Tuesday,
Turkish President Visits Azeri-Controlled Town In Karabakh
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
attend a signing ceremony in Shusha, in Nagorno-Karabakh,
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited on Tuesday a part of
Nagorno-Karabakh that Azerbaijan regained control over last autumn as a result
of a six-week war against Armenian forces.
Erdogan's visit strongly condemned by Armenia came a day after he met with U.S.
President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels.
Upon his arrival in Baku Erdogan traveled to the decimated town of Fizuli to the
southeast of Nagorno-Karabakh which Azerbaijani forces recaptured last autumn
from ethnic Armenian forces that had controlled it since the early 1990s.
RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported that Erdogan was met in Fizuli by
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his wife. They then traveled into
Azerbaijani-controlled territory within Nagorno-Karabakh to visit the strategic
town of Shushi (Shusha).
Azerbaijani forces seized the mountain fortress town overlooking the Karabakh
capital Stepanakert in early November just days before Russia brokered a
ceasefire that stopped the fighting.
Erdogan was honored there with an official greeting ceremony. Afterward, he and
Aliyev signed a document called the Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations
between Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Turkey provided Azerbaijan with both diplomatic and military support during the
recent conflict. Aliyev was reported to again thank Ankara for that support at a
joint news briefing in Shushi. He described Erdogan’s visit as historic.
According to the Turkish daily Sabah, Erdogan said, for his part, that “Karabakh
has returned to its owners” and announced plans to open a Turkish consulate in
Shushi.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned Aliyev’s and Erdogan’s visit to Shushi
as a “provocation against regional peace and security.”
“It is noteworthy that this visit was preceded by the destruction of the
religious, historical and cultural heritage of the forcibly displaced indigenous
Armenian population, including the desecration of [Shushi’s] St. Holy Savior
Ghazanchetsots Cathedral targeted by the Turkish-Azerbaijani forces during and
after the war against Artsakh,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Restoration of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh (Karabakh), which
includes de-occupation of the territories of the Republic of Artsakh and safe
return of the displaced population, is essential for overcoming the
Turkish-Azerbaijani genocidal threat against the Armenian people,” it said.
Serzh Sarkisian Responds To Pashinian’s Threats
• Gayane Saribekian
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Former President Serzh Sarkisian and other leaders of the opposition
Pativ Unem bloc hold an election campaign meeting in Masis,.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian has condemned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
threats to “hammer” political foes after Sunday’s parliamentary elections and
warned that an opposition alliance led by him would put up a stiff resistance to
any violence.
Campaigning in the northern Armenia city of Vanadzor on Monday, Sarkisian also
accused Pashinian of being ready to provoke a “civil war” in order to stay in
power.
Pashinian has brandished a hammer during his campaign rallies held in recent
days, saying that it symbolizes a “steel mandate” which he hopes to receive from
voters on election day.
“Right after the elections we will go after you with this mandate. Don’t tell us
later that we didn’t warn you,” he said at one of those rallies, appealing to
Armenia’s former leaders and other opposition forces challenging him in the
elections.
“You see what he is holding in his hand, don’t you?” a visibly furious Sarkisian
told supporters of the Pativ Unem bloc in Vanadzor. “I guess he wants someone to
take it from his hand and bang it on his head so that he understands what it is.”
“I have said at one of our meetings that we must counter his ‘steel revolution’
with a shield made of a firmer substance and hold a truncheon in another hand so
that we bang it on the head of anyone approaching us with a hammer,” he said.
“There is no other option. What else can we do?”
Pashinian kept demonstrating his hammer and doubled down on his threats during a
campaign trip to Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province on Tuesday. He
specifically attacked the elected mayors of most Syunik towns and villages who
demanded his resignation following Armenia’s defeat in the autumn war with
Azerbaijan.
“With this thing we will be taking out those rusty nails, upstarts huddling in
various municipalities from many places, including this place,” he told
supporters rallying in the town of Sisian, also run by an anti-Pashinian mayor.
Armenia - Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian gather outside the main
government building in Yerevan to join him on a campaign trip to Syunik
province, .
Many of the local community heads defying the prime minister are affiliated with
another opposition alliance led by former President Robert Kocharian. Pashinian
was insulted and jeered by their protesting supporters when he toured Syunik in
April.
The premier travelled to the region this time around in a motorcade of hundreds
of cars carrying his own supporters from other parts of the country.
The blocs led by the two former presidents are among the main opposition
election contenders trying to unseat Pashinian.
Sarkisian’s Pativ Unem consists of his Republican Party and the Fatherland Party
of former National Security Service Director Artur Vanetsian. The latter tops
the list of its election candidates.
The ex-president, who was toppled in the Pashinian-led “velvet revolution” in
2018, is not among those candidates. Nevertheless, he has taken the center stage
in Pativ Unem’s election campaign.
