Author: Christine Harutyunian

                                        Friday, 
Armenian Church Rejects Religious Objections To Vaccines
Armenia - Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic 
Church, leads a Christmas Mass at Saint Gregory the Illuminator’s Cathedral in 
Yerevan, January 6, 2021.
The Armenian Apostolic Church on Friday dismissed religious reasons given by its 
believers refusing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Meeting in Echmiadzin, the church’s Supreme Spiritual Council headed by 
Catholicos Garegin II expressed “deep concern” over record coronavirus cases and 
deaths registered in Armenia in recent weeks. It stressed in that regard that 
“vaccination does not pose a spiritual danger,” according to a statement 
released by Garegin’s office.
“It was deemed important that in the current conditions of the pandemic 
individual freedom be strictly combined with social responsibility for the sake 
of not endangering one’s own and others’ lives,” said the statement.
The council, which comprises not only high-ranking clerics but also well-known 
laymen, said at the same time that health authorities must “prevent the spread 
of contradictory information regarding the benefits and consequences of 
vaccination.” It did not elaborate.
Armenia -- A priest wears a face mask at the Echmiadzin-based Mother See of the 
Armenian Apostolic Church, June 11, 2020.
Armenian has the lowest vaccination rate in the region and Europe, with only 
about 10 percent of its population having been inoculated against COVID-19 so 
far. Widespread vaccine hesitancy in the country is driven in part by religious 
objections voiced by some members of the Armenian Apostolic Church and religious 
minorities.
An Armenian parish priest sparked controversy late last month after openly 
questioning the efficacy of coronavirus vaccines during a sermon delivered in a 
village church just outside Yerevan. Father Grigor Hovannisian claimed that God 
sent the virus to the world as punishment for its sins.
The church’s Echmiadzin-based Mother See disapproved of the priest’s remarks and 
urged Armenians to follow doctors’ recommendations.
“Our spiritual servants must be very careful in their statements because they 
have followers in their churches and can cause a great deal of damage with their 
emotional talk,” its chief spokesman, Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanian, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service on October 25.
Mirzakhanian said that Garegin and many other clergymen have been vaccinated and 
that he is also going to follow their example.
Yerevan Downplays Closure Of Key Road
        • Artak Khulian
        • Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - A truck stranded on a newly reconstructed road in Syunik province, 
.
Armenia’s political leadership continued to downplay on Friday the effective 
closure of an Azerbaijani-controlled section of a strategic highway connecting 
the country to neighboring Iran.
Azerbaijan gained control over the 21-kilometer section last December following 
an Armenian troop withdrawal from contested areas along Armenia’s Syunik 
province which was controversially ordered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Pashinian’s government on Thursday banned Armenian vehicles from driving along 
it, saying that Azerbaijani authorities have introduced passport and customs 
checks for them. It said they should use a newly reconstructed alternative road 
bypassing the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Iranian truck drivers interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service complained that 
the road is too narrow and tortuous for their heavy vehicles and prolongs their 
travel time in Syunik. They said they have to use it in order to avoid paying 
Azerbaijani customs officials $130 per trip.
“Big trucks don’t get any help [from Armenian authorities] on this road in case 
of having problems,” said one of the drivers.
An RFE/RL crew witnessed several trucks that visibly had trouble moving along 
the new road connecting Syunik’s two largest towns, Kapan and Goris. One of them 
nearly flipped over.
Armenia - Deputy parliament speaker Ruben Rubinian,October 5, 2021.
In Yerevan, Ruben Rubinian, a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament and 
senior member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, admitted that the Azerbaijani 
border controls have “caused some difficulties” for Syunik residents and other 
travellers. But he insisted that the alternative road is passable for all types 
of vehicles.
Rubinian also said that none of the three Armenian villages close to the 
Azerbaijani-controlled section of the old Goris-Kapan road has been cut off from 
the rest of the country.
The villages are currently connected with other parts of Syunik through dirt 
roads. The government has pledged to quickly refurbish and pave them. In the 
meantime, the village chiefs say that their communities can only be accessed by 
off-road vehicles.
Reaching one of those villages, Bardzravan, proved quite problematic. Local 
residents said they have been effectively deprived of transport links.
“My husband is sick in bed,” complained one woman. “We can’t find a car to 
transport him [to hospital.]”
“As soon as it starts snowing here we’ll be completely cut off,” said another 
villager. “Everything is a big problem in this village. We are in deadlock.”
Armenia - A road leading to Bardzravan village, .
Armenian border guards deployed in the area did not allow RFE/RL journalists to 
visit the two other isolated villages, Vorotan and Shurnukh, saying that they 
must obtain permission from the National Security Service.
Echoing Pashinian’s statements, Rubinian asserted that Baku imposed the border 
checks because of Yerevan’s refusal to agree to a special transport corridor 
that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via the portion of 
Syunik bordering Iran. The Azerbaijani side could only transport goods through 
Armenian territory under transit procedures adopted worldwide, he said.
“All roads passing through Armenia and Azerbaijan must be … under the full 
control of Armenia and Azerbaijan respectively,” Rubinian told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again claimed on Friday, however, that Baku 
will secure a permanent transport “corridor” for Nakhichevan. He said it will 
unite all Turkic states and connect them to Europe.
