Thursday,
CSTO Head Visits Armenia
• Gayane Saribekian
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov at a meeting with
Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian, Yerevan, .
The new secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
visited Armenia on Thursday amid Yerevan’s growing estrangement from the
Russian-led military alliance of six ex-Soviet states.
Imangali Tasmagambetov met with Defense Minister Suren Papikian before touring
the Armenian resort town of Jermuk which was shelled by the Azerbaijani army
during last September’s border clashes. He inspected the damage caused to the
local civilian infrastructure.
The Armenian government appealed to the CSTO for support following the two-day
hostilities which left at least 224 Armenian soldiers dead. It accused the
alliance of ignoring the appeal in breach of its statutes.
In a statement, the Armenian Defense Ministry said Papikian discussed with
Tasmagambetov regional security and, in particular, the situation on Armenia’s
volatile border with Azerbaijan. It said Papikian presented his government’s
“expectations” regarding “long-standing problems with the activation of the
CSTO’s collective defense mechanisms.”
Last November, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government turned down other
CSTO member states’ offer to deploy monitors along the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border, citing their reluctance to acknowledge and condemn the “Azerbaijani
aggression.”
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Pashinian attends a CSTO summit in Yerevan,
November 23, 2022.
In January, Yerevan called off a CSTO military exercise that was scheduled to
take place in Armenia this year. It also refused last week to appoint one of
Tasmagambetov’s three deputies.
Pashinian said on Tuesday that the appointment would not contribute to Armenia’s
security in the current circumstances. He dismissed suggestions that he is
intent on terminating his country’s membership in the CSTO. He claimed that it
is the CSTO that could “leave Armenia.”
Seyran Ohanian, the parliamentary leader of the main opposition Hayastan
alliance, denounced that stance, accusing Pashinian’s administration of
dangerously mishandling relations with Russia and the CSTO as a whole.
Ohanian, who had served as defense minister from 2008-2016, said that Armenia
should not have appealed to the alliance for military intervention in the first
place because it is capable of defending itself against Azerbaijan. The CSTO
helps to neutralize a potentially more serious security threat to Armenia
emanating from Turkey, he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armine Margarian, a political and military expert, was skeptical about the
recently appointed CSTO head’s ability to address Yerevan’s grievances.
“The CSTO’s attitude towards Armenia’s problems has a profound and systemic
nature,” she said. “A change of its secretary general and a single visit by him
cannot change anything.”
Prominent Armenian General Arrested Again
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Grigori Khachaturov attends an award ceremony in the presidential
palace in Yerevan, September 20, 2019.
Armenia’s Court of Appeals on Thursday allowed law-enforcement authorities to
arrest a prominent general who demanded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
resignation in 2021.
Major-General Grigori Khachaturov was already detained last month on charges of
money laundering strongly denied by him. A court of first instance freed him
hours later.
A Court of Appeals judge overturned that decision following an appeal filed by a
prosecutor overseeing the high-profile case.
Khachaturov is the former commander of the Armenian army’s Third Corps mostly
stationed in northern Tavush province bordering Azerbaijan. He received a major
military award and was promoted to the rank of major-general after leading a
successful military operation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in July 2020,
less than three months before the outbreak of the six-week war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Khachaturov was among four dozen high-ranking military officers who accused
Pashinian’s government of incompetence and misrule and demanded its resignation
in February 2021. The unprecedented demand was welcomed by the Armenian
opposition but condemned as a coup attempt by Pashinian.
In a separate statement issued in March 2021, Khachaturov said “every day and
hour” of Pashinian’s rule “erodes” Armenia’s national security. He was fired a
few months later.
The charges leveled against the general stem from a controversial criminal case
opened against Seyran Ohanian, a former defense minister who now leads the
parliamentary group of the main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Ohanian was charged earlier in February with illegally allowing the
privatization of properties that belonged to the Armenian Defense Ministry. He
rejects the accusations as politically motivated.
The National Security Service (NSS) says that Khachaturov “de facto” acquired
one of those properties at a knockdown price and used it for obtaining a bank
loan worth 18 million drams ($45,000). One of his lawyers has described the
money laundering charge as “laughable.”
Khachaturov’s father Yuri was the chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff
from 2008-2016. He served as secretary general of the Russian-led Collective
Security Treaty Organization when the current authorities indicted him as well
as Ohanian and former President Robert Kocharian in 2018 over their alleged role
in a 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. Armenia’s Constitutional Court
declared coup charges brought against them unconstitutional in 2021.
