Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Nine Sentenced Over 2016 Attack On Armenian Police Station
February 24, 2021
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - Gunmen occupy a police station in Yerevan, 23July2016.
An Armenian court gave on Wednesday prison sentences ranging from about 5 to 25
years to nine key members of an armed anti-government group that seized a police
base in Yerevan in July 2016.
The defendants and two dozen other gunmen stormed the base to demand that then
President Serzh Sarkisian free Zhirayr Sefilian, the jailed leader of their
radical opposition movement, and step down.
The gunmen, who took police officers and medical personnel hostage, laid down
their weapons after a two-week standoff with security forces which left three
police officers dead.
All but two members of the armed group called Sasna Tsrer were set free pending
the outcome of their trials shortly after Sarkisian was toppled in the 2018
“Velvet Revolution” led by Nikol Pashinian.
The two other members remained behind bars because of facing murder charges
denied by them.
Armenia - Relatives of police officers killed in a standoff with opposition
gunmen attend a remembrance ceremony in Yerevan, 28Sep2016.
The court convicted one of them, Smbat Barseghian, of murdering Colonel Artur
Vanoyan and Warrant Officer Yuri Tepanosian and sentenced him to 25 years in
prison.
But it found the other defendant, Armen Bilian, not guilty of the killing of the
third police victim, Warrant Officer Gagik Mkrtchian.
The presiding judge, Mesrop Makian, said that prosecutors did not provide
sufficient evidence in support of the accusation. He said they must order a new
investigation into the circumstances of Mkrtchian’s death.
Bilian was released from custody despite being convicted of other criminal
charges and sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison.
Bilian remained unrepentant about the deadly attack, saying that he and his
comrades waged a legitimate struggle against Sarkisian. “We still have a lot to
do to have justice established in Armenia,” he told reporters after his release.
The seven other defendants were sentenced to between 6 and 8 years. They were
found guilty of illegal arms possession, hostage taking and seizure of state
buildings.
Armenia -- Members of an armed group that seized a police station in Yerevan in
2016 stand trial, November 11, 2017.
The defendants continued to deny the accusations and said they will appeal
against the verdict. All of them except Barseghian will remain at large at least
until higher court rulings on their planned appeal.
Varuzhan Avetisian, the Sasna Tsrer leader who got a 7-year jail term, has
repeatedly defended the armed attack on the police facility located in Yerevan’s
southern Erebuni district.
Some relatives of the slain policemen present in the courtroom were also not
satisfied with the verdict.
Tepanosian’s wife said his convicted murderer should have been sentenced to life
imprisonment. “May all members of this group be tried by God,” she said.
The 2016 attack was condemned by the United States and the European Union. “We
abhor the actions of Sasna Tsrer and others who use violence or who threaten to
harm others to serve their political agenda,” Richard Mills, the then U.S.
ambassador to Armenia, said in 2018.
Armenian PM Accused Of Lying About Russian Missiles
February 24, 2021
• Aza Babayan
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - The Armenian military demonstrates Iskander missile systems during a
parade in Yerevan, 21Sep2016.
Russian pro-government lawmakers and pundits strongly condemned Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday for implying that Armenia's most advanced
Russian-made missiles proved useless during the recent war with Azerbaijan.
In an interview with the 1in.am news service aired late on Tuesday, Pashinian
responded to former President Serzh Sarkisian’s claim that the Armenian military
did not adequately use its Iskander missiles against advancing Azerbaijani
troops because of wrong government orders.
Sarkisian made the claim earlier this month as he harshly criticized Pashinian’s
handling of the the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on
November 10.
“Let him ask why the fired Iskander did not explode or why it exploded by, say,
10 percent,” Pashinian hit back without elaborating.
Pashinian went on to suggest that the sophisticated missile system might be
outdated. Asked whether it could have indeed malfunctioned, he said: “I don’t
know. Maybe it’s a weapon of the 1980s.”
Armenia - Prime Minister NIkol Pashinian is interviewed by 1in.am, February 23,
2021.
The remarks provoked a storm of criticism in Russia which supplied several
Iskander systems to Armenia in 2015. Senior members of the State Duma, Russia’s
lower house of parliament, attacked Pashinian in unusually strong terms.
“The Iskander is a highly precise weapon, which has repeatedly been proved
during military exercises,” said Viktor Zavarzin, the deputy chairman of a State
Duma committee on defense and security.
What Pashinian said about the missile is a “complete lie,” Zavarzin told the
Govorit Moskva radio station.
Another Russian lawmaker, Dmitry Sablin, mocked the Armenian premier and
questioned his competence.
