Thursday,
Prominent Armenian Oppositionist Arrested
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - The deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, Armen
Ashotian, speaks at a press conference, Yerevan, November 16, 2022.
Armen Ashotian, a prominent opposition politician, was arrested on Thursday
eight months after being indicted on what he and his Republican Party of Armenia
(HHK) call trumped-up charges.
Ashotian, 47, was an influential figure during HHK leader and former President
Serzh Sarkisian’s rule, serving as education minister from 2012-2016 and
subsequently heading the Armenian parliament’s foreign relations committee. He
has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian since the 2018 “velvet
revolution” that toppled Sarkisian.
Ashotian was charged last November with abuse of power and money laundering in
connection with his past chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of Yerevan’s
Mkhitar Heratsi Medical University. He was not taken into custody at the time
and was only banned from leaving the country.
The accusations strongly denied by Ashotian stem from a number of property
acquisitions carried out by the university administration on his alleged orders.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee claims that those deals caused the state-run
university substantial financial damage.
The law-enforcement agency also charged Ashotian with “waste” of public funds as
it detained him on Thursday morning. It promptly asked a court in Yerevan to
allow his pre-trial arrest.
In a statement issued later in the day, the Investigative Committee claimed that
Ashotian must be held in detention because he illegally tried to gain access to
testimony given by several other suspects in the case. It gave no details of the
alleged interference in the investigation.
The HHK, of which Ashotian is a deputy chairman, voiced full support for him and
condemned his arrest as an act of “political persecution.” In a statement, the
former ruling party’s governing body said Armenia’s political leadership ordered
it to “divert the public's attention from internal and external problems
worsening day by day.” Representatives of other opposition groups added their
voice to the condemnation.
Ashotian’s lawyer, Tigran Atanesian, described the accusations brought against
his client as “ridiculous” when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“Money was not lost,” Atanesian said. “Money was converted into real estate,
which now belongs to the Medical University and is worth twice as much as it was
during the acquisition.”
The lawyer also said that Ashotian has not been questioned by investigators for
almost eight months.
Jailed Election Winner Remains Defiant During ‘Political’ Trial
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian (left) greets supporters during
his trial in Yerevan, .
A former mayor of Vanadzor arrested in December 2021 after defeating Armenia’s
ruling party in a local election continued to strongly deny corruption charges
leveled against him during his yearlong trial on Thursday.
The victory of an opposition bloc led by Mamikon Aslanian was the most serious
of setbacks suffered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party in
local polls held in 36 communities across the country on December 5, 2021.
Aslanian, who had governed Armenia’s third largest city for five years, was
poised to regain the post of Vanadzor mayor lost in October 2021. But he was
arrested on December 15, 2021, two days before the inaugural session of the new
city council empowered to elect the mayor. He was charged with illegally
privatizing municipal land during his tenure.
The 49-year-old ex-mayor rejected the charges as politically motivated both
before and during his trial that began in June 2022.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in the courtroom, Aslanian insisted that
he was arrested “so that I don’t take over as mayor, which should have happened
on December 17.”
“I was ‘coincidentally’ arrested on December 15, even though the criminal case
was opened on September 10,” he said.
Also standing trial are two of Aslanian’s former subordinates. But unlike the
ex-mayor, they have not been held in detention.
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. They have accused the prime
minister of effectively overturning the local election results.
Vanadzor’s new municipal council could have elected Aslanian as mayor despite
his arrest. However, Armenia’s Administrative Council banned the council from
holding sessions, citing an appeal against the election results lodged by
another pro-government party.
In April 2022, Pashinian’s party swiftly pushed through the Armenian parliament
a bill that empowered the prime minister to name acting heads of communities
whose councils fail to elect mayors within 20 days after local elections.
Pashinian appointed the following month a man with a criminal record, Arkadi
Peleshian, as Vanadzor’s acting mayor.
Peleshian served as deputy mayor from 2017-2021. An obscure party led by him won
less than 15 percent of the vote in December 2021.
Russia Again Slams EU Monitoring Mission In Armenia
Armenia - European Union monitors patrol Armenia's border with Azerbaijan.
