Author: Arpi Talalian

                                        Friday, 
Armenian Parliament Rejects Pro-Church Bills
        • Tatev Danielian
Armenia - Catholicos Garegin II (C) celebrates a Christmas mass at the 
Echmiadzin cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church, 6 January 2015.
Deputies from Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) walked out of the 
Armenian parliament on Friday after failing to push through bills meant to 
protect the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church against physical 
threats.
The HHK drafted the two bills after Catholicos Garegin (Karekin) II faced calls 
for his resignation following this spring’s “velvet revolution” in Armenia.
An obscure Armenian group launched a series of protests against Garegin in 
June, accusing him of corruption and close ties with the country’s former 
government. Dozens of its members partly occupied his Echmiadzin headquarters 
in July. Some of them also physically confronted Garegin when he subsequently 
travelled to a medieval monastery in the southeastern Vayots Dzor province.
Police waited for several days before forcing the protesters out of the Mother 
See of the Armenian Church. This prompted strong criticism from the HHK and 
other conservative critics of the newly elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. 
They accused the government of showing contempt for “traditional Armenian 
values.”
One of the HHK bills would ban any demonstrations inside church premises. 
Pashinian’s cabinet spoke out against the bill last month. Only 43 members of 
the 105-seat National Assembly voted for it.
Armenia - Deputies from the Republican Party of Armenia attend a parliament 
session in Yerevan, 10 September 2018.
Citing this summer’s incidents, HHK lawmakers also drafted separate legal 
amendments that would obligate the state to provide Garegin with bodyguards on 
a permanent basis. Some of them seemed to imply that the summer protests 
against him were provoked by other, non-traditional religious groups active in 
the country.
“We want to protect the Catholicos against sexual and religious minorities that 
are financed from abroad and fight against the Armenian statehood and Armenian 
faith,” the HHK’s Hakob Hakobian said during a heated parliament debate.
“Our church is an inseparable part of our national security. Anyone who is 
against that church is also against national security,” declared Samvel 
Nikoyan, another deputy representing the former ruling party.
Lawmakers allied to Pashinian rejected the bill. One of them, Lena Nazarian, 
said there is no need for such legislation because the government will protect 
the Catholicos whenever he feels that his security is at risk.
Another pro-Pashinian deputy, Sasun Mikaelian, argued against “protecting the 
Catholicos against the people.” Mikaelian said the HHK itself is responsible 
for Garegin’s perceived unpopularity because the latter had grown too close to 
the previous government.
“Against whom is the prime minister protected by his security detail? Against 
the people?” countered the HHK’s Margarit Yesayan.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) also backed the HHK 
initiative, saying that not only Garegin but also the church as a whole needs 
stronger state protection. “I don’t think it’s right to put the Catholicos in a 
situation where he himself has to ask for protection,” said Armen Rustamian, 
Dashnaktsutyun’s parliamentary leader.
Only 28 mainly Republican deputies voted for the bill. Their colleagues 
representing Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party, the second largest 
force in the outgoing parliament, abstained.
“This is the most disgraceful vote in independent Armenia’s history,” charged 
Eduard Sharmazanov, a deputy parliament speaker affiliated with the HHK.
“There may be 28 of us today. There will be 2,800 of us tomorrow and 2.8 
million the day after,” Sharmazanov said before he and several other HHK 
parliamentarians walked out in protest.
Armenia - Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II meets with the acting Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian in the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin, 14Nov,2018
The Armenian Church’s official position on the proposed legislation is not 
known. Its chief spokesman could not be reached for comment on Friday.
The HHK bills were debated two days after Pashinian visited the Echmiadzin seat 
of the church and met with Garegin. The premier acknowledged the church’s 
“special significance” for many Armenians. Few other details of their meeting 
were made public.
Pashinian had strongly criticized Garegin in the past.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is one of the world’s oldest Christian 
denominations to which the vast majority of Armenians nominally belong. 
Armenia’s constitution recognizes its “exceptional mission” in the country’s 
history and social life.
