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    Categories: 2023

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 05/31/2023

                                        Wednesday, 


Pashinian Sees ‘External Threats’ To Democracy In Armenia

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses a conference in Yerevan, May 
31, 2023.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian spoke on Wednesday of “external threats” facing 
democracy in Armenia which he claims to have established during his rule.

“I want to point out that there is no internal threat to democracy in Armenia … 
All potential threats to democracy in Armenia are external, and these threats 
are, of course, well-known and visible to everyone,” he said during a “forum for 
democracy” organized in Yerevan by a local civic group and the U.S. watchdog 
Freedom House.

Pashinian did not name foreign countries which he thinks pose such threats. He 
pointed instead to the “thickest question” preoccupying the domestic public: “Is 
democracy also capable of ensuring security?”

“We do believe in a positive answer to this question but it has yet to be 
proved,” he told the conference held in the conspicuous absence of Armenian 
opposition leaders and other well-known critics of Pashinian.

The latter accuse the prime minister of tolerating no dissent, jailing his 
political opponents and curbing judicial independence.

Armenia - Security officers remove opposition deputy Gegham Manukian from the 
parliament podium, Օctober 26, 2021

Pashinian insisted that democracy is “Armenia’s main brand and our conviction 
and strategy.” He argued, in particular, that elections held on his watch were 
not marred by reports of serious fraud.

According to Freedom House’s latest Nations in Transit survey of former 
Communist countries released last week, Armenia remains a “hybrid regime” and 
has yet to become an established or even “semi-consolidated” democracy five 
years after the “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power.

Still, Freedom House concluded that Armenia “continued to make democratic gains 
in 2022.”

“The potential for deterioration remains, however, as evidenced by arrests of 
opposition candidates before local elections last August,” cautioned its annual 
report. “With its dependence on authoritarian Russia for military protection 
against Azerbaijan, its openly hostile and equally authoritarian neighbor, 
Armenia’s democratic project faces uniquely powerful headwinds.”




Armenian Gold Mine Closed 'Due To Azeri Gunfire’


Armenia - Gold mines at Sotk.


The Russian owner of Armenia’s largest gold mine has indicated that it will not 
restart open-pit operations there because of continuing cross-border fire from 
nearby Azerbaijani army positions.

The Sotk mine, which employs more than 700 people and is located on the volatile 
border with Azerbaijan, has stood idle since an upsurge in skirmishes between 
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in mid-April. Its employees say that they have 
repeatedly come under fire and been evacuated after trying to return to work.

Fighting at that section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border escalated on May 
11-12, involving exchanges of artillery fire and resulting in several casualties 
from both sides.

“The situation of constant danger for the employees of the enterprise persists 
for more than a month,” read a statement released by the mine operator, GPM 
Gold, late on Tuesday. “As a consequence, further work of the Sotk open pit has 
become impossible due to circumstances beyond the Company's control.”

The subsidiary of Russia’s GeoProMining group added that it has therefore 
decided to “stop the operation of the open-pit mine” and put its workers on 
unpaid leave.

Hovannes Harutiunian, an Armenian deputy minister of local government and 
infrastructures, predicted GPM Gold’s decision earlier this month. Harutiunian 
told lawmakers in Yerevan that the company plans to switch to underground mining 
due to the periodical border clashes and Azerbaijani gunfire targeting its 
open-pit facilities.

The GPM Gold statement said nothing about that, however. Nor did it shed light 
on the uncertain future of GeoProMining’s gold smelter located in Ararat, a town 
50 kilometers south of Yerevan.

The company already lost control over a large part of the mountainous area’s 
gold deposits following the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and the resulting 
Armenian withdrawal from the Kelbajar district bordering Sotk. This appears to 
explain why total taxes paid by it plummeted from 20.8 billion drams ($53 
million) in 2021 to just 3.2 billion drams in 2022.




U.S. Hails Aliyev’s ‘Amnesty’ Offer To Karabakh Leaders


U.S. - The State Department building in Washington, January 26, 2017.


The United States has welcomed Azerbaijani President Aliyev’s stated readiness 
to grant “amnesty” to Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders if they resign 
and “surrender” to Baku.

Aliyev made the offer on Sunday while again telling the Karabakh Armenians to 
unconditionally accept Azerbaijani rule and threatening to take military action 
against them as well as Armenia.

“Everyone knows that we can carry out any [military] operation in that territory 
[Karabakh,]” he warned. “That is why the [Karabakh] parliament must be 
dissolved, the element who calls himself the president [of Karabakh] must 
surrender and all ministers, deputies and other officials must resign. Only then 
can there be talk of amnesty.”

The Armenian government and Karabakh’s leadership condemned the threats. The 
Armenian Foreign Ministry said Aliyev not only threatened the Karabakh Armenians 
with “ethnic cleansing” but is also “preparing the ground for another aggressive 
action against Nagorno-Karabakh’s population.”

“We recently expressed appreciation for Prime Minister Pashinian’s commitment to 
peace, and we welcome President Aliyev’s recent remarks on consideration of 
amnesty,” the U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in a 
statement issued late on Tuesday.

Miller at the same time stressed: “Aggressive rhetoric can only perpetuate the 
violence of the past; constructive dialogue -- both public and private -- can 
create peace, opportunity, and hope.”

The Armenian Foreign Ministry expressed dismay at the U.S. reaction on 
Wednesday, insisting that Aliyev’s remarks “contained clear threats” to 
Armenia’s territorial integrity and the security of Karabakh’s population. 
Washington “should react appropriately to such statements,” said a ministry 
spokeswoman.

Aliyev made the threats ahead of his fresh meeting Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian scheduled for Thursday. The two leaders will meet together with 
European Union chief Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German 
Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the sidelines of a European summit in Moldova.

Aliyev and Pashinian apparently made significant progress towards an 
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty during their May 14 meeting in Brussels hosted 
by Michel. Pashinian confirmed afterwards that he is ready to recognize 
Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.

Pashinian’s stance was hailed by a senior U.S. official but condemned by the 
Armenian opposition and Karabakh’s leadership. Karabakh’s parliament said on May 
22 that any peace deal ignoring the Karabakh Armenians’ right to 
self-determination would be “null and void” for Stepanakert.

The U.S. had backed that right through peace plans jointly drafted with Russia 
and France before the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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