Yuri Khachaturov and his second son actively participated in last year’s
antigovernment protests staged by the country’s main opposition forces.
Karabakh Leader’s Political Future In Doubt
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Arayik Harutiunian , the Karabakh president, delivers a video
address.
Nagorno-Karabakh lawmakers approved a major constitutional amendment late on
Wednesday, stoking speculation about the impending resignation of Arayik
Harutiunian, the Karabakh president.
The amendment proposed by Harutiunian last month will empower the Karabakh
parliament to elect an interim president in case of his resignation. The
president would serve for the rest of Harutiunian’s five-year term in office
which ends in 2025.
The proposed change was unanimously passed in the first reading. It could take
effect before the end of this month.
The unrecognized republic’s constitution has stipulated until now that
Harutiunian’s resignation would lead to the automatic dissolution of the
parliament and the conduct of fresh presidential and parliamentary elections.
Most local political actors agree that Azerbaijan, which has been blocking
Karabakh’s land link with Armenia for the last three months, could thwart such
polls.
A spokeswoman for Harutiunian last month attributed the draft amendment to
“geopolitical regional developments” and “external and internal political
challenges” facing Karabakh. She insisted that the Karabakh leader has no plans
to resign.
However, a lawmaker affiliated with Harutiunian’s Free Fatherland party did not
rule out such a possibility when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on
Thursday.
“I have no such information. Events are developing at lightning speed,” said
Aramayis Aghabekian.
Tigran Abrahamian, an Armenian opposition parliament and a former adviser to
Harutiunian’s predecessor Bako Sahakian, claimed that Harutiunian could step
down right after the change comes into force. He said he is concerned that
Harutiunian’s party could strike a deal with another political group to install
a new president who “does not inspire public trust.”
Harutiunian first fuelled talk of his resignation in January when he signaled
his desire to force snap elections in Karabakh despite the Azerbaijani blockade.
Armenian YouTube Channel Hacked Ahead Of Corruption Report
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - A screenshot from an Aravot.am report on expensive property
acquisitions by senior Armenian officials, .
Hackers hijacked the YouTube channel of a leading Armenian newspaper this week
as it was about to post a video report on personal enrichment of key members of
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team.
The Aravot daily, which also has a major news website, had informed readers that
the investigative report will be posted on YouTube at 9 p.m. on Tuesday. It
promised to reveal “how and how much the revolutionary officials got rich in a
warring country” in 2020, which saw a disastrous war with Azerbaijan.
According to Anna Israelian, the paper’s online news editor, the account was
hacked less than two hours before the planned publication time. The unknown
hackers also deleted its entire video content published for the last 12 years.
Israelian said cyber security experts are now trying to restore the paper’s
access to its YouTube channel. Aravot has also appealed to YouTube and its
parent company, Google, for help, she said.
Israelian did not exclude that the Armenian government was behind the cyber
attack. She noted that shortly after Pashinian swept to power in 2018 some of
his loyalists publicized instructions on how to disable online media outlets
critical of his administration.
“Those individuals were later given high-ranking positions. Some of them are now
parliament deputies,” the prominent journalist told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia - A screenshot from an Aravot.am report on expensive property
acquisitions by senior Armenian officials, .
Armenia’s leading press freedom groups on Thursday condemned the “cyber crime”
and demanded that law-enforcement authorities identify and punish its
perpetrators.
“This is not the first time when, by a worrying coincidence, criticism of the
authorities is followed by hacking attacks on online platforms,” they said in a
joint statement.
Vahagn Aleksanian, a deputy chairman of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party,
categorically denied any government involvement in the hack. He downplayed the
significance of the Aravot exposé, saying that its prior announcement attracted
little interest on social media.
Aravot published the 9-minute report on its Facebook page on Wednesday evening.
It details acquisitions by several senior government officials and
pro-government lawmakers of expensive apartments and other real estate mostly
carried out in 2020.
The authors of the video emphasized the fact these individuals had far more
modest assets before the 2018 “velvet revolution,” which was driven in large
measure by public anger at widespread government corruption.
Other Armenian media outlets have also accused members of Pashinian’s entourage
of enriching themselves or their cronies in recent years.
Last month, Pashinian publicly urged senior officials to sue publications
“falsely” accusing them of illicit enrichment. He said that such reports
contributed to a drop in Armenia’s position in an annual corruption survey
conducted by Transparency International.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Pashinian again claimed to have
eliminated “systemic corruption” in the country. Some civic activists disputed
the claim.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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