U.S. Sanctions On Iran ‘Explained’ To Armenian Government, Banks
        • Emil Danielyan
U.S. -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and U.S. Treasury Secretary 
Steven Mnuchin announce sanctions against Iran during a news conference at the 
Foreign Press Center in Washington, November 5, 2018
A team of U.S. officials has visited Armenia to brief its government and 
private sector on the implications of economic sanctions against neighboring 
Iran that have been re-imposed by President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said the “subject matter experts” from the U.S. 
departments of state and treasury met with senior Armenian government officials 
on Thursday and Friday as part of Washington’s efforts to “explain U.S. 
sanctions policy against Iran to governments around the world.”
“They also met with the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Armenia as well 
as with private banks, members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia, 
and Armenian academics and think tank experts,” read an embassy statement.
“The delegation emphasized U.S. efforts to change the Iranian regime’s malign 
behavior through maximum economic and diplomatic pressure, while also outlining 
areas for cooperation with partners like Armenia,” it added.
Armenian government bodies issued no statements on the discussions with the 
visiting U.S. officials.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) meets with U.S. National Security 
Adviser John Bolton in Yerevan, 25 October 2018.
The discussions came less than a month after U.S. National Security Adviser 
John Bolton’s trip to Armenia. The renewed U.S. sanctions against Tehran were a 
major theme of his talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other Armenian 
leaders.
Bolton said he told them that the Trump administration will enforce the 
sanctions against Iran “very vigorously” and that the Armenian-Iranian border 
is therefore “going to be a significant issue.”
“Obviously, we don’t want to cause damage to our friends in the process,” 
Bolton told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “So I think conversation between the 
government of Armenia and the United States is going to be very important.”
Speaking in the Armenian parliament a few days later, Pashinian said he made it 
clear to Bolton that his government will maintain Armenia’s “special” 
relationship with Iran. “We respect the national interests of any country, but 
the Republic of Armenia has its own national and state interests which do not 
always coincide with the interests and ideas of other countries,” stressed 
Pashinian.
Bolton tweeted after his visit that Armenia is an “important friend” of the 
United States.
With Armenia’s borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey closed due to the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iran as well as Georgia serve as the sole conduits 
for the landlocked country’s trade with the outside world.
U.S. - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian meet in New York, 25 September 2018.
Armenia also imports Iranian natural gas and other fuel. The volume of the gas 
supplies should rise sharply after the ongoing construction of a third power 
transmission line connecting the two countries is completed next year.
Accordingly, both the current and former Armenian governments have supported a 
2015 multilateral accord on Iran’s nuclear program that led to the lifting of 
the U.S. sanctions. Trump unilaterally pulled out of that deal earlier year.
Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian commented on the move’s possible impact on 
the Armenian-Iranian relationship in an interview with the Russian TASS news 
agency published on Friday.
“For us, this is a highly sensitive issue because Iran is an important partner 
of Armenia with which we have … a bilateral agenda extremely important to 
Armenia,” said Mnatsakanian.
U.S. officials have yet to publicly say which Armenian-Iranian commercial 
operations, if any, could be affected by the renewed sanctions.
According to official Armenian statistics, Armenian-Iranian trade stood at $263 
million last year. Pashinian and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani discussed 
ways of expanding it when they met in New York in September.
Tsarukian’s Indicted Bodyguard Also Running For Parliament
        • Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Businessman Gagik Tsarukian and his chief bodyguard Eduard Babayan 
(R) at an election campaign rally in Hrazdan, 11 April 2012.
The chief bodyguard of Gagik Tsarukian prosecuted on assault charges is among 
the candidates of the tycoon’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) running in the 
December 9 parliamentary elections.
Eduard Babayan was arrested in early July hours after a 50-year-old man in 
Yerevan was hospitalized with serious injuries. The latter claimed to have been 
beaten up at a compound of Armenia’s National Olympic Committee headed by 
Tsarukian. He said he was hit by Tsarukian before being repeatedly kicked and 
punched by Babayan and another person.
Both the tycoon and Babayan strongly denied assaulting the man. The burly 
bodyguard was charged even though the alleged victim later retracted his 
incriminating testimony.
