Friday, April 9, 2021
Pashinian, Kocharian Urged To Drop Out Of Parliamentary Race
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Edmon Marukian, the leader of the opposition Bright Armenia Party,
March 22, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and former President Robert Kocharian must not
participate in snap parliamentary elections expected in June, the leader of a
major opposition party said on Friday.
Edmon Marukian said they both must “leave and free the political arena” because
Armenia needs to a follow a “third path” represented by his Bright Armenia Party
(LHK), one of the two opposition groups represented in the current parliament.
“Armenia has no right to remain stuck: this is what Pashinian’s reelection would
mean. Nor does Armenia have a right to move backwards,” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Marukian dismissed suggestions that the political forces led by Pashinian and
Kocharian will be the main election contenders.
“Most voters now reject both the current and former authorities,” he claimed. He
said his meetings with many citizens have exposed a “deep disappointment” with
Pashinian’s government.
Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government lawmaker and Pashinian’s brother-in-law,
shrugged off the LHK leader’s comments.
“Edmon Marukian cannot decide who must leave the arena,” he said. “Armenia’s
citizens will decide that through the elections.”
Kocharian reaffirmed this week his plans to participate in the elections. He
said he will lead an electoral alliance comprising at least two opposition
parties.
The ex-president, who had ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, predicted earlier this
year a “bipolar” parliamentary race, implying that he will be Pashinian’s main
challenger.
For his part, Pashinian referred to his principal political foes late last month
as “wolves seeking to come to power.”
Government Withdraws Controversial Bill On Rights Defender
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia -- Human right ombudsman Arman Tatoyan speaks during parliamentary
hearings in Yerevan, April 5, 2019.
In an apparent response to international criticism, the government has withdrawn
a bill that would allow it to cut state funding to Armenia’s office of the human
rights ombudsman.
An Armenian law bans any year-on-year reduction in the amount of budgetary funds
allocated to the office as well as a number of other public bodies. The bill
drafted by the Ministry of Finance and approved by Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s cabinet as recently as on March 11 would abolish this clause.
The ministry has given budgetary and economic reasons for the proposed measure
condemned by Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan and opposition parties as politically
motivated.
Tatoyan has insisted that the bill runs counter to international standards and
would effectively end his office’s independence from the government and the
pro-government majority in the National Assembly.
“If the bill had been passed and led to a change in our current status, it would
have meant an immediate drop in the country’s democracy indicators,” Tatoyan
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday.
He suggested that the government decided not to push the bill through the
Armenian parliament because of concerns voiced by the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission and
Western human rights groups such as Freedom House.
“This new bill, if passed, will further constrain the independence of the [Human
Rights Defender’s Office] and impede its mandate to protect human rights in
Armenia,” Freedom House said in a March 12 statement.
The government has so far declined to comment on its decision to withdraw the
proposed change. It is not clear whether the government plans to amend the bill
or scrap it altogether.
Tatoyan has regularly criticized the current and former Armenian governments’
actions and policies since taking over as ombudsman in 2016. While the
U.S.-educated lawyer has rarely faced public criticism from the current
government, Pashinian’s supporters have attacked him on social media in recent
months.
Russian, Turkish Leaders Again Discuss Karabakh
• Heghine Buniatian
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks at a screen showing Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan as he attends a foundation-laying ceremony for the third reactor
of the Akkuyu nuclear plant in Turkey, via a video link in Moscow, March 10,
2021.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip
Erdogan discussed the conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions in a phone
call on Friday.
The Kremlin reported that Erdogan praised Russia’s efforts to “further stabilize
the situation” in the Karabakh conflict zone and ensure the implementation of
Russian-brokered agreements that stopped last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
In a statement, it said Putin briefed Erdogan on his latest conversations with
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The Russian and Turkish leaders agreed on the “need to step up work on restoring
the transport infrastructure in the South Caucasus,” added the statement.
Putin met with Pashinian in Moscow on Wednesday and spoke with Aliyev by phone
the following day. The Russian president reportedly discussed with them the
implementation of the ceasefire agreement brokered by him on November 9.
The agreement calls, among other things, for the restoration of transport links
between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Putin, Pashinian and Aliyev decided to set up a
trilateral task force for that purpose when they held a trilateral meeting in
Moscow in January.
Later in January, Russia and Turkey opened a joint center in Azerbaijan to
monitor the Karabakh ceasefire. The center operates independently from around
2,000 Russian peacekeepers deployed in Karabakh.
During the six-week war, Turkey supported the Azerbaijan with weapons and expert
advice. It also reportedly recruited thousands of Syrian mercenaries and sent
them to fight in Karabakh on the Azerbaijani side.
