Friday, June 4, 2021
Tycoon Denies Link Between Pro-Government Stance, Business
• Karlen Aslanian
Armania - Businessman Khachatur Sukiasian speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, June 4,
2021.
A wealthy businessman insisted on Friday that he is running for parliament on
the ruling Civil Contract party’s ticket to help Armenia’s current government
stay in power and continue its policies, rather than increase his fortune.
The businessman, Khachatur Sukiasian, is fifth on Civil Contract’s list of
candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Another prominent
entrepreneur, Gurgen Arsenian, occupies 14th position on the list.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian repeatedly pledged to separate business from
politics shortly after coming to power in May 2018. He declared that wealthy
Armenian entrepreneurs no longer need to hold parliament seats in order to
protect and expand their assets.
In an interview with told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Sukiasian denied any
contradiction between his participation in the elections and Pashinian’s
statements. He said the prime minister referred to corrupt government officials
who had enriched themselves while in office “at the expense of business owners.”
Sukiasian also ruled out any potential conflicts of interest arising from his
current political activities. “To be honest, I have not engaged in business
since 2005,” he claimed. “I have mostly engaged in analyses. But of course, I’m
a business owner.”
“I thought a lot about whether or not to run [in the elections,]” said
Sukiasian. “The number one [motive] was always this: so that there is a stable
[parliamentary] majority and Armenia follows the same path for several more
years.”
He said he also wants to prevent Armenia’s former rulers from returning to power
as a result of the snap elections scheduled for June 20.
Sukiasian, 59, became one of the country’s richest men during the 1991-1998 rule
of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian. He was reputedly close to some key
members of Ter-Petrosian’s administration at the time.
The tycoon openly backed Ter-Petrosian in a disputed February 2008 presidential
election in which the ex-president was the main opposition candidate. He fled
Armenia in March 2008 to escape arrest on charges stemming from post-election
violence in Yerevan. He returned to the country in 2009 and rarely criticized
then President Serzh Sarkisian in the following years.
Arsenian, the other tycoon allied to Pashinian, led a small pro-government party
and held a parliament seat in the 2000s when Armenia was ruled by Robert
Kocharian, Sarkisian’s predecessor.
Opposition blocs led by Kocharian and Sarkisian are among the main opposition
forces challenging Pashinian and his party in the current parliamentary race.
Kocharian’s Bloc Opens Hundreds Of Campaign Offices
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian (C) and other leaders of the newly
established Hayastan alliance march through the center of Yerevan, May 9, 2021.
An opposition alliance led by former President Robert Kocharian on Friday
claimed to have opened about 800 campaign offices across Armenia for the
upcoming parliamentary elections.
Armen Gevorgian, the Hayastan (Armenia) alliance’s top campaign manager, said
they will report to regional campaign headquarters also opened by the bloc.
Kocharian and two opposition parties allied to him set up Hayastan on May 9 one
day before the snap polls were formally scheduled for June 20. The bloc is
expected to be one of the main challengers of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and
his Civil Contract party.
Although campaigning for the polls will officially start on June 7, all major
election contenders have effectively launched their campaigns. In particular,
Kocharian has been holding meetings with members and supporters of his bloc in
various parts of the country.
Gevorgian said that Hayastan will be holding both indoor and outdoor rallies in
the coming weeks.
“Strangely enough, our supporters prefer indoor meetings which allow them to
directly communicate with alliance representatives and leaders in a
question-and-answer format,” Gevorgian told a news conference.
Aram Vardevanian, Hayastan’s campaign spokesman, strongly denied allegations by
some government loyalists that Kocharian’s bloc is getting ready to hand out
cash to voters. He said it has alerted law-enforcement authorities about groups
of government-linked “provocateurs” reportedly offering to buy votes on behalf
of the bloc.
“We have nothing to do with vote buying, fraud or any other activity of this
kind. We are the first to strongly oppose that,” he said.
Vardevanian claimed that the Armenian government itself is trying to buy votes
with additional economic aid allocated to mostly rural communities in recent
weeks. He singled out a government announcement about mowers and similar
agricultural equipment donated to five remote villages earlier this week.
Vahagn Aleksanian, a spokesman for Pashinian’s party, denied any connection
between the aid and the elections.
“Let them count how many community projects have been subsidized by the state
for the last three years preceding this pre-election period,” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Aleksanian said he too has heard rumors about vote buying planned by Hayastan.
But he acknowledged that he has seen no evidence in support of those claims so
far.
Armenian Lawmaker Admits Stealing Reporter’s Phone
• Satenik Hayrapetian
Armenia -- Parliament deputy Hayk Sargsian speaks with journalists, November 29,
2019.