Armenia Sets New Record For Daily COVID-19 Deaths
Armenia -- A healthcare worker clad in protective gear looks after COVID-19 
patients at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.
Armenia registered on Friday a new record number of deaths from the coronavirus 
in the last 24 hours as it continued to grapple with high infection rates.
The Ministry of Health said COVID-19 killed 70 more people. The ministry also 
reported the deaths of eight other infected people which it said were primarily 
caused by other diseases.
The total number of coronavirus-related deaths officially confirmed in the 
country of about 3 million thus rose to 8,305. More than 1,000 Armenians died in 
October which saw a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.
Health Minister Anahit Avanesian warned late last month that Armenian hospitals 
treating COVID-19 patients have practically run out of vacant beds. She also 
said that the rising death toll is also the result of the Delta variant of the 
virus prevalent in Armenia.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian again made clear last week that his government 
has no plans to impose lockdown restrictions and will concentrate instead on 
getting people to wear masks in public and to be vaccinated.
According to the Ministry of Health, only around 10 percent of Armenia’s 
population was fully vaccinated as of November 7.
The government reopened schools on Monday following a two-week autumn break 
extended due to the epidemiological situation. Armenian universities are 
expected to reopen their doors to students on November 15. They reverted to 
online classes on October 26.
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.
 

                                        Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Senior U.S. Official Visits Armenia
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian greets U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary 
of State Erika Olson at the start of their talks in Yerevan, November 3, 2021.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met with a visiting senior official from the U.S. 
State Department on Wednesday for talks that focused on the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict.
Erika Olson, the newly appointed deputy assistant secretary of state for 
Southern Europe and the Caucasus, arrived in Yerevan on Tuesday on the first leg 
of her tour of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The State Department said she 
will “promote regional cooperation and discuss bilateral issues.”
Olson was also due to participate in Yerevan in an annual meeting of the U.S. 
ambassadors to the three South Caucasus states joined by Andrew Schofer, the 
U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, and a senior official from the U.S. 
Agency for International Development. The diplomats accompanied her during her 
talks with Pashinian.
An Armenian government statement on the meeting said Pashinian discussed with 
the U.S. officials “processes taking place in the South Caucasus,” prospects for 
a Karabakh settlement and the Minsk Group’s peace efforts.
It said he also briefed them on Russian-led efforts to forge transport links 
between Armenia and Azerbaijan and facilitate a demarcation of their volatile 
border.
According to the statement, Olson reaffirmed Washington’s readiness to 
contribute to a “comprehensive” solution of the Karabakh conflict and help to 
resolve “humanitarian issues” such as the release of Armenian prisoners still 
held by Azerbaijan.
The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, has repeatedly said that the 
conflict remains unresolved after last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani war. “We do 
not see the status of Nagorno-Karabakh as having been resolved,” Tracy insisted 
on September 13.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned those remarks. It echoed President 
Ilham Aliyev’s claims that Azerbaijan’s victory in the six-week war put an end 
to the conflict.
Olson met on Tuesday with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Deputy Prime 
Minister Mher Grigorian. The latter is a co-chairman of a 
Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force dealing with practical modalities of 
opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to cargo shipments.
The government statement said that “democratic reforms” in Armenia were also on 
the agenda of Pashinian’s talks with Olson. It said the prime minister praised 
the United States for continuing to support those reforms.
Armenia Hopes For Iran Sanctions Relief
Iran - Foreignt Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan (left) of Armenia and Hossein 
Amir-Abdolahian of Iran meet in Tehran, October 4, 2021
Armenia expressed hope on Wednesday that negotiations to revive Iran’s 2015 
nuclear deal with world powers will resume soon and result in the lifting of 
U.S. economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that would give a major boost to economic 
ties between the two neighboring states.
Armenian-Iranian relations are based on “mutual trust” and both Yerevan and 
Tehran are committed to deepening them in “economic, political and other 
spheres,” Mirzoyan said in an interview with the Paris-based magazine Nouvelles 
d’Armenie publicized by the Armenian Foreign Ministry.
Former President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the landmark 
agreement with Iran in 2018 and reimposed crippling punitive measures, despite 
Tehran’s compliance with the deal that curbed its nuclear activities in exchange 
for sanctions relief. In response, Tehran has gradually breached limits imposed 
by the pact, including on uranium enrichment.
U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the deal if Iran returns to full 
compliance. But six rounds of indirect negotiations in Vienna that began in 
April failed to reach agreement and the talks were put on hold after Iran's 
presidential election in June that brought anti-Western hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi 
to power.
AUSTRIA -- European External Action Service (EEAS) Deputy Secretary General 
Enrique Mora and Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi wait 
for the start of talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in Vienna, June 
20, 2021.
Tehran is expected this week to give a precise date for the resumption of talks 
with the world powers, scheduled for the end of this month, according to top 
Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri. On October 30, the leaders of the United 
States, Germany, France, and Britain called on Iran to return to nuclear talks 
and resume compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord to prevent a "dangerous 
escalation."