Baku Accused Of Breaking Deal On Armenian Prisoner Release
• Naira Nalbandian
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
• Satenik Hayrapetian
ARMENIA -- An Armenian captive, wearing a face mask to curb the spread of
COVID-19, is escorted off a Russian military plane upon arrival at a military
airport outside Yerevan, December 14, 2020
Armenian officials accused Azerbaijan on Friday of reneging on a pledge to free
Armenian soldiers and civilians remaining in Azerbaijani captivity five months
after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian government representatives said late on Thursday that a new group of
Armenian prisoners is about to be set free and repatriated. However, none of
them was on board a Russian plane that arrived from Baku to Yerevan shortly
after midnight.
“Unfortunately, the return of prisoners is again delayed,” the office of Deputy
Prime Minister Tigran Avinian said in a statement posted on Facebook. It said
that Azerbaijan is continuing to violate one of the key terms of the truce
agreement.
“Negotiations mediated by Russia are continuing and we hope that the Azerbaijani
side will at last respect the statement signed by it and implement the
humanitarian agreement,” added the statement.
Andranik Kocharian, a senior lawmaker representing the ruling My Step bloc, said
that Baku pledged to free more Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian
captives as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest conversations
with Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders.
Putin met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Moscow on Wednesday and had a
phone call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev the following day.
Kocharian claimed that Lieutenant-General Rustam Muradov, the commander of
Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in Karabakh, travelled to Baku to “escort
the prisoners back to Armenia.”
Muradov, who reportedly arrived in Yerevan on board the Russian plane early on
Friday, categorically denied that, however. “It was an ordinary working visit,”
he told the Armenian newspaper “Hraparak.”
Armenia -- Lieutenant-General Rustam Muradov, the commander of Russian
peacekeepering forces stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh, meets with Armenian Defense
Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian, Yerevan, February 10, 2021.
Asked to comment on the Armenian officials’ statements about the impending
release of prisoners, Muradov said: “They are misleading the population.”
The Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement, brokered by Putin on November 9, calls for
the unconditional release of all prisoners held by the conflicting sides. The
Russian peacekeepers arranged several prisoner swaps in December and early this
year.
A total of 69 Armenian POWs and civilians have been freed to date. More than 100
others are believed to remain in Azerbaijani captivity.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov again claimed on Thursday that all
of them were captured after the truce accord took effect on November 10 and are
therefore not covered by it. He said Baku regards them as “terrorists” and does
not intend to release them.
More than 50 of the remaining POWs were captured in early December when the
Azerbaijani army occupied the last two Armenian-controlled villages in
Karabakh’s southern Hadrut district. They all are army reservists who were
drafted from Armenia’s Shirak province during the six-week war.
Scores of their angry relatives blocked on Friday morning the roads leading to
Shirak to demand an urgent meeting with Pashinian. Many of them gathered at
Yerevan’s Erebuni airport late on Thursday after hearing reports about the
impending release of their loved ones.
“No official at the airport bothered to answer our questions,” one of the
protesters told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“We are waiting to see when the country’s leader, our commander-in-chief, will
agree to meet us. We won’t go to Yerevan anymore,” he said.
Armenia - Relatives of Armenian POWs block a roads in Shirak province, April 9,
2021
Relatives of other POWs and missing soldiers blockaded, meanwhile, the Defense
Ministry compound in Yerevan. Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian and chief
of the Armenian army’s General Staff, Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian, offered
to receive their representatives.
The protesters rejected the offer, demanding that Harutiunian and Davtian emerge
from the compound and talk to them on the spot.
They tried at one point to break into the compound but were stopped by riot
police. The chief of the Armenian police, Vahe Davtian, arrived at the scene to
talk to the protesters.
Pashinian’s government also faced strong criticism from the opposition. Edmon
Marukian, the leader of the Bright Armenia Party (LHK), accused the government
of botching the prisoner release in a failed attempt to score political points.
“This is yet another result of their inept and sloppy behavior which was coupled
with their attempt to use this tragedy for a publicity stunt,” Marukian told
reporters.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Author: Babken Chilingarian
Armenia’s Karen Avagyan crowned Europe’s Weightlifting Champion
Public Radio of Armenia
April 8 2021
Obit: Charles H. DeMirjian, veteran, marketing whiz, and proud Armenian American, dies at 95
Philadelphia Inquirer
April 7 2021
Obituaries
He was one of the brains behind successful marketing campaigns for Rain Dance car care products, Corian countertops, and Stainmaster flooring.
Charles H. DeMirjian, 95, of Media, a veteran of World War II, a marketing innovator at DuPont, and an engaged Armenian American, died Monday, March 8, of heart disease at home.
A creative artist with a mind attuned to leadership and merchandising, Mr. DeMirjian spent 37 years at E.I. du Pont de Nemours Co., and rose to marketing and communications director for the consumer products division.
