Thursday, June 24, 2021
Armenian Church, Opposition Demand Doctor’s Release
June 24, 2021
• Sargis Harutyunyan
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate outside the Office of the
Prosecutor-General in Yerevan against criminal proceedings launched agains a
prominent opposition-linked doctor, June 24, 2021.
Opposition supporters rallied outside state prosecutors’ headquarters in Yerevan
on Thursday to protest against an arrest warrant issued for a prominent doctor
accused of pressuring his subordinates to participate in the June 20
parliamentary elections.
Professor Armen Charchian, the director of the Izmirlian Medical Center, was
prosecuted after a non-governmental organization publicized last week a leaked
audio recording of his meeting with hospital personnel.
Charchian, who ran for the parliament on the opposition Hayastan bloc’s ticket,
can be heard telling them that they must vote in the snap elections or face
“much tougher treatment” by the hospital management.
He was indicted under an article of the Criminal Code that prohibits any
coercion of voters.
A Yerevan court allowed the Special Investigative Service (SIS) late on
Wednesday to arrest Charchian and hold him in pre-trial detention.
It emerged afterwards that the renowned surgeon was hospitalized shortly before
the court ruling. He was understood to remain in another Yerevan hospital on
Thursday.
Armenia - Armen Charchian, the director of the Izmirlian Medical Center.
“Mr. Charchian has been suffering from diabetes for more than 20 years,” one of
his lawyers, Erik Aleksanian, told reporters. “He also underwent serious heart
surgery recently.”
Aleksanian insisted that the accusations are groundless because the leaked audio
contains only a short excerpt from his comments made at the meeting with the
Izmirlian Medical Center staff. He said a longer recording submitted by defense
lawyers to the court shows that Charchian assured his staffers that he will not
resort to “repression” against anyone refusing to go to the polls.
Charchian also told them that the Armenian Apostolic Church, which owns the
hospital, does not want Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to stay in power.
Prosecutors say this amounted to ordering the hospital staff to vote against
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
Aleksanian denied that. The lawyer said his client made clear at the start of
the meeting that he is not going to agitate for or against any political group.
Meanwhile, the church’s Echmiadzin-based Mother See issued another statement on
Thursday condemning Charchian’s “unfounded persecution” and demanding that the
authorities revoke the arrest warrant.
“Distinguished doctor Armen Charchian has saved thousands of lives in the most
difficult situations and is continuing, as head of the Izmirlian Medical Center,
to wholeheartedly serve our people and fatherland,” read the statement.
Hayastan, which finished second in the elections, says that the charges leveled
against Charchian are government retribution for his affiliation with the ruling
party’s main election challenger.
More than a hundred members and supporters of the opposition alliance led by
former President Robert Kocharian gathered outside the Office of the
Prosecutor-General to demand an end to the criminal proceedings.
Hayastan and another major opposition bloc, Pativ Unem, claim that public sector
employees openly supporting them were harassed and even fired by government
officials in the run-up to the polls. They have also accused central and
provincial government bodies of forcing their employees to attend the ruling
Civil Contract party’s rallies. Civil Contract leaders deny these allegations.
Putin, Pashinian Discuss Armenian-Azeri Transport Links
June 24, 2021
RUSSIA -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin (left to right) attend a trilateral
meeting in Moscow, January 11, 2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on
Thursday to congratulate him on his party’s victory in the Armenian
parliamentary elections and discuss Russian-backed plans to restore transport
links between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The Kremlin reported that Putin “emphasized the importance of consistent
implementation” of the Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the war in
Nagorno-Karabakh and follow-up understandings reached by the leaders of Russia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan in January.
“The Russian side will continue active mediation efforts to ensure stability in
the region,” it said in a statement.
The Armenian government also said the two men discussed the implementation of
those agreements. In that context, it said, Pashinian stressed the need for the
release of Armenian prisoners of war and civilians still held in Azerbaijan.
Putin spoke with Pashinian one day after his phone call with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev. According to a Kremlin statement, the call took place
“at the initiative of the Azerbaijani side” and touched upon “practical aspects
of the realization of the agreements” reached by Aliyev, Pashinian and Putin.
“Special attention was paid to intensifying work in a trilateral format on the
restoration of economic links and transport routes in the South Caucasus,” added
the statement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun
Bayramov spoke by phone earlier on Wednesday.
The agreements call for the reopening of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border for
commercial traffic. They specifically commit Armenia to opening rail and road
links between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan. For its part, Armenia
should be able to use Azerbaijani territory as a transit route for cargo
shipments to and from Russia and Iran.
At their January 11 meeting in Moscow, Putin, Aliyev and Pashinian agreed to set
up a trilateral working group tasked with working out practical modalities of
establishing such transport links. The group co-headed by deputy prime ministers
of the three states held several meetings in the following months.
The group has not met since Azerbaijani troops crossed several sections of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border on May 12-14, triggering a continuing military
standoff with Armenian forces.
