Thursday, February 8, 2024
Pashinian Defends His Party Accused Of Shady Campaign Funding
• Shoghik Galstian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a congress of his Civil
Contract party, Yerevan, October 29, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has said that his Civil Contract party operates
transparently in response to a report accusing it of receiving campaign
donations of “dubious origin” ahead of last September’s municipal elections in
Yerevan.
The party claimed to have raised 506.5 million drams ($1.25 million) for its
election campaign from about a thousand donors during a single event organized
in August.
In an extensive article published last week, the investigative publication
Infocom.am revealed that the bulk of that sum was generated by donations ranging
from 1 million to 2.5 million drams, the maximum amount of such contributions
allowed by Armenian law. It said that their nominal donors included presumably
non-rich people linked to senior government officials and businesspeople as well
as ordinary residents of Yerevan who could hardly afford such payments.
When contacted by Infocom reporters, many of those residents claimed to be
unaware of the hefty sums wired to Pashinian’s party on their behalf through a
commercial bank owned by Khachatur Sukiasian, a wealthy businessman and
pro-government lawmaker.
“Their living conditions make us think that they could hardly afford donating
2.5 million drams ($6,200) to the party,” Lucy Manvelian, the main author of the
article, told RFE/RL’s Armenian.
There are similar doubts even in the case of other, more affluent donors. They
include five former officials from the Armenian Ministry of Emergencies. The 2.5
million drams donated by each of them is a sum comparable to their annual
salaries.
Armen Pambukhchian, a senior Civil Contract figure, headed the ministry until
last July. He then managed the ruling party’s Yerevan election campaign.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian greets supporters during an election
campaign rally in Yerevan, September 15, 2023.
Other such donors work for companies belonging to businessmen thought to be on
good terms with Armenia’s current leadership. Among them are eight senior
executives of Yeremian Projects, a company that owns dozens of restaurants as
well as several dairy farms. They too gave Civil Contract 2.5 million drams
each. The company told Infocom that it has nothing to do with those donations.
“Our sources told us that the company’s money, not the personal money of those
individuals, was donated,” said Manvelian.
Pashinian was asked about the alleged campaign finance irregularities during his
government’s question-and-answer session in the parliament on Wednesday. He
declined to explain the donations deemed suspicious by the investigative
journalists while denying any lack of financial transparency within his party.
“Did the investigative reporters obtain that from intelligence services?” the
premier said. “It’s a report based on information taken from the official
websites of Armenian state bodies. Can transparency be any different from that?”
In fact, none of the websites cited by Pashinian contains any information about
campaign donations to his party. Civil Contract for months refused to release
the list of its donors requested by journalists and civic groups. The ruling
party agreed to do so only after the Yerevan-based Center for the Freedom of
Information took it to court in December.
Russia Insists On Mediating Armenia-Azerbaijan Talks
RUSSIA -- Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.
Russia has again urged Armenia to agree to resume Russian-mediated negotiations
with Azerbaijan and stop pinning its hopes on the West.
In televised remarks publicized on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail
Galuzin insisted that there is “no alternative” to Russian mediation of
Armenian-Azerbaijan peace talks.
“It is under the auspices of Russia, at the initiative of President Vladimir
Putin that the foundations of the settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan were
laid,” Galuzin told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
“We hope that they will realize in Yerevan that the implementation of the
trilateral [Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] agreements, rather than efforts to
involve extra-regional powers, notably the U.S. and the European Union, is the
most reliable path to the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization,” he said.
In recent months, Moscow has repeatedly offered to host high-level
Armenian-Azerbaijani talks in an effort to regain the initiative in the
negotiation process. The Russian Foreign Ministry rebuked the Armenian
leadership in December for ignoring these offers. It warned that Yerevan’s
current preference of Western mediation may spell more trouble for the Armenian
people.
The ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said in late January Foreign Minister
Ararat Mirzoyan has again been invited to visit Moscow to discuss a potential
peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Mirzoyan has announced no plans for
such a visit or a trilateral meeting with his Russian and Azerbaijani
counterparts.