Beginning in 1954 until his retirement in 1991, Mr. DeMirjian worked on, among other things, marketing strategy, package design, advertising, and media communications for many of the company’s most notable successes.
He worked on popular campaigns for Rain Dance car care products, Corian countertops, and Stainmaster flooring, and won three CLIO Awards for excellence in international advertising, design, and communication.
A museum patron his whole life, Mr. DeMirjian created the Charles DeMirjian Collection at the Hagley Museum in Wilmington after he retired. It features examples of DuPont packaging, advertising, and other items that commemorate the company’s marketing history from the early 1940s through the 1980s.
“He was creative and energetic, and he saw people for who they were,” said his daughter, Susan.
Mr. DeMirjian was born Aug. 20, 1925, in Philadelphia to Minas and Keghany Demirjian, Armenian immigrants and survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and he helped his parents navigate their new lives in America. His father was a metalsmith in Turkey, and Mr. DeMirjian, who later capitalized the M in his name for easier pronunciation, inherited his father’s skill and appreciation of craft and art.
He graduated from West Philadelphia High School in 1943, enlisted in the Marine Corps on his 18th birthday, and served in the Pacific theater until he was honorably discharged in 1946. Wanting to work as an artist, he used the GI Bill to study at the University of the Arts, and the Charles Morris Price School of Advertising and Journalism.
His first advertising job was with Sunray Drugs in 1950. He joined DuPont in 1954, and described his job this way: “Transposing business objectives into advertising and merchandising strategies.”
A member of the American Management Association and the New York Design Council, he loved working with other designers, illustrators, and writers, and often made time to visit museums or catch a jazz concert when he was in New York or elsewhere.
He courted Diane Zobian, a fellow member at the Armenian Martyrs’ Congregational Church in Havertown, and found they had common passions for family, art, music, and literature. They went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and worked a crossword puzzle on their first date.
They married in 1952, had daughter Susan and sons Timothy and Michael and lived in West Philadelphia, Swarthmore, and Media. Mr. DeMirjian was “demonstrably affectionate (to her delight!)” with his wife, his family wrote in a tribute.
Mr. DeMirjian and his wife, Diane, married in 1952. He liked that she was smart and had attended Philadelphia High School for Girls.Courtesy of the family
He also liked to help the kids with their writing and art projects, and he took them to many museums and concerts. A tenor, he sang in the church choir and joined the Philadelphia Chamber Chorus after he retired.
Mr. DeMirjian was an avid photographer and recycler. At church, he was a Sunday school teacher, chair of several boards and committees, youth director, and deacon. The church’s Charles DeMirjian Music Fund was established in 2004 in recognition of his musical leadership.
In the wider community, he served, among other roles, on the boards of the Armenian Missionary Association of America and the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America. He wrote the words on the commemorative plaque on the Meher statue that stands outside the Art Museum.
In 1997, Mr. DeMirjian described his philosophy on practically everything like this: “You brought a challenge to fruition, and when it worked, it was enormously satisfying.”
In addition to his wife and children, Mr. DeMirjian is survived by four grandchildren, one great-grandchild, one sister, and other relatives. One sister, two stepsisters and two stepbrothers died earlier.
A service is to be held later.
Donations in his name may be made to the Armenian Martyrs’ Congregational Church, 100 North Edmonds Ave., Havertown, Pa. 19083.
Mr. DeMirjian was active and popular as a youth leader at his church, often taking his students to museums and historical sites.Courtesy of the family
Armenia’s defense and high-tech ministers discuss military industry-related issues
17:29, 6 April, 2021
YEREVAN, APRIL 6, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan today held a meeting with Minister of High Technological Industry Hayk Chobanyan, the defense ministry told Armenpress.
At the meeting the two ministers discussed a number of issues relating to the military industry field and outlined the activity directions aimed at the efficient and purposeful development of the sector.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Newspaper: Armenia PM instructs to assemble "dossiers" against teammates who will be left out of their electoral list
News.am, Armenia
April 3 2021
09:29, 03.04.2021
YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: Along with compiling the electoral list [for the upcoming snap parliamentary elections], [PM] Nikol Pashinyan, according to some information, has instructed [his chief of staff] Arsen Torosyan and [Deputy PM] Tigran Avinyan to assemble dossiers—through law enforcement agencies—on all the [ruling] My Step [bloc] members who are going to be left out of the list. And their number will be incomparably large.
We were told that there already are “thick files” on some [My Step] MPs; for example, of suspicious episodes in the process of acquiring property.
The meaning of this process is that no one [in the My Step] would even think about rebelling against Pashinyan and not working in the elections.