The U.S. sanctions have slowed or prevented the implementation of 
Armenian-Iranian energy projects, notably the ongoing construction by an Iranian 
firm of a third power transmission line connecting Armenia to Iran. They have 
also have had a negative impact on broader commercial ties between the two 
countries.
Meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Tajikistan on September 17, Raisi 
said an Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation 
should become “more active.” The Iranian president proposed that Yerevan and 
Tehran set up “specialized working groups” that would deal with obstacles to 
their joint projects.
Body Of Late Armenian Politician Still Not Repatriated
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia - Former Interior Minster Vano Siradeghian.
Nearly three weeks after his death, the body of Vano Siradeghian, a prominent 
politician and former interior minister who fled Armenia over two decades ago, 
has still not been repatriated and buried.
Siradeghian was one of the leaders of a popular movement for Armenia’s 
unification with Nagorno-Karabakh who came to power in 1990. He became one of 
the newly independent country’s most powerful men when serving as interior 
minister in the administration of its first President Levon Ter-Petrosian from 
1992-1996.
One year after Ter-Petrosian resigned in 1998, Siradeghian was charged with 
ordering a string of contract killings. He strongly denied ordering those 
killings, saying that the charges were fabricated as part of then President 
Robert Kocharian’s efforts to neutralize his political foes.
Siradeghian fled Armenia in 2000 ahead of the Armenian parliament’s decision to 
allow law-enforcement authorities to arrest him. Although the authorities had 
Siradeghian placed on Interpol’s wanted list, his whereabouts always remained 
unknown to the public.
The death of the 74-year-old Siradeghian was announced by his wife and son on 
October 16. They did not specify its cause or reveal his last place of residence.
The Armenian government decided afterwards to form a commission that will 
organize his funeral. The commission is headed by the chief of Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian’s staff, Arayik Harutiunian, and comprises senior government 
officials, a deputy chief of the Armenian police as well as Siradeghian’s son 
Khachatur.
The latter told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that his father’s body has still not 
been brought back to the country. He did not give any reasons for the apparent 
delay or possible dates for Siradeghian’s funeral.
Harutiunian declined to give any information when he spoke with journalists on 
Wednesday.
Siradeghian lived abroad under a new and false name, according to Khachatur 
Sukiasian, a wealthy businessman and pro-government parliamentarian who has long 
been close to the ex-minister.
This is why, Sukiasian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service last month, repatriating 
his body is now fraught with some “difficulties.” “There are technical and legal 
issues,” he said.
Throughout his exile Siradeghian continued to enjoy the strong backing of 
Ter-Petrosian and members of the ex-president’s entourage. Ter-Petrosian’s 
Armenian National Congress (HAK) party has urged the Armenian authorities to 
allow Siradeghian’s family to bury him at the National Pantheon in Yerevan.
Pashinian Ally Set To Join Armenian Company Board
        • Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian (left) and Defense Minister Davit 
Tonoyan talk before a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, April 9, 2020.
The Armenian government said on Wednesday that it could appoint a political ally 
of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to the governing board of Armenia’s largest 
mining company in which it gained a minority stake last month.
The company, Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC), changed hands following 
a government crackdown on its management and key shareholders who openly 
challenged Pashinian’s administration.
Russia’s GeoProMining group announced on October 1 that it has acquired 60 
percent of ZCMC and immediately “granted” a quarter of that stake to the 
government. The latter therefore owns 15 percent of the mining giant located in 
Kajaran, a small town in southeastern Syunik province.
GeoProMining gave no clear reason for the lavish donation. Later in October, 
another Russian company, which holds a minority share in ZCMC, challenged the 
legality of the takeover in an Armenian court.
Subsequent reports in the Armenian press said that Tigran Avinian, a senior 
member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party and a former deputy prime minister, 
could soon become ZCMC’s new executive director.
Pashinian’s chief of staff, Arayik Harutiunian, effectively confirmed the 
reporters when he spoke with journalists on Wednesday. He said Avinian deserves 
the job “because he is a member of the political team and because we need people 
who can best represent Armenia’s interests in that company.”
In a written “clarification” issued shortly afterwards, the government said, 
however, that it is considering appointing Avinian as a member of ZCMC’s board 
of directors, rather than its CEO.
Armenia - A view of ore-processing facilities of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum 
Combine in Kajaran, August 12, 2019.
Avinian, 32, actively participated in the 2018 mass protests that brought 
Pashinian to power. He was appointed as deputy prime minister shortly after the 
“velvet revolution.”
Avinian resigned in August this year, saying that he objected to the ruling 
party’s list of candidates for the snap parliamentary elections held in June. He 
said he felt that it may be at odds with the “separation of business and 
politics” championed by Pashinian’s political team. He appeared to refer to two 
wealthy businessmen who were elected to the parliament on the Civil Contract 
ticket.
Avinian reportedly coordinated Civil Contract’s campaign in local elections held 
in several communities of Syunik on October 17.
Pashinian’s party was defeated in the most important of those communities 
comprising the towns of Goris, Meghri and Agarak. Their mayors affiliated with 
the main opposition Hayastan bloc were arrested in July on what they consider 
politically motivated charges.
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.