Thursday,
Freed Oppositionist’s Brother Quits Armenian Central Bank
Armenia -- The Central Bank building in Yerevan.
A senior official from Armenia’s Central Bank announced his resignation on
Thursday the day after prosecutors refrained from trying to extend the detention
of his brother and opposition figure Avetik Chalabian.
Chalabian was released from prison late on Wednesday more than two months after
being arrested on what he calls trumped-up charges resulting from his political
activities.
Chalabian’s younger brother Ara has until now headed the Central Bank’s
Department of Corporate Services and Development. Armenian news websites claimed
earlier this month that the Central Bank governor, Martin Galstian, has told him
to step down, citing an order from Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
An article subsequently posted on Hetq.am said the brothers’ father made the
same allegation in a private conversation. It said Galstian told Ara Chalabian
that he himself will have to resign if the latter refuses to quit.
The Central Bank’s press service did not confirm or refute those reports when it
was contacted by RFE/RL’s Armenian earlier this week. Pashinian’s office has
declined to comment on them.
Armenia - Central Bank governor Martin Galstian.
Ara Chalabian gave no reasons for his resignation when he announced it on
Facebook.
“Starting today, I am no longer working at the Central Bank of Armenia, where I
have been for quite a time, received and given back a lot,” he wrote. “I
celebrate the freedom in my life and will conquer the world, as one of my good
colleagues likes to say.”
Avetik Chalabian made no explicit mention of his brother’s exit from the bank in
a Facebook post made two hours later. He said only that the Armenian authorities
“will try to continue their campaign against me and members of my family” who
already “have borne the brunt” of it.
Chalabian was set free immediately after the expiry of the maximum period of his
arrest. Prosecutors did not ask a court to extend it.
Chalabian, who leads a small opposition party, was arrested on May 13 on charges
of trying to pay university students to participate in daily anti-government
demonstrations in Yerevan. The 49-year-old rejects the charges as government
retribution for his active participation in the protests aimed at forcing
Pashinian to resign. The prosecutors deny any political motives.
Baku Accused Of Truce Violations In Karabakh, On Armenian Border
• Naira Nalbandian
Nagorno-Karabakh - A house window in the village of Karmir Shuka piereced by
bullets, Juy 28, 2022.
Azerbaijani forces opened fire at two villages in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian
army positions on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan, authorities in Yerevan and
Stepanakert said on Thursday.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry was quick to deny violating the ceasefire
regime and accuse the Armenian side of spreading “disinformation.”
According to Karabakh officials, the Armenian-populated villages of Karmir Shuka
and Taghavard came under “intense” Azerbaijani gunfire that lasted for 20
minutes. None of their residents was injured as a result.
Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, said the small arms fire
damaged a house in Karmir Shuka. He released a photograph of one of its windows
pierced by two bullets.
“There is no gunfire at the moment and the villagers are going about their
business,” a spokesman for the Karabakh interior ministry said, adding that
Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh have been informed about the incident.
A Taghavard resident, Sergei Gevorgian, confirmed the reported shooting. “Nobody
has left the village. We are already used [to such incidents,]” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
It was the first serious armed incident reported in Karabakh since March.
Nagorno Karabakh - A road sign outside the village of Taghavard, March 30, 2022.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry reported, meanwhile, an Azerbaijani truce violation
at one section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Armenian troops guarding the
border section returned fire, it said, adding that none of them was hurt in the
skirmish.
The shootings incidents were reported amid what a senior Armenian lawmaker
described earlier this week as preparations for another meeting of Armenian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held phone calls with both leaders on
Monday. Blinken tweeted afterwards that he sees a “historic opportunity to
achieve peace in the region.”
Tigran Grigorian, an Armenian political analyst, suggested that the reported
truce violations signify the Azerbaijani leadership’s dissatisfaction with the
current state of the peace process. He said Baku may be trying to ratchet up
tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone in a bid to “clinch diplomatic-political
concessions from Armenia.”
UN Official Removes Tweet On Visit To Armenian Genocide Memorial
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid (right) visits the
Armenian genocide memorial in Yerevan, .
UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid has deleted a tweet about his visit
to the Armenian genocide memorial in Yerevan condemned by Turkey.
Shahid, who is also the foreign minister of Maldives, arrived in Armenia on
Tuesday on a three-day trip involving talks with the country’s president,
foreign minister and senior lawmakers.
On Wednesday, he visited the Tsitsernakabert memorial to some 1.5 million
Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks during the First World War. He also
toured the adjacent Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide.
“Laid a wreath at the Memorial to the Victims of Armenian Genocide,” Shahid
tweeted afterwards. “Special thanks to Museum-Institute Director Harutyun
Marutian & Hasmik Martirosian for a tour of the Museum.”
The post was removed several hours later. Shahid on Thursday refused to comment
on that.
Reacting to his tweet, the Turkish Foreign Ministry charged on Wednesday that
Shahid’s trip to Armenia was “exploited with the purpose of exposing one-sided
Armenian claims” about the events of 1915.
“Mr. Shahid, who assumes the Presidency of the UN General Assembly, would have
been expected to act in a fair and impartial manner, to be more careful and
responsible in this regard,” said in a statement.
The Armenian government did not respond to Ankara as of Thursday afternoon.
Shahid met with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan earlier in the day. The two men
also attended and addressed a graduation ceremony held at the Armenian Foreign
Ministry’s Diplomatic School.
The Armenian genocide has been recognized by the governments and/or parliaments
of more than two dozen nations, including France, Germany, Russia and the United
States.
Turkey has for decades denied a premeditated government effort to exterminate
the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian population. The vehement Turkish denials are
dismissed by most scholars outside Turkey.
Vanadzor Election Winner Transferred From Prison To Hospital
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian stands trial, June 10, 2022.
A former Armenian mayor arrested after defeating the ruling Civil Contract in a
local election in Vanadzor last December has been hospitalized following a
reported deterioration of his health.
Mamikon Aslanian, who ran Armenia’s third largest city from 2016-2021, was
transferred from prison to a medical center in Yerevan on Wednesday after what
one of his lawyers described as “drastic fluctuations” of his blood pressure.
“Medical examinations [of his condition] have been going on since yesterday,”
the lawyer, Yervand Varosian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday.
Varosian said his client’s health problems have been aggravated by his
seven-month imprisonment strongly condemned by the Armenian opposition.
An opposition bloc led by Aslanian essentially won a municipal election in
Vanadzor with about 39 percent of the vote. Civil Contract finished second with
25 percent in what was the most serious of setbacks suffered by Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s party in nationwide local polls held on December 5.
Armenia - The building of the Vanadzor municipality, December 13, 2021.
Aslanian was thus well-placed to regain his post. But he was arrested on
December 15, with law-enforcement authorities saying that he illegally
privatized municipal land during his five-year tenure.
The 48-year-old ex-mayor insisted that the charges leveled against him are
politically motivated when he went on trial on June 10.
His lawyers petitioned a Vanadzor judge presiding over the trial to release him
from custody pending a verdict in the case. The judge refused to do that, saying
that Aslanian could pressure witnesses in the case if set free.
Varosian brushed aside the explanation, arguing that the criminal case is based
on purported documentary evidence submitted by prosecutors. “So it doesn’t
really matter what testimony witnesses will or will not give in the court,” he
said.
Armenia - Opposition supporters hold pictures of former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon
Aslanian and other arrested opposition members during a demonstration in
Yerevan, December 17, 2021.
Aslanian’s supporters as well as opposition figures in Yerevan claim that
Pashinian ordered the ex-mayor’s arrest and prosecution to make sure that the
Vanadzor municipality remains under his control. The prime minister, they say,
thus effectively overturned the local election results.
Vanadzor’s new municipal council has still not been able to meet and elect the
city’s new mayor. Armenia’s Administrative Council has banned the council from
holding sessions, citing an appeal against the election results lodged by
another pro-government party, Bright Armenia.
The ban remains in force even though the appeal was rejected by two other courts
earlier this year. Bright Armenia, which fared poorly in the December polls,
appealed to the higher Court of Cassation. The court has still not ruled on the
complaint.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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