Homeland Salvation Movement unblocks Demirchyan Street in central Yerevan
13:58, 3 April, 2021
YEREVAN, APRIL 3, ARMENPRESS. The Homeland Salvation Movement is unblocking the Demirchyan Street in central Yerevan where they had set up tents and were protesting against the Pashinyan administration. Now, the movement says it is shifting the “main actions of struggle” to various towns and cities across the country.
In a statement, the Homeland Salvation Movement called on citizens to join them and actively participate in their gatherings.
It said that they’ll hold a meeting on April 6 at 14:00 with local residents in the town of Sevan.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
President Sarkissian extends condolences over passing of legendary commander
17:50, 31 March, 2021
YEREVAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian issued a condolence message on the occasion of the demise of legendary commander, Major-General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan.
ARMENPRESS reports, the message runs as follows,
‘’I feel an unspeakable pain. Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, the legendary Komandos, is no longer with us.
The death of Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan is not just a loss of a military man, excellent commander. He was a military figure who had a great contribution to the creation of our army and our military achievements, trying to be useful for the fatherland until the end of his life.
We will still need the Komandos-style knowledge of the military art, his criteria for morality, experience and skills, which he brilliantly used during the 1st Artsakh war.
His life is a guide for military courage, military education and military-patriotic upbringing, for example, how to live, how to serve the fatherland, how to remain faithful to one’s specialization and principles, how to get devoted to Artsakh and struggle for its freedom, how not to betray Shushi and Artsakh…
I offer my condolences to the family members, relatives and comrades-in-arms of Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan’’.
Down with Nagorno-Karabakh – long live Karabakh
EurasiaNet.org
April 2 2021
Armenpress: Armenian, Russian FMs discuss unblocking region’s infrastructures
Armenian, Russian FMs discuss unblocking region’s infrastructures
20:44, 1 April, 2021
YEREVAN, APRIL 1, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov met with his Armenian counterpart Ara Ayvazian in Moscow in the sidelines of the session of the Foreign Ministers of the CIS member states. ARMENPRESS reports, citing the press service of the Russian MFA, the sides discussed the implementation process of the agreements reached on November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021 reached between the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan.
A special reference was made to the humanitarian rapid response issues in Nagorno Karabakh and unblocking of the economic and transport infrastructures of the region.
The Ministers exchanged views on the cooperation between Armenia and Russia, as well as referred to a number of international issues of bilateral interest.
Determining Borders by Soviet-Era Maps ‘Impermissible,’ Says Tatoyan
The Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan borders
An announcement that Armenia and Azerbaijan border positions are temporarily being determined using Soviet-era military maps has raised red flags with Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, who said Tuesday that such methods cannot be permitted.
Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday that until comprehensive discussions reach fruition, Soviet-era military maps from 1975 and 1976 are being used for border demarcation purposes, a practice, which thus far has cause heightened tensions in Armenia’s border regions impacted by this approach.
As a consequence of the November 9 agreement, more than 190 settlements in Artsakh and adjacent seven regions came under the control of Azerbaijan. As a result, the borders of the Syunik Province in the south of Armenia (including Kapan, its administrative center) appeared to be in close proximity to the new borders of Azerbaijan, drawn up during the Soviet times.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Tatoyan illustrated through a series of arguments why the determination of state borders using Soviet-era maps or GPS data is impermissible, warning that this practice will undermine the rights and interests of the population in border regions.
Below are the six points presented by Tatotoyan on this critically important matter.
1. Justifying Azerbaijani deployments in the vicinity of Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces and on the Syunik roads by relianceon Soviet Armenia or Azerbaijan borders of the 1970s, 1980s, 1940s (for example, 1975-1976, 1985, 1942), or other maps and GPS data is impermissible. As sovereign states, there has never been a demarcation or delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and furthermore no international document on this matters has been signed.
2. What happened in the Soviet Union was not determination of state borders between two sovereign states—Armenia and Azerbaijan—but rather administrative division of borders between two subjects within one sovereign state, the USSR. Soviet maps are just that. Case in point is why the 1920s maps are not referenced in connection with the border process these days.
3. The process of determining the state borders of the Republic of Armenia cannot be cross-referenced with the administrative-territorial division. These are phenomena which are completely different from one another;
4. The borders and maps of the First Republic of Armenia cannot be ignored in the process of determining state borders of the Republic of Armenia today. This requires the imperative of a real guarantee of the rights of citizens, population of the Republic of Armenia;
5. Today’s deployments by Azerbaijan have been carried out in gross and massive violations of international, including human rights standards, under the real threat of war and use of force and in the context of Azerbaijani open genocidal policy;
6. The process of determining state borders may not undermine normal life of border population or cause rights and legitimate interests of the citizen of the state, including the right to life and physical safety, the safe living of children, the cultivation of one’s own land, and the full enjoyment of water resources, pastures and grasslands; These points are among the key factors guaranteeing rights and normal life of Armenian citizens and its border population.