Yerevan hoped, at least until now, that an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty
will be brokered by the U.S. and/or the EU.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice cancelled meetings with Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian which the EU planned to host in October. Azerbaijan’s Foreign
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov similarly withdrew from a November meeting with
Mirzoyan in Washington. Baku accused the Western powers of pro-Armenian bias.
Galuzin reiterated Russian claims that the West’s main regional goal is to
“squeeze Russia out of the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement, break up the
existing balance of forces in the South Caucasus and thus create another source
of instability near Russia’s borders.” He also said Moscow is “always ready to
provide a platform for Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations on the peace treaty.”
Russian-Armenian relations have steadily deteriorated since the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, with Yerevan accusing Moscow of not honoring security
commitments to its longtime regional ally. Azerbaijan’s recapture of Karabakh
last September only added to those tensions.
Armenian Minister Blasts ‘Disruptive’ Arrests
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian attends a conference in Yerevan,
February 1, 2024.
Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian complained on Thursday about last week’s arrests
of several of his subordinates, saying that corruption charges brought against
them are baseless and disrupt the work of his ministry and other government
agencies.
Speaking during a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan, he accused law-enforcement
authorities of “punishing people who did not steal” any public funds.
One of Kerobian’s deputies, Ani Ispirian, and several other officials from the
Ministry of Economy were detained in two criminal investigations jointly
conducted by Armenia’s Investigative Committee and National Security Service
(NSS). Most of them, including Ispirian, were moved to house arrest or freed
pending investigation in the following days.
In of those criminal cases, a ministry official is accused of abusing his or her
position to help other individuals receive 238 million drams ($590,000) in state
agribusiness funding in violation of rules set by the ministry. The official was
not charged with bribery or embezzlement, a fact emphasized by Kerobian.
The minister said that law-enforcement authorities have “paralyzed the work of
the entire state system.”
“Our agricultural divisions are now wondering how they should continue working
in order to be sure that their honest work will not be punished in the end,” he
told Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. “That is why I believe that we need to make
a cultural change and decide whether we allow people to make mistakes sometimes.
I am sure, though, that in this case it will turn out that no mistakes were
really made.”
Pashinian responded ambiguously to the unprecedented complaint: “Was money
stolen from the budget or not? … If so, then it’s a different matter. If not,
it’s the kind of mistake which you mentioned.”
Armenia - A fruit orchard in Aragatsotn province, 3Sep2014.
The government grant investigated by the authorities was allocated from a state
fund tasked with helping private entrepreneurs set up intensive fruit orchards
in Armenia. The government has provided about 100 billion drams ($248 million)
in such financial aid since 2018. It decided on Thursday to extend the scheme by
two more years despite the criminal case.
The other case stems from a procurement tender that was organized by the
Ministry of Economy and invalidated by a court last summer. Ministry officials
are accused of illegally disqualifying an information technology company,
Harmonia, to make sure that the tender is won by another, larger firm, Synergy
International Systems, which set a much higher price for its services.
The investigators also arrested last week Synergy’s founder Ashot Hovanesian and
two current and former employees, drawing condemnation from the Armenian Union
of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE). The tech association said that
“unfounded” detentions of “business representatives and other prominent persons”
are turning Armenia into a “risky country” for local and foreign tech
entrepreneurs.
On Tuesday, 64 lawmakers representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party
petitioned prosecutors to release the three suspects from custody. One of the
suspects, Ani Gevorgian, is the sister-in-law of Alen Simonian, the Armenian
parliament speaker and a senior ruling party figure. She remained in custody as
of Thursday afternoon.
Some commentators claim that Pashinian personally sanctioned the young woman’s
arrest in a bid to boost his falling approval ratings by showing Armenians that
he is serious about combatting corruption. Pashinian allies have dismissed such
claims.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2024 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Author: Emil Lazarian
“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS
Armenian Protection Act Introduced in the House
Washington, D.C. - The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) welcomed today's introduction of bipartisan legislation spearheaded by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), along with Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI), for the Armenian Protection Act, which repeals the waiver authority to Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act.