Russia has accused European Union monitors deployed along Armenia’s border with
Azerbaijan of failing to reduce tensions there and again claimed that the main
purpose of their mission is to drive Moscow out of the region.
“There is no ‘added value’ from the dubious activity of EU ‘experts’ in the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border area. Moreover, they are incapable of ensuring
security and compliance with the ceasefire agreements reached with the decisive
role of Russian mediation,” Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman, said in written comments released late on Wednesday.
Zakharova reacted to the impending opening of three more EU monitoring “hubs” in
the Armenian towns of Kapan, Ijevan and Yeghegnadzor close to the Azerbaijani
border. She said the EU is thus keen to “strengthen its presence in Armenia”
with the ultimate aim of “squeezing Russia out of the Transcaucasus.”
The EU mission countered on Thursday that it always planned to “operate from 6
hubs with maximum 103 international staff.” “We aim to reach this full
operability soon,” tweeted the mission, which has had three such “hubs” until
now.
The EU’s special envoy to the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, voiced support for
the mission, calling it an “important element” of EU efforts to facilitate
regional peace.
The EU deployed the 100 or so monitors in Armenia in February. The Armenian
government said the mission requested by it will reduce the risk of a serious
escalation in the conflict zone. Its critics point out that ceasefire violations
at various sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border have continued unabated
since then.
The EU monitors’ assessment of those incidents is not known. Foreign Minister
Ararat Mirzoyan said in March that Yerevan has no access to their confidential
reports sent to Brussels.
Armenia, Azerbaijan Report More Truce Violations
A view of an Azerbaijani checkpoint set up at the entry of the Lachin corridor,
Nagorno-Karabakh's only land link with Armenia, by a bridge across the Hakari
river on May 2, 2023.
One Armenian and one Azerbaijani border guards were wounded on Thursday in
continuing ceasefire violations reported from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Azerbaijan’s Border Guard Service accused Armenian troops of opening fire at its
checkpoint controversially set up last month in the Lachin corridor connecting
Armenia to Karabakh. It said that one of the servicemen manning the checkpoint
was wounded.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said, meanwhile, that its border
guards stopped a group of Azerbaijani servicemen from advancing into Armenian
territory from the checkpoint and placing an Azerbaijani flag there.
Later in the morning, fighting also erupted at a nearby section of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Armenian soldiers and border guards deployed there
came under Azerbaijani mortar and small arms fire, the NSS said, adding that one
of them was wounded early in the afternoon. Baku accused the Armenian side of
provoking that skirmish.
Armenia - An Azeri military post just outside the Armenian border village of
Tegh, April 4, 2023/
In a statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned the Armenian
“provocation” near the Lachin checkpoint, saying that Armenia is trying to
thwart its “successful functioning.” It also claimed that Yerevan is “not
interested” in the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
Shortly after that incident, authorities in Karabakh reported that the
Azerbaijan completely halted the movement through the Lachin corridor of
humanitarian convoys organized by Russian peacekeepers and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They said Red Cross vehicles carrying 25
Karabakh patients and their family members were turned away from the checkpoint
and had to return to Stepanakert.
Baku set up the checkpoint last month in what Yerevan and Stepanakert regard as
a gross violation of a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 war in
Karabakh.
Armenia - A construction site in the border village of Yersakh, .
The latest skirmishes highlight tensions along the border between the two South
Caucasus countries and the Karabakh “line of contact” which have been rising
despite major progress made during recent Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
On Wednesday, two Indian workers building a new metallurgical plant in the
Armenian border village of Yeraskh were seriously wounded in what the Armenian
military described as cross-border fire from nearby Azerbaijani army positions.
“We are deeply concerned that two civilian employees of a U.S.-affiliated
company in Armenia sustained injuries from gunfire from the direction of
Azerbaijan,” the U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, tweeted
afterwards.
“We reiterate our call for restraint along the borders as the parties work
toward a durable and balanced peace,” Miller wrote.
Several dozen foreign diplomats, including the Yerevan-based ambassadors of
France, Germany and China, visited Yeraskh on Thursday.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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