“Given these border incidents, I don’t think it’s possible to constructively
work on that [Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] platform,” the group’s Armenian
co-chair, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian, said recently.
Grigorian’s Azerbaijani opposite number, Shahin Mustafayev, suggested earlier
this week that the trilateral task force will resume its activities after a new
Armenian government is formed as a result of the June 20 elections.
Pashinian Touts Armenia’s ‘Democratic’ Elections
June 24, 2021
• Nane Sahakian
ARMENIA -- Armenian acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian delivers a speech
during a rally in central Yerevan, June 21, 2021
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted on Thursday that the weekend general
elections in Armenia won by his party were free and fair.
“The conclusions of international and local observers and the international
community are unequivocal: the elections were held in conformity with democratic
standards. In effect, we set a new standard,” Pashinian said, opening a weekly
meeting of his cabinet in Yerevan.
“When pre-term parliamentary elections were held in 2018 and the international
community gave those elections unprecedentedly high marks … it was said at the
time that the election outcome was obvious for everyone in advance and that the
incumbent government did not need, so to speak, to falsify the election results.
The outcome of the 2021 parliamentary elections was not predictable and everyone
knew that they are probably the most unpredictable elections in the Third
Republic’s history,” he said.
In their preliminary report released on Monday, European observers gave a
largely positive assessment of the Armenian authorities’ handling of the snap
elections held on Sunday. They said the vote was “competitive and generally very
well-managed.”
Both the United States and the European Union cited the findings of the observer
mission mostly deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe in their official reactions to the conduct of the snap polls.
The U.S. State Department urged the Armenian opposition to accept the official
election results that gave a landslide victory to Pashinian’s Civil Contract
party.
The two leading opposition groups that won seats in Armenia’s new parliament
have alleged widespread irregularities, however. They are expected to ask the
Constitutional Court overturn the official results.
Former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan bloc, the official runner-up in the
polls, accused the European observers on Monday of turning a blind eye to
violations which it said benefited the ruling party.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities have charged more than a dozen opposition
members and supporters with trying to bribe or bully voters. No government
officials and loyalists are known to have been prosecuted for electoral offenses
so far.
Pashinian cited on Thursday the election-related criminal cases. “I am convinced
that they will be properly investigated,” he said.
Opposition Party Blames Kocharian For Poor Election Showing
June 24, 2021
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Edmon Marukian, the leader of the Bright Armenia Party, speaks at an
election campaign meeting in Yerevan, June 18, 2021.
The leader of the Bright Armenia Party (LHK), one of the two opposition groups
represented in the outgoing Armenian parliament, on Thursday blamed former
President Robert Kocharian for its failure to win any seats in the new National
Assembly.
According to official results of the June 20 elections, the LHK won only 1.2
percent of the vote, falling far short of the 5 percent legal threshold for
entering the parliament. It had garnered 6.4 percent in the previous elections
held in 2018.
LHK leader Edmon Marukian said his party was on course to clear the vote
threshold until the last few days of campaigning marked by bitter recriminations
traded by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and two hardline opposition alliances
led by Kocharian and another former president, Serzh Sarkisian.
Marukian claimed that many LHK sympathizers deserted his camp after Kocharian’s
Hayastan bloc held the biggest rally of the entire election campaign in Yerevan
on June 18. He said they felt that Kocharian’s return power is a real
possibility and that they should prevent it by voting for Pashinian’s Civil
Contract party.
“Our representative in Yeghegnadzor told me that people are coming to the [local
LHK] office and saying, ‘Sorry, we planned to vote for you but after seeing that
rally we thought that they are returning [to power] and decided to give extra
votes to the authorities so that it doesn’t happen,” he told a news conference.
Armenia - Supporters of former President Robert Kocharian and his opposition
alliance attend an election campaign rally in Yerevan, June 18, 2021.
The official results showed Civil Contract getting almost 54 percent of the
vote, compared with 21 percent and 5.2 percent polled by Hayastan and
Sarkisian’s Pativ Unem bloc respectively. Both opposition forces are expected to
ask the Constitutional Court to overturn what they call fraudulent results.
During the 12-day election campaign, the LHK positioned itself as a viable
alternative to Armenia’s current and former rulers. It pledged to form a
“government of national unity” in case of making a strong showing in the polls.
“The megaphones of the current and former authorities were much stronger than
ours,” complained Marukian. “Our voice was drowned out as a result.”
The LHK leader also accused Hayastan and Pativ Unem of helping Pashinian to stay
in power. He said that lawmakers representing the radical opposition will be an
easy target for the reelected prime minister.
Supporters of the two ex-presidents claim the opposite. They say that Pashinian
will face “real opposition” in the parliament for the first time since coming to
power more than three years ago.
Hardline critics of the Armenian government have for years questioned the LHK’s
opposition credentials. They have accused Marukian of secretly cooperating with
Pashinian, his erstwhile political ally.
Like other major opposition forces, Marukian’s party blamed the government for
Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. But it did not join
street protests organized by them in an attempt to force Pashinian to resign.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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