Section 907 states that U.S. funds "may not be provided to the Government of Azerbaijan until the President determines and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh." In the aftermath of September 11, a conditional waiver was added to exempt Azerbaijan from Section 907 if certain criteria were met and certified by the Administration.
The introduction of this Act comes as the Senate adopted by voice vote S.3000, also known as the Armenian Protection Act, led by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL). Senator Peters, who traveled to Armenia in September of 2023, emphasized his support for the Armenian people during the Assembly's Fall 2023 Advocacy Summit, where he stated that he would encourage more of his colleagues in the Senate "to support the Armenian people" and for "repercussions" to take place against Azerbaijan's Aliyev regime.
"We applaud Rep. Lawler, along with his colleagues Reps. Pallone, Bilirakis, and Amo for this bipartisan measure," said Assembly Congressional Relations Director Mariam Khaloyan. "Azerbaijan should be sanctioned, not rewarded, for its genocidal policies against the Armenian people," Khaloyan added.
Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
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NR# 2024-03
Armenia, Hungary sign memorandum of cooperation in culture, education and science
18:26, 6 February 2024
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, ARMENPRESS. As part of the official visit of the President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan to Hungary, a memorandum on cooperation between the two countries in the fields of culture, education and science has been signed.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia, the memorandum was signed by the Armenian Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Artur Martirosyan and Hungarian State Secretary for Innovation and Higher Education Balázs Hankó.
According to the source, Hungarian President Katalin Novák also attended the memorandum signing ceremony.
According to the memorandum, the parties will cooperate within the framework of programs financed by the international organizations (UNESCO, OECD, Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC)) and the European Union to promote cultural, educational and research cooperation between Armenia and Hungary.
This includes implementing joint cultural, educational and research programs through the creation of new platforms for exchanging experiences.
Azerbaijan President Aliyev heads for landslide re-election win – exit poll
Reuters
Feb 7 2024
BAKU, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev was on course for a landslide re-election win, an exit poll showed on Wednesday, in a vote he called early after recapturing the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia and a crackdown on the media.
According to the exit poll, conducted among 63,000 people by Oracle Advisory Group, Aliyev was set to win with 93.9% of the vote. Preliminary initial results were expected later on Wednesday.
Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar as president in 2003, has typically taken over 85% of the vote in elections that rights groups have said are neither free nor fair. Azerbaijani officials say the elections are fair and transparent, and that Aliyev's popularity has increased since victory in Karabakh.
The two main opposition parties are boycotting the poll in the oil and gas producing state, which will host the United Nations COP29 climate talks in November. The country's energy resources are central to Europe's plans to reduce its dependency on Russian gas following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Baku, a close ally of Turkey which also maintains working relations with Russia, attributes Western criticism to prejudice against its mainly Muslim population.
In January, Aliyev, 62, told local media that he had called the snap poll to mark "the start of a new era" in Azerbaijan, which he said had restored its sovereignty by retaking Karabakh. He faced six nominal rivals, none of them critical of his rule.
A series of independent journalists have been arrested since November in a crackdown on dissent, several of them charged with crimes including smuggling.
International press freedom groups have described the arrests as an attempt to silence anti-corruption reporting.
Aliyev in December moved the election from Oct. 2025, shortly after Azerbaijan retook Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region whose mostly ethnic Armenian population had been de facto independent of Baku since the early 1990s.
As the Soviet Union unravelled, Azerbaijan lost an extended war with Armenia over Karabakh, a humiliating defeat which Aliyev worked to reverse. In September, he said that his "iron fist" had consigned the idea of an independent Karabakh to history.
For Azerbaijan, restoration of control over Karabakh marks a triumphant end to 30 years of intermittent war and a chance for hundreds of thousands of internal refugees to return home.
For neighbouring Armenia, the collapse of Karabakh is a national tragedy and humanitarian crisis, with almost all of the region's 120,000 ethnic Armenians having since fled to Armenia.
Reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku; writing by Felix Light in Tbilisi; editing by Philippa Fletcher, Andrew Osborn and Gareth Jones
President Khachaturyan: “A new era begins in Armenian-Hungarian relations”
Hungary Today
Feb 7 2024
“The aim is to strengthen and give meaning to the relations between Hungary and Armenia,” said President Katalin Novák on Tuesday after her meeting with President Vahagn Khachaturyan of Armenia.
