Friday,
Preparations Finalized For New Bridge On Armenian-Georgian Border
Armenia/Georgia - A Soviet-built bridge connecting Armenia and Georgia border,
4Nov2016.
Armenian and Georgian government officials discussed on Friday final
preparations for the repeatedly delayed construction of a new bridge on the
Armenian-Georgian border designed to facilitate travel and commerce.
The “Friendship Bridge” is to be built over the Debed river flowing through the
main border crossing at Bagratashen-Sadakhlo. It currently has a single narrow
bridge constructed in Soviet times.
The Armenian and Georgian governments signed a deal on the new bridge in late
2014 two years after the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
pledged to finance the project with a loan extended to Armenia.
Work on the bridge was originally due to start in 2017 and last for two years.
However, the Armenian government completed an international tender for the right
to build the bridge only in 2018. An Iranian construction firm, Ariana Tunnel
Dam, won the tender with a $9 million bid.
Armenia/Georgia - Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian (R) and Georgian Prime
Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili at the opening ceremony for a newly reconstructed
Armenian border checkpoint at Bagratashen, November 4, 2016.
The Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures
announced the impending start of the construction on Friday after a virtual
meeting of a Georgian-Armenian task force dealing with the project.
A ministry statement said the working group gave final approval to the
architectural design of the planned bridge which is due to be 386 meters long
and have two sections with a total of four traffic lanes. It also approved a
“simplified procedure” for construction workers’ access to the border area.
The new bridge will be used for Armenia’s trade with not only Georgia but also
Russia, its number one trading partner. Much of Russian-Armenian trade, worth
almost $2.2 billion in 2020, is carried out by heavy trucks passing through the
Bagratashen-Sadakhlo crossing.
Armenia - The main Armenian-Georgian border crossing at Bagratashen, 4Nov2016.
Armenian passport control and customs facilities at Bagratashen were expanded
and modernized in 2016 as part of a $65 million program mostly financed by the
European Union.
The session of the Georgian-Armenian task force coincided with President Armen
Sarkissian’s official visit to Tbilisi. Meeting with Georgian parliament speaker
Archil Talakvadze, Sarkissian said the two neighboring states should “encourage
the implementation of joint projects” now that their economies are reeling from
recessions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Former Army Chief Urges Parliament Probe Of Karabakh War
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- Colonel-General Onik Gasparian (C), the chief of the Armenian army's
General Staff, meets with senior Russian military officials, Yerevan, January
25, 2021.
Onik Gasparian, Armenia’s former top general controversially replaced last
month, called on Friday for a parliamentary inquiry into the political and
military authorities’ handling of last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a letter to the leadership of the Armenian parliament posted on Armlur.am,
Gasparian cited the need to answer “many questions” about the outcome of the
six-week war and ease political tensions in the country.
The appeal came two days after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian blamed former
Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Robert Kocharian for Armenia’s defeat in the war
stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.
Addressing the National Assembly, Pashinian also attacked Gasparian, who was
sacked as chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff after initiating a February
25 statement by the army top brass that demanded the government’s resignation.
The embattled premier denied Gasparian’s December claims that three days after
the outbreak of the 2020 hostilities he warned Pashinian that Armenia and
Karabakh are heading for defeat and that the fighting must be stopped as soon as
possible. He insisted that Gasparian made a statement to the contrary at a
September 30 meeting of his Security Council.
Gasparian stood by his claims and accused Pashinian of “shamelessly distorting
facts.”
Andranik Kocharian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliament
committee on defense and security, spoke out against the formation of an ad hoc
parliamentary commission proposed by the general.
Kocharian argued that the commission would have no time to conduct such an
inquiry because the current parliament is expected to be dissolved in June. Only
the next National Assembly can properly investigate all circumstances of the
war, he said.
One of the two parliamentary opposition parties, Bright Armenia (LHK), already
demanded such a probe in December. The parliament’s pro-government majority
objected to the idea.
During Wednesday’s parliament debate, LHK leaders accused Pashinian of trying to
dodge responsibility for the outcome of the war which left at least 3,600
Armenia soldiers dead and led to sweeping Azerbaijani territorial gains.
Armenian Government Accused Of Persecuting Top Judicial Official
• Artak Khulian
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - The head of Supreme Judicial Council, Ruben Vartazarian, at a press
conference in Yerevan, December 29, 2020.
The head of an independent body empowered to nominate, sanction and fire judges
on Friday accused Armenia’s political leadership of ordering criminal
proceedings against him in a bid to replace him with a government ally.
Ruben Vartazarian told the Hraparak newspaper that he was formally charged with
obstruction of justice on Thursday hours after the Supreme Judicial Council
(SJC) agreed to suspend him pending investigation.
Neither the SJC nor the Office of the Prosecutor-General gave any details of the
criminal case.
Under Armenian law, judges and other judicial officials cannot be prosecuted on
charges stemming from their professional activities without the SJC’s consent.
The SJC said on Thursday that the case against its chairman not connected with
the performance of his duties.
Vartazarian asserted, however, that he stands accused of abusing his powers to
interfere in the work of a court. He confirmed reports that the accusation is
based on incriminating testimony given by Andranik Simonian, a newly appointed
deputy director of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS).
Simonian worked as a judge of the court of first instance of the country’s
northern Lori province until being moved to the NSS by Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian late last month.
Lawmakers representing Pashinian’s My Step alliance harshly criticized
Vartazarian during a parliament debate earlier in March. They implicitly accused
him of encouraging courts not to allow pre-trial arrests of opposition figures
arrested following last year’s war with Azerbaijan. Vartazarian denied those
claims.
Armenia - Gagik Jahangirian, a former deputy prosecutor-general, is interviewe
by RFE/RL, Yerevan, June 21, 2019.
Speaking to Hraparak, Vartazarian dismissed the charges leveled against him,
saying that they are part of government attempts to oust and replace him with
Gagik Jahangirian, another SJC member reputedly allied to Pashinian.
“Everything is very clear and simple,” said the SJC chairman, who is also a
district court judge.
Jahangirian will head the SJC pending the outcome of the criminal investigation
because he is the oldest member of the body overseeing the Armenian judiciary.
Zhanna Aleksanian, a human rights activist, also suggested that Vartazarian is
prosecuted for political reasons. She deplored the lack of official information
about the case.
“The authorities do not like transparency at all and I don’t exclude that they
want to remove Vartazarian in this way in order to install a candidate
acceptable to them,” Aleksanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Nikolay Baghdasarian, a pro-government parliamentarian, denied any political
motives. “If the authorities wanted to persecute him there were many ways of
doing that,” he said. “But the existence of a criminal case means the
prosecutors have more evidence than they do in the case of ordinary citizens.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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