Month: May 2021

YEREVAN. – The Armenian authorities will not be able to rig the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections, even if they want to. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this while answering the MPs' questions at Monday’s special sitting of the National Assembly, during the latter’s debates on the matter of electing a new prime minister of Armenia.

According to him, the people in Armenia are endowed with power, and now everyone in the society realizes that. "First of all, the government itself realizes that. I used to say, ‘End to velvet in the revolution.’ But a system of governance was created in the country that I could not fulfill my [aforesaid] statement. Now everything is decided by the laws and the public administration system," Pashinyan said.

As per the acting premier, the effective system of counterbalancing in Armenia manifested itself also during the crisis—after the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war last fall—, enabling avoiding not only a civil war but also mass clashes in Armenia, albeit the government was being affronted during this time. "If you take a broader look, the country managed to maintain macroeconomic stability, although opponents had predicted both economic collapse and famine [in the country]," Pashinyan recalled.

He added that Armenia’s politics shall be freed from the domination of certain individuals, as the Armenian authorities have adopted the respective amendments to the Law on Political Parties.

According to Pashinyan, the meaning of these reforms is but one: to show that the supreme power in Armenia belongs to its people.

"And now you can hardly find a person [in Armenia] who believes that nothing depends on his vote, and on the elections, in general. And even if we try to get everything back to old, we will not be able to do it; the [Armenian] society will simply not allow us to do that," the acting prime minister emphasized.

A new Azerbaijani military unit has started operating on the state border with Armenia—in the Kubatlu region, Day.Az reported, citing the State Border Service of Azerbaijan.

It is noted that the setting up of this military unit is carried out within the framework of measures necessary for the establishment of infrastructure to improve the service activities of military personnel.

YEREVAN. – Turkey has returned to the region 100 years later to continue its genocidal policy against Armenians. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Monday’s special sitting of the National Assembly, during the latter’s debates on the matter of electing a new prime minister of Armenia, responding to an MP’s question about the recent US presidential recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

The acting premier recalled that earlier, he had noted that this US move was based on four factors: one long-term, one medium-term, and two short-term.

Among the short-term factors, Pashinyan mentioned the 44-day war in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) last fall, and Turkey's direct participation in it—on Azerbaijan’s side. "In almost all the interviews with the international media, I have noted that Turkey has returned to the region 100 years later to continue its genocidal policy against the Armenians. Naturally, in this context, of course, the issue of genocide and the 44-day war have been linked to one another," added the acting Armenian premier.

Also, he recalled the "secession for salvation" formula, which he also mentioned many times in his interviews during the aforesaid war. Pashinyan stressed that this formula is mentioned more and more often in the context of the Artsakh issue.

The Armenian authorities aren’t afraid of anyone. This is what Chair of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia, deputy of the ruling My Step bloc Vladimir Vardanyan said during today’s briefings in parliament.

According to him, people in Armenia and abroad need to clearly understand that there is a power in Armenia that is strong and is fighting for its interests within the country and beyond the country’s borders.