Monday, April 4, 2022
Vanadzor Oppositionists Decry ‘Illegal Power Grab’
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian prepares to cast a ballot in a
local election, December 6, 2021
Opposition groups in Vanadzor on Monday accused Armenia’s leadership of seeking
to nullify their victory in last December’s municipal election through what they
see as an unconstitutional bill.
The country’s third largest city has had no mayor since Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party was defeated in the election.
Civil Contract won only 25 percent of the vote there, compared with 39 percent
polled by an opposition bloc led by former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian. The
bloc teamed up with the opposition Fatherland party, giving them a majority of
seats in the local council empowered to elect the head of the community.
Aslanian thus looked set to regain his post lost in October. But ten days after
the ballot, he was arrested on corruption charges rejected by him as politically
motivated.
Later in December, Armenia’s Administrative Court banned the new Vanadzor
council from holding any sessions until July this year. It cited an appeal
against the election results lodged by another pro-government party.
The Armenian parliament hastily passed late last week government-backed legal
amendments allowing Pashinian to appoint an acting mayor of the city. The
authors of the bill said it is aimed at addressing the post-election “disruption
of normal governance” in Vanadzor and possibly other communities..
Opposition lawmakers dismissed that explanation, condemning the bill as an
attempt to overturn local election results.
Aslanian’s Vanadzor-based political allies echoed those allegations. One of
them, Fatherland member Vahe Dokhoyan, said that Pashinian’s administration
violated the Armenian constitution and may now be preparing to force another
municipal election later this year.
“Why did they push such a bill through the National Assembly? In order to
install a person of their choice as community head,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
Dokhoyan also claimed that the government was behind the court injunction
blocking sessions of the Vanadzor council.
“What keeps them from allowing the court or telling it, as they always do, to
let [the council] meet and elect a mayor?” he said.
Armenia’s Food Security Not At Risk, Says UN Agency
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Wheat harvest in Shirak province, 1Aug2012.
Armenia is unlikely to experience a serious shortage of food staples as a result
of the war in Ukraine, a senior official from the United Nations food agency
said on Monday.
“The situation in the country in terms of food security is not something which
is now an immediate threat,” Raimund Jehle, the representative of the Rome-based
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Armenia, told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
“There are problems with access to fertilizers and other essential items,” he
said. “But the Armenian government is making efforts to ensure that those items
are accessible to farmers.”
The FAO said last month that international food and feed prices could rise by up
to 20 percent following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The two countries jointly
account for around 25 percent of world wheat exports and 16 percent of world
corn exports.
Armenia - FAO's Raimund Jehle speaks to RFE/RL, April 4, 2022
Armenia is heavily dependent on imports of Russian wheat, which met more than
two-thirds of its domestic demand last year. Russia also accounts for 97 percent
of cooking oil consumed by the South Caucasus country and nearly half of its
sugar imports.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian said in early
March that fallout from the conflict in Ukraine will push up the cost of these
and other basic foodstuffs in Armenia.
Kerobian warned of a “serious challenge to our food security.” He urged Armenian
farmers to cultivate more land, saying that the price hikes will make farming
“more lucrative.”
Jehle said that the increased cost of fertilizers, seeds and fuel poses a major
challenge to the Armenian agricultural sector. Greater government support for
the sector could mitigate these problems, he said.
“Small and vulnerable farmers will be especially in need of assistance,” added
the UN official.
The government decided last month to subsidize the prices of fertilizers for
such farmers. The decision sparked protests by more affluent farmers with larger
land holdings. They said they too should be eligible for the subsidy.
Karabakh Official Laments ‘Lack Of Support’ By Armenia
• Artak Khulian
Nagorno Karabakh - The Karabakh president, Arayik Harutiunian , holds a session
of his natonal security council, Stepanakert, Aprl 1, 2022
Armenia has not only stopped being the guarantor of Nagorno-Karabakh’s security
but is also not providing the Armenian-populated territory with adequate
diplomatic support, a senior official in Stepanakert complained on Monday.
Hayk Khanumian, the Karabakh minister for local government and public
infrastructures, said this is what is fuelling calls by some Karabakh Armenians
for a referendum on becoming part of Russia.
“The Republic of Armenia used to be the guarantor of our security, and in
essence it cannot perform that function anymore,” Khanumian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service in an interview. “The Russian peacekeeping contingent does not
have a mandate to ensure such protection. So people are just trying to raise
security issues. They want to be protected.”
“Defense is not just about weapons and ammunition,” he said. “It’s a whole set
of measures. Diplomacy, diplomatic service is an important part of that, and it
is quite dire straits these days. I’m talking about Armenia.
“Often times not only does it not carry out tasks but also does not receive
tasks. The bodies formulating [Armenia’s] foreign policy, whose orders the
diplomatic service is supposed to execute, are confused or do not operate
normally on the issue of Artsakh and defense.”
Armenia -- Hayk Khanumian is interviewed by RFE/RL, Stepanakert, April 4, 2022.
Khanumian spoke two days before Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s scheduled talks
with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that will be hosted by European Council
President Charles Michel. The talks are expected to focus on an
Armenian-Azerbaijani “peace treaty” sought by Azerbaijan.
Baku wants the treaty to be based on five elements, including a mutual
recognition of each other’s territorial integrity. Pashinian publicly stated on
March 31 that Yerevan is ready to negotiate a deal along these lines.
Pashinian did not explicitly mention the question of Karabakh’s status, speaking
instead of the need to protect “the rights of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians.” His
remarks were construed by Armenian opposition leaders and other critics as a
further indication that the Armenian government is ready to recognize
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan insisted on April 1 that Yerevan will seek to
include the issue of the status on the agenda of negotiations on the peace
accord.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Armored vehicles of Russian peacekeepers move along the road
towards Agdam from their check point outside Askeran, November 20, 2020
On March 26, Karabakh’s leadership appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin
to deploy more Russian soldiers in Karabakh. It said that Russia’s 2,000-strong
peacekeeping contingent is too small to carry out its mission.
The appeal came two days after Azerbaijani forces seized a village in eastern
Karabakh and surrounding territory before engaging in deadly fighting with
Karabakh Armenian troops. The fighting stopped following the peacekeepers’
intervention.
Khanumian said that the current situation in the conflict zone leaves the
Karabakh Armenians with no choice but to primarily rely on their military and
other security forces.
The Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Karabakh under the terms of a
Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war
in November 2020.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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