Babayan was freed on bail in August. The BHK leadership subsequently decided to 
include him on its list of more than 170 election candidates.
A senior BHK representative, Vahe Enfiajian, defended the decision on Friday, 
insisting that Babayan did not beat up anyone.
“There are no bad figures on our list, there are only good figures there,” 
Enfiajian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “As for who will enter 
the [new] parliament, it’s up to our people to decide.”
Asked whether the BHK considers the bodyguard a political figure, he said: 
“Every citizen of Armenia has a right to elect and get elected, and whether or 
not they should engage in further political activities depends on [voters’ 
choice.]”
Armenian media have repeatedly implicated Tsarukian’s bodyguards and Babayan in 
particular in violence, including against opponents of the country’s previous 
governments, in the past. The tycoon always denied those claims.
The BHK boasts the second largest group in the outgoing Armenian parliament. It 
controlled five ministerial posts in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
government until recently.
Armenia Insists On Keeping Top CSTO Post
        • Heghine Buniatian
Armenia - Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian, 21 May 2018.
A representative of Armenia must run the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty 
Organization (CSTO) until 2020, Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian insisted 
on Friday.
Russia and five other ex-Soviet states making up the alliance agreed in 2015 
that their representatives will take turns to serve as the organization’s 
secretary generals on a rotating basis. They appointed Armenia’s Yuri 
Khachaturov to that position in 2017.
The new Armenian government cut shot Khachaturov’s three-year tour of duty 
after he was controversially charged in July in connection with the 2008 
post-election violence in Yerevan. It hoped that another Armenian official will 
be allowed to replace Khachaturov.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted on that at a CSTO summit held in 
Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on November 8. Belarusian President Alexander 
Lukashenko as well as Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev demanded, however, 
that a representative of Belarus be named as new head of the CSTO.
The CSTO leaders said they will again try to reach consensus on the issue when 
they meet again in Saint Petersburg, Russia on December 6.
In an interview with the Russian TASS agency, Mnatsakanian said this does not 
mean that another Armenian official cannot become new head of the CSTO. He said 
Armenia must keep the vacant post as it has a “good cadre potential for that.”
“The organization comprises six equal members and they make decisions by 
consensus,” stressed the minister.
Lukashenko reiterated his demands when he met on Monday with a senior diplomat 
from Azerbaijan, a country which is at war with Armenia and not part of the 
CSTO. He noted that another Russian-led bloc, the Eurasian Economic Union, is 
also run by an Armenian.
“This is a very heavy burden for a country which is going through a period of 
transition,” added Lukashenko. “Can Armenia carry that burden?”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry denounced Lukashenko’s comments.
 
Press Review
Lragir.am says concerns about negative consequences of the Armenian 
government’s failure to amend the Electoral Code are proving misplaced with the 
looming start of campaigning for the December 9 parliamentary elections. The 
online publication argues that the existing electoral system no longer bodes 
well for vote buying and other illegal practices because the new government has 
the political will to counter them.
“Zhoghovurd” reports in this regard that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has 
made clear that his government will bear political responsibility for the 
proper conduct of the upcoming elections. “Pashinian said in this context that 
any use of administrative resources must be ruled out,” writes the paper. It 
says this statement is “very important” as it sends a strong message to 
election contenders and his loyalists in particular.
“There are already reports that in some electoral districts in the regions 
rating-based candidates [running on an individual basis] have started competing 
with each other with dishonest methods in order to win as many votes as 
possible,” explains “Zhoghovurd.” “And now after the prime minister’s statement 
some people really need to sober up. Or else, we will have to conclude that 
some representatives of the new government are using old methods of work.”
“Zhamanak” reacts to the Court of Cassation’s decision on Thursday to overturn 
a lower court’s decision to free former President Robert Kocharian from 
pre-trial custody. The paper says that the ruling precludes any “shadowy” 
involvement of Kocharian in the December 9 elections. Kocharian will thus be 
held in check in the run-up to the snap polls, it says.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
 
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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