Unlike other major contenders, the bloc holds only indoor meetings with
activists and supporters which are not announced beforehand. Journalists are not
allowed to attend them and have to content themselves with video clips of those
gatherings released by Pativ Unem.
Some of those videos have showed Sarkisian, Vanetsian and their political allies
walking in the streets in and outside Yerevan and talking to local residents.
Armenian Central Bank Again Hikes Key Interest Rate
Armenia - Martin Galtsian, the chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, speaks
at a news conference in Yerevan, June 3, 2021.
The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) raised its main interest rate on Tuesday for
the fourth time in six months, saying that inflationary pressures on the Armenia
economy are continuing to grow.
The CBA’s governing board set the refinancing rate at 6.5 percent, up by 0.5
percentage points.
The minimum cost of borrowing stood at 4.25 percent when the bank began
tightening its monetary policy in December after a major depreciation of the
Armenian currency, the dram, followed by rising consumer prices.
In a statement explaining the latest rate hike, the CBA said that the global
economy’s faster-than-expected recovery from the coronavirus crisis is causing
the prices of key foodstuffs and commodities imported by Armenia to rise
further. It said this “high inflationary environment” will persist in the months
ahead.
The bank also reported growing consumer demand within Armenia fuelled by renewed
economic growth, rising cash remittances from abroad and an “increase in the
public’s inflationary expectations.” “By contrast, private investment activity
remains weak,” it said.
According to official statistics cited by the CBA, annual inflation in the
country reached 7.9 percent late last month, well above a 4 percent target set
by the Armenian authorities for 2021. The CBA governor, Martin Galstian admitted
recently that the authorities will likely fail to meet the target.
Galstian also said on June 3 that the bank will revise upwards its 1.4 percent
economic growth forecast for 2021 made earlier this year. The CBA statement
likewise noted Armenia’s “faster-than-anticipated recovery” from last year’s
recession but did not specify the bank’s revised growth projections.
The Armenian government and the World Bank expect Armenia’s economy to expand by
more than 3 percent this year after shrinking by 7.6 percent in 2020.
Armenian Ombudsman Again Slams Pashinian’s Campaign Rhetoric
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian brandishes a hammer at a campaign
meeting in Sisian, a town in Syunik province, .
Armenia’s human rights defender, Arman Tatoyan, again criticized Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s fiery campaign rhetoric on Tuesday, saying that it is further
heightening political tensions in the country.
Tatoyan described as “extremely concerning” the fact that Pashinian repeatedly
brandished a hammer during his campaign rallies held in recent days. He also
deplored Pashinian’s threats to “throw on the ground” and “bang against the
wall” opposition supporters who would try to illegally influence the outcome of
Sunday’s general elections.
“The use of phrases such as ‘make them lie on asphalt’ and ‘bang against the
wall,’ which are addressed to a circle of unknown individuals and are extremely
dangerous in terms of human rights, must be stopped,” the ombudsman said in a
statement. “This unacceptable rhetoric is associated with mass violations of
human rights.”
The hammer demonstrated by Pashinian on the campaign trail is meant to symbolize
a popular “steel mandate” which he says he needs to continue ruling Armenia with
a more firm hand.
“With the steel mandate we will take out all rusty nails, including in here
Ararat [province,]” the premier told on Monday supporters rallying in Masis, a
small town just south of Yerevan.
Pashinian doubled down on his rhetoric on Tuesday as he held campaign rallies in
southeastern Syunik province where most town and village mayors have been openly
defying him since Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. He
described them as “rusty nails” that will be taken out by his hammer after the
elections.
“With this mandate we will break their [bank] accounts, destroy their firms and
shove each of these criminal upstarts into holes on your behalf,” he said,
brandishing the hammer.
Armenia - Human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan talks to Armenian soldiers
deployed in Syunik province, May 14, 2021. (Photo by the Armenian Human Rights
Defender's Office)
In Tatoyan’s words, Pashinian’s recourse to this analogy has triggered
“dangerous discussions” on social media, with hardcore supporters and opponents
of the current Armenian government openly threatening violent reprisals.
“Politicians regarded as candidates for the post of Armenia’s prime minister
must be especially careful about words used by them and take into account all
their figurative meanings,” the ombudsman stressed.
Former President Robert Kocharian and his political allies leading the
opposition Hayastan alliance commented scathingly on Pashinian’s hammer when
they campaigned in Masis on Tuesday.
“We are coming not to smash the hammer on their heads but to make the country
prosperous,” Kocharian said at an indoor meeting held there.
One of his associates, Ishkhan Saghatelian, sounded less conciliatory. “On June
20 we will wrest the hammer from his hands and you know what we will do,” he
told local Hayastan supporters.
Tatoyan already denounced Pashinian and his rivals last week for resorting to
inflammatory campaign rhetoric. He singled out the prime minister’s pledges to
“purge” the state bureaucracy and wage “political vendettas” against local
government officials supporting the Armenian opposition.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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