 Vaccination
• Satenik Hayrapetian
Vials with a sticker reading, "COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only"
and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo, October
31, 2020.
Health authorities have announced plans to start vaccinating by the beginning of
March an estimated 3 percent of Armenia’s population against COVID-19.
Gayane Sahakian, the deputy director of the Armenian National Center for Disease
Control and Prevention, said on Friday that the first batch of a relatively
cheap vaccine developed by the British company AstraZeneca and Oxford University
will be delivered to the country soon.
Sahakian said that the choice of the vaccine was made by the supplier, the COVAX
Facility global partnership supported by the World Health Organization. COVAX
signed a supply contract with the Armenian government signed late last year.
In Sahakian’s words, the “first phase” of vaccination will cover medical
workers, care home personnel, people aged 65 and older as well as younger
Armenians suffering from chronic diseases. This was recommended earlier this
week by a government commission of health experts.
The commission said that military and law-enforcement personnel, rescue and
public transport workers, civil servants, schoolteachers and university
lecturers should be the next to get vaccine shots free of charge. It is not
clear when that could happen.
Sahakian told the press earlier this month that the authorities are planning to
vaccinate only 10 percent of Armenia’s population.
She said on Friday that they are now negotiating with Russian officials on the
possible acquisition of a “large quantity” of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. She
did not go into details.
Nor did Sahakian say if COVID-19 vaccines could be made available to a larger
percentage of the population later this year. She stressed only that the
vaccination process will be voluntary.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many Armenians are wary of the vaccines despite
the pandemic’s severe impact on their country of about 3 million.
The Armenian Ministry of Health has registered more than 165,711 coronavirus
cases and at least 3,030 deaths caused by them so far. The real number of cases
is believed to be much higher.
Blinken Backs U.S. ‘Security Assistance’ To Armenia
U.S. -- Antony Blinken, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for secretary
of state, speaks as Biden announces his national security nominees and
appointees at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, November 24,
2020.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state has said that the
United States should boost Armenia’s security and step up its involvement in the
Nagorno-Karabakh negotiating process to help prevent another war in the region.
In written answers to questions submitted by pro-Armenian U.S. Senator Robert
Menendez, Antony Blinken also said that the Biden administration will “review”
security assistance to Azerbaijan due to the recent war in Karabakh.
“I support the provision to Armenia of security assistance and aid to strengthen
democratic governance and promote economic growth, both of which will help to
strengthen Armenia’s security and resilience,” Blinken wrote on Thursday.
“If confirmed, I look forward to working with Congress and the Secretary of
Defense to determine the appropriate level of assistance to meet the security
needs of Armenia and the region,” he added in response to a question about how
the U.S. could help the Armenians defend themselves against “Azerbaijan and
Turkey’s aggression.”
“If confirmed, I will reinvigorate U.S. engagement to find a permanent
settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that protects the security of
Nagorno-Karabakh and helps to ensure another war does not break out,” he said,
answering another question.
Biden complained about a lack of such engagement during the autumn war in
Karabakh that coincided with the U.S. presidential race. In an October 28
statement, he said then U.S. President Donald Trump must “get involved
personally to stop this war” and freeze U.S. aid to Azerbaijan.
The U.S. Congress had banned such aid through Section 907 of the Freedom Support
Act passed in 1992. However, U.S. administrations were allowed in the early
2000s to waive the ban and help Azerbaijan’s military and security agencies.
The Trump administration significantly increased the security aid to Baku,
reportedly providing over $100 million worth of equipment and other assistance
to Azerbaijan’s State Border Guard Service in 2018-2019. Azerbaijani border
guards also participated in the six-week hostilities in and around Karabakh
stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.
“In light of the recent outbreak of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, the
Biden-Harris administration will review our security assistance to Azerbaijan,”
said Blinken. “If the circumstances warrant, the Biden-Harris administration
will be prepared to suspend waivers of requirements under section 907 of the
Freedom Support Act.”
The two main Armenian-American advocacy groups were quick to hail Blinken’s
written comments submitted days after his confirmation hearing before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee headed by Menendez.
European Parliament Condemns Turkey’s Role In Karabakh War
Belgium -- A plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, September
16, 2020.
The European Parliament has strongly condemned Turkey’s “destabilizing role” in
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, accused Ankara of sending “terrorist fighters” to
the conflict zone and called for an end to Turkish military aid to Azerbaijan.
In two resolutions adopted this week, the European Union’s legislative body also
welcomed the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani
war on November 10. But it cautioned that the conflict remains unresolved.
One of the resolutions calls for a Karabakh settlement based on the Basic
Principles, a framework peace accord that has long been jointly advanced by the
three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group: the United States, Russia and France.
It stresses the “urgent need” to ensure “the security of the Armenian population
and its cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Turkey provided full diplomatic and military support to Azerbaijan during the
six-week war. Turkish combat drones heavily used by the Azerbaijani army are
believed to have been a key factor behind Baku’s military victory. According to
Western media reports, Ankara also recruited thousands of jihadist fighters from
the Middle East to fight on Azerbaijan’s side.
The European Parliament resolution “strongly condemns the destabilizing role of
Turkey which further undermines the fragile stability in the whole of the South
Caucasus region.” It says the Turks should “refrain from any interference in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including offering military support to Azerbaijan.”
AZERBAIJAN -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev attend a military parade in Baku, December 10, 2020.
The resolution also deplores “the transfer of foreign terrorist fighters by
Turkey from Syria and elsewhere to Nagorno-Karabakh, as confirmed by
international actors, including the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries.”
France has been especially vocal in its condemnation of that transfer. Its
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reiterated last month French calls for “the
departure of the Syrian mercenaries” from the conflict zone.
Turkey has denied sending members of Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups to
Karabakh. Azerbaijan also denies the presence of such mercenaries in the
Azerbaijani army ranks.
Armenia hailed the European Parliament resolutions on Friday. The Armenian
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalian, praised, among other things, the
EU’s legislature’s calls for an agreement on Karabakh’s future status to be
“founded on the [Minsk] group’s Basic Principles.” Naghdalian said it thus
voiced support for the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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