Monday, November 8, 2021
Kocharian’s Bloc Announces New Push For Regime Change
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian speaks at a rally held by his
opposition Hayastan alliance in Yerevan, November 8, 2021.
Former President Robert Kocharian pledged to topple Armenia’s current government
“through barricades or elections” on Monday as his opposition alliance launched
what it called a “nationwide resistance” campaign with a rally held in Yerevan.
The rally attended by thousands of supporters of the Hayastan (Armenia) alliance
was held on the eve of the first anniversary of a Russian-brokered ceasefire
that stopped the war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Kocharian and his political allies again blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war that left at least 3,800 Armenian
soldiers dead. They also reiterated their allegations that Pashinian is intent
on making more unilateral concessions to Azerbaijan.
Kocharian singled out Yerevan’s readiness to embark on a demarcation of
Armenia’s long and contested border with Azerbaijan where tensions are still
running high one year after the Karabakh war. He claimed that such a process
would amount to Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh
and a narrow land corridor connecting the disputed territory to Armenia.
The ex-president also accused Pashinian of breaking his promises to improve
living standards, eliminate corruption and create a level playing field for all
businesses. Poverty in the country has actually increased under the current
government, he said.
“We are going to fight,” Kocharian told the crowd rallying in Yerevan’s Liberty
Square. “Rest assured that we will oust them through barricades or elections or
in other ways. And I will be with standing with you, leading you on those
barricades.”
Armenia - Supporters of former President Robert Kocharian attend an opposition
rally in Yerevan, November 8, 2021.
Kocharian and other speakers at the rally gave no details of their stated push
for regime change. Nor did they announce dates for their next demonstrations.
A Hayastan declaration read out at the end of the rally said the “resistance”
campaign could “last for a week or months” before achieving its key goal.
“We are starting to get organized,” it said. “Our presence in the National
Assembly will serve to strengthen the resistance. As soon as conditions are
ripe, we will move our struggle only to the streets and squares.”
Kocharian, who had ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, cautioned on October 4 that the
opposition must “generate” greater popular anger at the government before trying
to topple it with street protests. “The biggest problem is that a considerable
part of our people has come to terms with this situation and voted for these
ones,” he said, referring to Pashinian’s political team.
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party won Armenia’s June 20 parliamentary elections
with almost 54 percent of the vote. Hayastan came in a distant second with 21
percent, according to official election results rejected by it as fraudulent.
Another Karabakh Civilian Killed In Truce Violation
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Russian APC and soldiers of the peacekeeping force (L)
patrol in front of an Azerbaijan's army checkpoint near the demarcation line
outside the town of Shushi (Susa), November 26, 2020
One ethnic Armenian resident of Nagorno-Karabakh was killed and three others
wounded by Azerbaijani forces on Monday, authorities in Stepanakert said.
According to them, the four men came under fire while repairing water pipes just
outside the Azerbaijani-controlled town of Shushi (Shusha). The National
Security Service said it is investigating the incident together with other
law-enforcement agencies.
Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, reported separately that
the 22-year-old victim was a utility worker. Stepanian described his killing as
further proof of Azerbaijan’s “Armenophobic, genocidal and fascist behavior.”
The young man is the second Karabakh civilian killed since a Russian-brokered
ceasefire stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10, 2020. A
55-year-old Karabakh Armenian farmer was shot dead by Azerbaijani troops outside
the northern Karabakh town of Martakert last month.
The latest shooting reportedly occurred at a section of the sole road currently
connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Traffic through that road section was suspended
as a result, according to Stepanian.
The Azerbaijani authorities did not immediately comment on the incident.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev visited Shushi earlier on Monday to mark the
first anniversary of the town’s capture by the Azerbaijani army during the
six-week war. “Armenia will always live with the stigma of a defeated nation,”
Aliyev declared in a speech delivered there.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the “gross violation of the
ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani armed forces” as well as Aliyev’s
“consistent Armenophobic rhetoric.” It said they make mockery of Baku’s offers
to normalize Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
Armenian Schools Reopen Amid COVID-19 Crisis
• Robert Zargarian
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Children at a school in Yerevan, November 8, 2021.
Schools across Armenia reopened on Monday two weeks after the start of an autumn
break that coincided with a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths in the country.
The Armenian government extended the one-week holiday later in October as part
of its efforts to contain the latest wave of infections. The primary, secondary
and high schools were thus effectively closed for the first time since October
2020.
The government last week opted against distance courses and decided to send
schoolchildren back to classes instead despite clearly failing to cut the
coronavirus infection rate.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported a record 62 deaths from COVID-19 on
November 2. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths officially registered
in the country of about 3 million reached 8,037 on Monday.
Almast Avetisian, the principal of Yerevan’s Secondary School No. 197, welcomed
the government’s decision. She said that many of her students were infected with
the coronavirus or seasonal flu in the run-up to the two-week break.
“The children have recuperated during this period and we have very good
attendance today,” Avetisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Her students were also happy to be back at school while admitting that they have
trouble wearing mandatory face masks during the classes.
“We don’t learn as much during distance courses as we do when coming to the
school,” said one schoolgirl.
Health Minister Anahit Avanesian cautioned that schools having major coronavirus
outbreaks will have to switch to online classes.
On October 29, the Ministry of Health allowed children aged 12 and older to get
vaccinated against the coronavirus with their parents’ consent. Only about 50
minors have been inoculated since then, according to Avanesian.
The ministry said in the morning that nearly 264,000 citizens have been fully
vaccinated to date. Avanesian put a brave face on this statistics, arguing that
the pace of vaccinations in Armenia has accelerated significantly over the past
month thanks to administrative measures taken by the government.
Moscow Confirms Plans For Aliyev-Pashinian Talks
• Aza Babayan
RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian attend a joint press conference
following a trilateral meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, January 11, 2021
The Kremlin has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to organize
fresh talks between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan one year after
brokering a ceasefire that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Yes, such a meeting is being prepared, and it is prepared in the format of a
video conference,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency
on Sunday.
Peskov gave no date for the talks. He told journalists on Monday that it is
still not clear when the video conference will likely take place.
Armenia and Azerbaijan did not immediately confirm the announcement. In
televised remarks aired late on Sunday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that
no meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been scheduled for
November 9, which will mark the first anniversary of the ceasefire.
An Armenian media outlet reported late last month that during the upcoming talks
Aliyev and Pashinian will sign two Russian-drafted documents announcing the
start of the demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the opening of
transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Pashinian met in Yerevan on Friday with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei
Overchuk, a co-chair of a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force dealing
cross-border cargo traffic. Overchuk said that the group has made important
decisions. Armenia and Azerbaijan will “retain sovereignty over roads passing
through their territory,” he stressed.
In a statement issued later on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry likewise
said the working group has reached an agreement to that effect. The ministry put
that in the context of media speculation about the “so-called Zangezur corridor”
that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s Syunik
province.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the truce accord
envisages such a permanent “corridor.” Armenian leaders deny that.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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