Author: Antranik Varosian

                                        Tuesday, July 5, 2022
EU Vows Continued Support For Armenia-Azerbaijan Dialogue
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel and Azerbaijani President 
Ilham Aliyev meet in Brussels, May 22, 2022.
The European Union will continue to mediate peace talks between Armenia and 
Azerbaijan, European Council President Charles Michel said after speaking with 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by phone on Monday.
They discussed “all issues on the Brussels agenda for the Azerbaijan-Armenia 
dialogue,” Michel said, alluding to Aliyev’s face-to-face talks with Armenian 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian which he hosted in December, April and May.
“We will continue support in addressing humanitarian, connectivity and border 
issues as well as a future peace agreement,” the head of the EU’s main 
decision-making body added on Twitter.
Michel reported major progress on all these fronts after his last trilateral 
meeting with Aliyev and Pashinian. He said they agreed to meet in Brussels again 
in July or August.
The top EU official did not comment on the next Armenian-Azerbaijani summit 
after his call with Aliyev. The Azerbaijani president’s office also did not 
mention it in its readout of the conversation.
In recent weeks, Baku and Yerevan have accused each other of not honoring their 
understandings brokered by the EU and Russia. Aliyev has implicitly threatened 
to resort to military action, saying that Yerevan is reluctant to demarcate the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border and open a land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to 
its Nakhichevan exclave.
Pashinian charged last week that Azerbaijan is torpedoing peace talks to prepare 
the ground for another war with Armenia. He said Baku cancelled at the last 
minute a fresh meeting of senior Armenian and Azerbaijani officials which was 
due to take place in Brussels on June 27.
Russia has denounced the EU’s mediation efforts, saying that they are part of 
the West’s attempts to hijack Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks and use the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the standoff over Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry warned the 27-nation bloc in May against playing 
“geopolitical games” in the conflict zone. A senior EU diplomat insisted 
afterwards that Brussels is “not engaged in any kind of competition” with Moscow.
Armenian Prosecutors Seek Internet Content Regulation
        • Robert Zargarian
Armenia - Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian speaks at an official ceremony in 
Yerevan, July 1, 2022.
Armenia’s outgoing Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian has called on the government 
to consider regulating content posted online, saying that Armenian-language 
Internet platforms are increasingly used for hate speech, drug trade and other 
illegal purposes.
Davtian’s office revealed his written appeal to the government in a statement 
released on Monday. It complained that the country has no legislation or 
government agency to tackle what it described as a growing spread of illicit 
online content.
“In the absence of such control, information platforms continue the unfettered 
spread of such content, distorting and abusing the democratic principle of 
freedom of speech,” read the statement. “By contrast, in a number of countries, 
including Germany, Russia and Georgia, the security of information distributed 
through online resources is regulated by legal acts.”
The Office of the Prosecutor-General gave the example of Russia’s state 
communications regulator Roskomnadzor which can restrict or block access to 
websites refusing to remove unwanted content. It also argued that a German 
government agency is empowered to slap massive fines on Internet platforms 
disseminating illegal material such as racing or other hate speech.
Some Armenian civil rights activists expressed concern over Davtian’s 
initiative, saying that it could lead to unjustified curbs on free speech and 
Armenians’ access to the Internet, which has been practically unrestricted to 
date.
Shushan Doydoyan, who leads the Yerevan-based Center for Freedom of Information, 
said Davtian’s reference to Roskomnadzor is particularly worrying because the 
Russian agency is notorious for media censorship.
“In my view, such initiatives are not the prosecutors’ business,” Doydoyan told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
According to the prosecutors’ statement, Davtian stressed that the proposed 
regulation of online content would not restrict Armenians’ “constitutional right 
to freely express opinions.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government has not yet publicly reacted to the 
appeal from the chief prosecutor who will complete his six-year term in office 
on September 15.
In a joint declaration issued after their talks held outside Moscow in April, 
Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to step up 
Russian-Armenian “cooperation on international information security.”
“The parties expressed concern about the growing trend of using modern 
information and communication technologies to commit illegal and harmful 
actions, interfere in the internal affairs of states and undermine their 
sovereignty,” said the declaration.
Armenia Must Remain Parliamentary Republic, Says Pashinian
        • Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - The building of the prime minister's office in Yerevan, March 6, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Tuesday reaffirmed plans to enact 
constitutional changes but again spoke out against restoring a presidential 
system of government in Armenia.
“While considering it obvious that the Constitution needs to be constantly 
developed and improved, I must emphasize my belief that Armenia should maintain 
the parliamentary system of government because the events of 2021 proved that 
this system provides more effective mechanisms for crisis management and the 
people’s … decisive participation in the political debate,” Pashinian said in a 
written address to the nation.
The statement was issued on the occasion of Constitution Day, a public holiday 
that marks the anniversary of the adoption of Armenia’s first post-Soviet 
constitution in a disputed referendum held on July 5, 1995.
The constitution gave the president of the republic sweeping powers that were 
slightly curtailed in 2005. It was radically amended in 2015 as then President 
Serzh Sarkisian controversially engineered the country’s transition to a 
parliamentary system of government.
Armenia - Armenians vote in a referendum on switching to parliamentary system of 
government, December 6, 2015.
Pashinian called for fresh constitutional changes last year, saying that his 
administration will consider restoring the presidential system. But he stated 
afterwards that Armenia should remain a parliamentary republic.
This raised more questions about the purpose of a constitutional reform 
“council” set up later in 2021. It consists of state officials, pro-government 
politicians and representatives of non-governmental organizations. The council 
in turn formed a commission comprising five legal scholars tasked with drafting 
constitutional amendments.
The commission coordinator, Davit Hakobian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that 
he and most of his colleagues are also against changing the country’s government 
system.
Hakobian said the ad hoc body is working instead on creating a more effective 
system of constitutional checks and balances. He suggested that it could propose 
giving more powers to the current, largely ceremonial president and even the 
parliamentary opposition.
The two opposition alliances represented in the Armenian parliament were offered 
to appoint two other members of the council. But they refused, saying that the 
purpose of the planned amendments is to help Pashinian cling to power.
Serzh Sarkisian faced similar accusations when he pushed through the sweeping 
constitutional changes in 2015. Sarkisian’s attempt to remain in power as prime 
minister after completing his second and final presidential term in 2018 sparked 
mass protests that brought Pashinian to power.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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