A controversial pro-government parliamentarian admitted on Friday stealing the
mobile phone of an Armenian journalist who filmed him in a street in Yerevan.
The incident occurred on Thursday after Anush Dashtents, a correspondent for the
Hraparak daily, approached the 28-year-old deputy, Hayk Sargsian, and other
persons standing outside an office of Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party.
Dashtents said Sargsian got angry when she switched on the phone’s camera and
began asking him questions about Russian-mediated talks on the ongoing
Armenian-Azerbaijani border dispute. “He jumped on me like a tiger, took the
phone and tried to delete [the video,]” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Sargsian got into a car and left the scene after failing to delete it on the
spot, Dashtents said, adding that she got her phone back about an hour later.
The lawmaker essentially confirmed this account and defended his actions,
accusing Dashtents of violating his privacy.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry but I don’t want to answer your question,’” he told
reporters. “Then that woman kept asking me questions and holding the phone in
front of my face, as a result of which I took the phone and deleted the clip
filmed by her.”
Sargsian said he afterwards willingly gave the phone back to the journalist
through one of his colleagues. Dashtents disputed that claim, saying that he
returned the phone only after she alerted a “well-known” member of Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team.
The Armenian police launched a preliminary inquiry into the incident. Dashtents
was summoned to the police for questioning.
Obstruction of journalistic work is a criminal offense in Armenia.
Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech
believes that Sargsian’s behavior breached a relevant article of the Armenian
Criminal Code.
“A person who cannot [properly] socialize with journalists and media has no
right to engage in politics,” said Melikian. “Since this is not the first
incident of its kind I believe that the leadership of the parliament must draw
conclusions and discuss and evaluate it.”
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, also condemned Sargsian’s
behavior as illegal.
Sargsian, who is affiliated with Pashinian’s party, is no stranger to
controversy. Earlier this year he wrested the microphone from another reporter
who tried to interview him in the parliament building in Yerevan.
Sargsian, whose twin brother Nairi is an aide to Pashinian, caused greater
uproar last July when he partied with dozens of other young people at an
Armenian lakeside resort in violation of coronavirus safety rules set by the
government. The police fined him and shut down the summer beach club at the time.
Yerevan Praises Russian Role In Armenian-Azeri Border Talks
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- Arsen Torosian, the newly appointed chief of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian's staff, attends a meeting in Yerevan chaired by Pashinian, January
19, 2021.
Russia is doing its best to broker a peaceful solution to a continuing border
dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a top aide to Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian said on Friday.
Moscow hosted renewed talks between Armenian and Azerbaijani military officials
for that purpose on Wednesday. No agreements were announced after that meeting.
Arsen Torosian, the chief of Pashinian’s staff, said Armenian-Azerbaijani
negotiations will continue “at the highest level” but did not give any dates or
other details.
“They will continue so that we reach the kind of a settlement about which we
have repeatedly spoken,” he told journalists. “Azerbaijani army units must leave
Armenia’s sovereign territory, and that will happen.”
Torosian downplayed the apparent lack of concrete results achieved in the talks
so far.
“Time is needed to assess achievements,” he said. “There have been results in
the sense that at the highest level there is a mutual understanding with our
sole security partner, Russia, as to what solution there must be [to the border
dispute.] They are making every effort to ensure that it happens without a
single gunshot.”
The Russian and Armenian defense ministers met in Moscow last week to discuss
the border crisis. The Armenian Defense Ministry said they agreed on “necessary
steps” to resolve it but did not elaborate.
The crisis erupted after Azerbaijani troops reportedly crossed several sections
of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border three weeks ago, triggering an Armenian
military buildup there.
Armenia - Armenian soldiers take up positions on the border with Azerbaijan, May
17, 2021.
The Armenian Defense Ministry repeatedly threatened later in May to take
military action to force them to pull back. However, Pashinian effectively ruled
out the use of force even after one Armenian soldier was killed and six others
captured by Azerbaijani forces last week.
Pashinian proposed May 27 that both sides withdraw their troops from the
contested border areas and let Russia and/or the United States and France, the
two other countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, deploy observers there.
In a joint statement issued the following day, the French, Russian and U.S.
mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group backed the proposed troop
disengagement. But they did not specify whether their countries support the idea
of an international observation mission.
Torosian could not say if any of the mediating powers is ready to send
observers. “I’m not the official who receives those reactions and I can’t give a
complete answer,” he said.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry effectively turned down Pashinian’s proposal
earlier this week. Baku denies violating Armenia’s territorial integrity and
maintains that its troops took up positions on the Azerbaijani side of the
frontier.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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