“A bad dancer is hampered by other things. This popular saying best describes
the Armenian prime minister’s claims about the use of the Iskander in the last
war and its being obsolete,” the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Sablin as saying.
Vladimir Solovyov, Russia’s leading political talk show host, and other
pro-Kremlin commentators likewise denounced Pashinian’s remarks widely
circulated by the Russian media.
RUSSIA -- A Russian Iskander-K missile is launched during a military exercise at
a training ground at the Luzhsky Range, near St. Petersburg, Septtember 19, 2017
Pashinian also came under fire from his political opponents at home.
“How can 10 percent of a missile explode and the remaining 90 percent not
explode after hitting a target?” said Seyran Ohanian, a retired general who
served as Armenia’s defense minister during the acquisition of Iskander missiles.
“I think that [Pashinian] is very far from being qualified to make judgments
about them,” Ohanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
But Andranik Kocharian, a senior lawmaker representing the ruling My Step bloc,
dismissed the criticism, saying that Pashinian’s statement must be seriously
investigated. “If Mr. Pashinian’s suspicions turn out to be correct we must
review everything,” he told reporters.
Asked whether the remarks could damage Russian-Armenian relations, Kocharian
said that Sarkisian’s claims are more “dangerous” for Armenia’s national
security.
With a firing range of up to 500 kilometers, the Iskander is known for its
precision and ability to overcome modern missile defense shields. Russia
prompted serious concerns from the United States and other Western powers when
it deployed such missiles to its Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea in 2018.
EU To Keep ‘Working With Russia’ On Karabakh Peace
February 24, 2021
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia -- Toivo Klaar, the European Union’s special representative for the
South Caucasus, meets with Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian, Yerevan,
February 22, 2021.
A senior European Union diplomat has praised Russia for stopping the autumn war
over Nagorno-Karabakh and said that despite mounting tensions with Moscow the EU
will continue to work with it in facilitating a peaceful resolution of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Ties between Russia and the West have deteriorated further of late due to the
arrest and prosecution of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. On Monday EU foreign
ministers agreed to sanction four senior Russian officials close to President
Vladimir Putin in response to Navalny’s jailing.
Moscow warned earlier this month that it is ready to sever ties with the EU if
the 27-nation bloc hits it with fresh economic sanctions.
Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special representative for the South Caucasus, was asked
about the sanctions’ possible impact on EU-Russia cooperation on the Karabakh
settlement when he spoke with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service after meeting with
senior Armenian officials in Yerevan on Tuesday.
“I think we have interacted and I have personally had many meetings in Moscow
over the years,” Klaar said in an interview. “In the case of Nagorno-Karabakh
and also in the case of the conflict in Georgia, we will continue to have
contacts and work with Russia.”
“Frankly, I think that it was a great achievement to have a ceasefire and Russia
is to be commended for the fact that it was able to achieve a ceasefire in
November,” he said. “The deployment of the [Russian] peacekeeping forces has
helped to bring security and that is to be welcomed. Of course, this is only
part of the way in the sense that we have not yet a peaceful settlement, we have
a ceasefire.”
The Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire agreement was brokered by Putin on November 9
after six weeks of heavy fighting in and around Karabakh that left thousands of
soldiers dead.
Armenia -- Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian meets with Toivo Klaar,
the European Union’s special representative for the South Caucasus, Yerevan,
February 23, 2021.
The agreement also calls for the restoration of transport links between Armenia
and Azerbaijan. Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Azerbaijani counterpart
Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian decided to set up a
trilateral “working group” for that purpose when they met in Moscow on January
11.
Klaar held talks on Tuesday with the working group’s Armenian co-chair, Deputy
Prime Minister Mher Grigorian. He said they had “very good discussions on what
is being talked about in the trilateral working group on communication links.”
“Of course, right now we are not part of this trilateral working group but with
the outcomes of the trilateral working I’m sure that the EU will look to play a
positive role where it can to support the opening of communication links,” added
the diplomat.
Klaar dismissed suggestions that a lack of EU support for Armenia and its
current government formed as a result of the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” has helped
Russia increase its already strong influence on the South Caucasus state after
the war.
“I don’t agree with those who say that the EU failed Armenia,” he said, pointing
to the upcoming entry into force of the EU’s Comprehensive and Enhanced
Partnership Agreement with Armenia signed in 2017. He also argued that the EU
has provided “substantial” aid designed to help Yerevan cope with the
coronavirus pandemic and humanitarian consequences of the Karabakh war.
“I do realize that the present situation is very difficult in Armenia and I have
heard that many times over during the meetings that I have had here … But again,
the European Union stands firmly with Armenia and with the region,” stressed the
EU envoy.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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