Diplomatic relations between Hungary and Armenia were resumed at the end of 2022, marking the second visit of an Armenian president to Hungary since the 1989 regime change, while President Khachaturyan made his first official visit to the capital.
The strengthening of bilateral relations covers various areas, including higher education, science, technology, and culture.
During a joint press conference, the two heads of state emphasized Hungary’s support for Armenia in strengthening European relations and visa liberalization, particularly as Armenia prepares to assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union. Highlighting the common Christian heritage of the two nations,
through initiatives like the Hungary Helps Program, that has provided HUF 40 million (EUR 103.4k) in support to Armenian families. Additionally, she mentioned the ongoing support provided to the Armenian minority in Hungary, totaling HUF 2 billion (EUR 5.1M) between 2011 and 2023.
President Vahagn Khachaturyan described the visit as historic, expressing Armenia’s readiness to revitalize its relations with Hungary. He noted the historical ties between the two peoples, dating back to Soviet times. Regarding opportunities for cooperation,
emphasizing the importance of accurate assessments by business circles in both countries.
President Vahagn Khachaturyan also mentioned Armenia’s interest in joining a European Union power line project in the South Caucasus, seeking Hungary’s support due to its unique status within the EU. He emphasized Armenia’s ability to export agricultural products to Europe while being a member of the Eurasian Economic Union.
Both presidents agreed on the importance of peace, expressing their commitment to promoting peace talks and long-term stability in various conflict regions, including Ukraine and the Middle East.
drawing parallels with Armenia’s own experience in its long lasting conflict with Azerbaijan.
During the visit, the heads of states delivered speeches at the Department of Armenian Studies of Pázmány Péter Catholic University. As a highlight of the program, Mr. Rafik Srbuhi Gevorkyan, Rector of the Armenian State Pedagogical University, presented an honorary doctorate to Bálint Kovács, Head of the Department of Armenology at Pázmány Péter Catholic University.
President Khachaturyan extended an invitation to Novák to visit Yerevan, further strengthening the ties between the two nations.
Via MTI; Featured Image: MTI / Bruzák Noémi
Armenian PM’s new constitution proposal faces uphill battle
eurasianet
Feb 7 2024
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's call for a new constitution is widely being seen as a move to bow to Azerbaijan's latest demands.
Among other reforms, he wants to remove a provision in the nation's main legal document that calls for the unification of Armenia with the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars over Karabakh, in 1991-94 and in 2020. For 31 years the mainly Armenian-populated territory was governed by a de facto entity called the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR, also known by Armenians as the Artsakh Republic).
The NKR ceased to exist as of January 1, 2024, three months after a lightning Azerbaijani military offensive forced the region's entire Armenian population to flee.
Now, Pashinyan and his government say external threats necessitate a change in the constitution's preamble, which enshrines the text of the 1990 Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Armenia.
The former document affirms the December 1, 1989 declaration by the Supreme Council of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic that calls for unification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh.
This apparent move to turn the page on Karabakh altogether and appease Azerbaijan has triggered heated debates in Armenian society.
Peace and legitimacy
The idea of rebooting the constitution altogether was first voiced by Prime Minister Pashinyan on January 18 during discussions on the Justice Ministry's activities during the last calendar year.
He gave two broad reasons. One, that the conduct of previous constitutional referendums was marred by fraud allegations, placing the entire document's legitimacy in doubt.
And two, that "new geopolitical and regional realities" require a new constitution in order to keep Armenia viable and competitive.
Regional politics have indeed changed radically since 2020, when Armenia suffered defeat in the Second Karabakh War. In that conflict Azerbaijan gained control of most of the territory that had been administered by the NKR for the previous 26 years, leaving behind a rump territory populated by Armenians and surrounded by Azerbaijani-controlled territory. Three years later, in September last year, Baku seized that, too, emptying Karabakh of its Armenian population.
Since then, Armenians have felt vulnerable to Azerbaijani attack given Baku's statements about cutting a corridor through the Republic of Armenia. So many saw in Pashinyan's statement a signal that he was ready to cave to Azerbaijani demands.
