Monday, April 3, 2023
Azeri Troops Hold On To ‘Newly Occupied Armenian Territory’
        • Susan Badalian
Armenia - Azerbaijani troops dig trenches outside Tegh village.
Azerbaijani troops have not withdrawn from community lands of an Armenian border 
village occupied by them last week, local residents insisted on Monday, denying 
the Armenian government’s implicit claims to the contrary.
Azerbaijani army units redeployed by Thursday morning to more parts of the 
Lachin district sandwiched between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, completing a 
change in the route of the Lachin corridor which began last August. Armenia’s 
National Security Service (NSS) said hours later that they advanced up to 300 
meters into Armenian territory at five local sections of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border adjacent to the village of Tegh.
Local government officials and farmers said Tegh lost a large part of its 
agricultural land and pastures. Some of them said that the Azerbaijani military 
made bigger territorial gains than is admitted by official Yerevan.
The Azerbaijani advance also caused an uproar in Yerevan, with Armenian 
opposition leaders blaming Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for the loss of yet 
another part of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory.
In another statement released on Saturday, the NSS claimed that the situation in 
that border area “improved significantly” as a result of negotiations held by 
Armenian and Azerbaijani officials. It did not elaborate.
Tegh residents said afterwards, however, that the Azerbaijani troops remain 
stationed in the newly occupied positions just outside the village.
“They keep digging in … and haven’t retreated a single inch,” said Masis 
Zeynalian, a member of the local council who no longer access to his wheat field.
“They’re staying put and continuing fortification works,” said another Tegh 
councilor, Argam Hovsepian. “Is this what they [the NSS] call an improvement?”
Armenia’s Deputy Defense Minister Arman Sargsian refused to comment on that 
“improvement” when he was approached by journalists on Monday.
“The Defense Ministry has a press service that periodically and promptly reacts 
to any issue,” Sargsian said vaguely.
The ministry has made no statements on the situation around Tegh so far. 
Speaking right after the Azerbaijani advance on Thursday, Pashinian said that 
from now on the area will be patrolled and protected by border guards 
subordinate to the NSS, rather than the Armenian army.
Opposition leaders also blamed Pashinian’s government for much bigger 
territorial losses suffered by Armenia during border clashes with Azerbaijan in 
May 2021 and September 2022. They regularly charge that it cannot defend the 
country and rebuild its armed forces after mishandling the disastrous 2020 war 
in Karabakh. Pashinian and his political allies deny this.
Opposition Lawmaker Freed For Now
        • Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Opposition deputy Mher Sahakian (left) is released from custody, Aprl 
3, 2023.
An opposition member of Armenia’s parliament was released from custody on Monday 
three days after punching a pro-government colleague during an ill-tempered 
meeting of a National Assembly committee.
It remained unclear whether prosecutors will move to indict Mher Sahakian of the 
main opposition Hayastan alliance.
The violence reportedly followed a shouting match between Vladimir Vartanian, 
the chairman of the parliament committee on legal affairs, and Sahakian and 
other opposition lawmakers. Vartanian, who represents the ruling Civil Contract 
party, suffered an injury to his left eyebrow and was taken to hospital before 
police detained Sahakian.
Sahakian received a hero’s welcome from other Hayastan deputies and activists as 
he walked out of a police detention center in Yerevan. Echoing their statements 
made on Friday, he claimed that he hit Vartanian because the latter stood up and 
walked menacingly towards him.
“I resorted to necessary self-defense,” Sahakian told journalists.
Vartanian insisted, however, that he did not charge at Sahakian. He again blamed 
opposition members of the panel for bitter exchanges that marred the meeting 
held behind the closed doors.
Under Armenian law, law-enforcement authorities cannot hold a parliament deputy 
in detention without a charge and without the National Assembly’s permission for 
more than three days. The Office of the Prosecutor-General did not say whether 
it will ask the parliament controlled by Civil Contract to lift Sahakian’s 
immunity from prosecution.
“If the investigating body reckons that I crossed that line [of self-defense] 
I’m ready to answer,” Sahakian said in this regard.
The ruling party’s parliamentary group has strongly condemned the 35-year-old 
oppositionist’s actions, saying that he must be held accountable. Some of its 
members themselves assaulted opposition colleagues on the parliament floor in 
2021. They were not prosecuted for that.
Armenian Parliament Speaker Accused Of Spitting At Heckler
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen SImonian chairs a session of the National 
Assembly, November 24, 2022.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian has caused another scandal after allegedly 
spitting on Sunday at an opposition activist who branded him a “traitor.”
Garen Megerdichian, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation 
(Dashnaktsutyun) party, shouted the insult at Simonian as the latter visited a 
popular pedestrian area in downtown Yerevan.
Megerdichian claimed that Simonian responded by ordering his bodyguards to grab 
his hands before swearing at him and spitting in his face. He said he was then 
briefly detained by police.
Simonian did not deny spitting at the Canadian-born activist highly critical of 
Armenia’s government when he commented on the incident later on Sunday. In a 
Facebook post, he said that Megerdichian already publicly insulted him earlier 
this year.
“I ignored him during the first incident a month ago. During the second one, I 
countered his right to free speech and insults with my opinion about him and my 
freedom,” he wrote, adding that anyone offending the Armenian authorities will 
get a “legal response.”
Speaking to 1in.am on Monday, Simonian claimed that his bodyguards caught the 
heckler “so that he doesn’t attack me.” He refused to speak to other media 
outlets.
Opposition lawmakers condemned the speaker and demanded criminal proceedings 
against him, saying that his alleged behavior amounted to “hooliganism,” a 
criminal offense in Armenia.
Ishkhan Saghatelian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader, shrugged off Simonian’s remark 
that he is a “Yerevan guy” from whom oppositionists “will always run away.”
“As far as I know, good fellows of Yerevan and real men in general don’t behave 
like that,” he told journalists.
Saghatelian also defended Megerdichian. “This is a fight between patriots and 
people who say we can live without a homeland,” he said.
Two other opposition lawmakers visited Megerdichian in police custody and warned 
law-enforcement authorities against prosecuting him.
As of Monday evening the authorities did not say whether they will launch a 
formal investigation into the incident.
Simonian, who is a senior member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil 
Contract party, is no stranger to controversy. In 2020 he brawled with an 
outspoken anti-government activist who insulted him on a street in Yerevan.
In late 2021, Simonian angered the families of Armenian soldiers taken prisoner 
during the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. He was caught on camera labeling many of 
those POWs as deserters who “laid down their weapons and ran away” during 
fighting with Azerbaijani forces.
A few weeks later, he reportedly told journalists that they must stand up every 
time they see him in the parliament building. Simonian imposed unprecedented 
restrictions on press coverage of the National Assembly immediately after 
becoming its speaker in August 2021.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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