Tuesday, July 5, 2022
EU Vows Continued Support For Armenia-Azerbaijan Dialogue
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel and Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev meet in Brussels, May 22, 2022.
The European Union will continue to mediate peace talks between Armenia and
Azerbaijan, European Council President Charles Michel said after speaking with
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by phone on Monday.
They discussed “all issues on the Brussels agenda for the Azerbaijan-Armenia
dialogue,” Michel said, alluding to Aliyev’s face-to-face talks with Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian which he hosted in December, April and May.
“We will continue support in addressing humanitarian, connectivity and border
issues as well as a future peace agreement,” the head of the EU’s main
decision-making body added on Twitter.
Michel reported major progress on all these fronts after his last trilateral
meeting with Aliyev and Pashinian. He said they agreed to meet in Brussels again
in July or August.
The top EU official did not comment on the next Armenian-Azerbaijani summit
after his call with Aliyev. The Azerbaijani president’s office also did not
mention it in its readout of the conversation.
In recent weeks, Baku and Yerevan have accused each other of not honoring their
understandings brokered by the EU and Russia. Aliyev has implicitly threatened
to resort to military action, saying that Yerevan is reluctant to demarcate the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border and open a land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to
its Nakhichevan exclave.
Pashinian charged last week that Azerbaijan is torpedoing peace talks to prepare
the ground for another war with Armenia. He said Baku cancelled at the last
minute a fresh meeting of senior Armenian and Azerbaijani officials which was
due to take place in Brussels on June 27.
Russia has denounced the EU’s mediation efforts, saying that they are part of
the West’s attempts to hijack Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks and use the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the standoff over Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry warned the 27-nation bloc in May against playing
“geopolitical games” in the conflict zone. A senior EU diplomat insisted
afterwards that Brussels is “not engaged in any kind of competition” with Moscow.
Armenian Prosecutors Seek Internet Content Regulation
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian speaks at an official ceremony in
Yerevan, July 1, 2022.
Armenia’s outgoing Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian has called on the government
to consider regulating content posted online, saying that Armenian-language
Internet platforms are increasingly used for hate speech, drug trade and other
illegal purposes.
Davtian’s office revealed his written appeal to the government in a statement
released on Monday. It complained that the country has no legislation or
government agency to tackle what it described as a growing spread of illicit
online content.
“In the absence of such control, information platforms continue the unfettered
spread of such content, distorting and abusing the democratic principle of
freedom of speech,” read the statement. “By contrast, in a number of countries,
including Germany, Russia and Georgia, the security of information distributed
through online resources is regulated by legal acts.”
The Office of the Prosecutor-General gave the example of Russia’s state
communications regulator Roskomnadzor which can restrict or block access to
websites refusing to remove unwanted content. It also argued that a German
government agency is empowered to slap massive fines on Internet platforms
disseminating illegal material such as racing or other hate speech.
Some Armenian civil rights activists expressed concern over Davtian’s
initiative, saying that it could lead to unjustified curbs on free speech and
Armenians’ access to the Internet, which has been practically unrestricted to
date.
Shushan Doydoyan, who leads the Yerevan-based Center for Freedom of Information,
said Davtian’s reference to Roskomnadzor is particularly worrying because the
Russian agency is notorious for media censorship.
“In my view, such initiatives are not the prosecutors’ business,” Doydoyan told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
According to the prosecutors’ statement, Davtian stressed that the proposed
regulation of online content would not restrict Armenians’ “constitutional right
to freely express opinions.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government has not yet publicly reacted to the
appeal from the chief prosecutor who will complete his six-year term in office
on September 15.
In a joint declaration issued after their talks held outside Moscow in April,
Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to step up
Russian-Armenian “cooperation on international information security.”
“The parties expressed concern about the growing trend of using modern
information and communication technologies to commit illegal and harmful
actions, interfere in the internal affairs of states and undermine their
sovereignty,” said the declaration.
Armenia Must Remain Parliamentary Republic, Says Pashinian
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - The building of the prime minister's office in Yerevan, March 6, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Tuesday reaffirmed plans to enact
constitutional changes but again spoke out against restoring a presidential
system of government in Armenia.
“While considering it obvious that the Constitution needs to be constantly
developed and improved, I must emphasize my belief that Armenia should maintain
the parliamentary system of government because the events of 2021 proved that
this system provides more effective mechanisms for crisis management and the
people’s … decisive participation in the political debate,” Pashinian said in a
written address to the nation.
The statement was issued on the occasion of Constitution Day, a public holiday
that marks the anniversary of the adoption of Armenia’s first post-Soviet
constitution in a disputed referendum held on July 5, 1995.
The constitution gave the president of the republic sweeping powers that were
slightly curtailed in 2005. It was radically amended in 2015 as then President
Serzh Sarkisian controversially engineered the country’s transition to a
parliamentary system of government.
Armenia - Armenians vote in a referendum on switching to parliamentary system of
government, December 6, 2015.
Pashinian called for fresh constitutional changes last year, saying that his
administration will consider restoring the presidential system. But he stated
afterwards that Armenia should remain a parliamentary republic.
This raised more questions about the purpose of a constitutional reform
“council” set up later in 2021. It consists of state officials, pro-government
politicians and representatives of non-governmental organizations. The council
in turn formed a commission comprising five legal scholars tasked with drafting
constitutional amendments.
The commission coordinator, Davit Hakobian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that
he and most of his colleagues are also against changing the country’s government
system.
Hakobian said the ad hoc body is working instead on creating a more effective
system of constitutional checks and balances. He suggested that it could propose
giving more powers to the current, largely ceremonial president and even the
parliamentary opposition.
The two opposition alliances represented in the Armenian parliament were offered
to appoint two other members of the council. But they refused, saying that the
purpose of the planned amendments is to help Pashinian cling to power.
Serzh Sarkisian faced similar accusations when he pushed through the sweeping
constitutional changes in 2015. Sarkisian’s attempt to remain in power as prime
minister after completing his second and final presidential term in 2018 sparked
mass protests that brought Pashinian to power.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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