Then on January 31, the prime minister gave an interview to Armenian Public Radio in which he basically affirmed that was the case. He mooted holding a constitutional referendum since, as he put it, having the current constitution is like wearing red clothing while Armenia's hostile neighbors (Azerbaijan and Turkey) are bulls.
The current constitution's enshrinement of the Armenian SSR's 1989 declaration calling for union with Karabakh poses a threat to Armenia's security, Pashiniyan said, as it could provide a pretext for further Azerbaijani action.
"This means that we'll never have peace. Furthermore, it means that we will have war now… We are strengthening our army and everyone can see that we are spending major resources on reorganizing the army. That is to say, we are saying that we are strengthening our army and aim to implement the provisions of our declaration [union with Karabakh]. This means that our neighbors will ally to destroy us," the prime minister said in the radio interview.
Aliyev weighs in
The next day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stirred the pot by demanding that Armenia change the preamble to its constitution and other laws that according to Aliyev make claims on Azerbaijani territory.
"The Declaration of Independence of Armenia contains direct calls for the unification of Karabakh with Armenia, that is, the violation of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. There are also references to this document in the Constitution of Armenia. … Peace can be achieved if we put an end to these claims, amend the Constitution of Armenia and other normative legal documents," Aliyev said.
One day later the Constitutional Reforms Council under the Armenian Justice Ministry announced the formal start of work on the reforms."
For the Armenian opposition, this was proof that Pashinyan's push for a new constitution was the result of pressure from Azerbaijan and its close ally Turkey.
Artur Khachatryan, an MP from the opposition Armenia faction, told Eurasianet that, while the Pashinyan government has been pursuing constitutional reform for several years, "Now the authorities are proposing a whole new constitution, and this is something else altogether. From what government representatives say, it is clear that they want to delete the provision about union with Artsakh and that this is a result of pressure from Azerbaijan and Turkey."
The authorities' push for a constitutional break with Nagorno-Karabakh is difficult for Armenian society to swallow, as the battle for Karabakh has been one of the main pillars of Armenian identity for the past three-plus decades.
One of the people voicing this sentiment was Garegin Khumaryan, the director of Armenian Public Radio, who published a scathing commentary several days after the prime minister's appearance on his outlet. The argument behind revamping the constitution, as well as the ruling party's proposal to replace the country's coat of arms and national anthem, boils down to, "Let us stop being Armenians so that they don't kill us," Khumaryan said.
Stalling for time?
Armenian political analyst Hakop Badalyan suspects that Pashinyan and his team's rhetoric around constitutional reform could be a maneuver to buy time until the U.S. presidential election in November.
"I think it's possible that there ultimately might not be any constitutional reform. Reforming the constitution is a lengthy process, and it could at least serve to maintain stability at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border during this year. In the meantime the international situation will become clearer, as the U.S. elections will take place and we'll find out how willing Washington will be to devote efforts to securing a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Badalyan told Eurasianet.
Meanwhile, some analysts say Pashinyan could face serious difficulties adopting the new constitution if it is ultimately put to a referendum. The current constitution stipulates that an act put to referendum is approved only if both: 1) more than half the votes are in favor, and 2) more than a quarter of eligible voters vote in favor.
The number of eligible voters in the 2021 snap presidential election was about 2.6 million. This means that a minimum of roughly 650,000 votes in favor are required.
This will be a heavy lift for Pashinyan and his team, according to Badalyan. The ruling party, Civil Contract, garnered about 688,000 votes in the 2021 poll, which was hotly contested and which saw a high degree of public engagement.
If it comes down to a referendum, the analyst added, the authorities will try to get people to vote in favor by sowing fear.
"They will try to convince the people to vote in favor as a new constitution is the key to peace with Azerbaijan while the opposite result could lead to war."
Yerevan authorities plan to open animal shelter for stray dogs
09:34, 7 February 2024
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan City Hall plans to open an animal shelter for stray dogs.
The facility will be designed for permanent care of up to 300 dogs.
Harutyun Arakelyan, the director of Yerevan City Hall’s Animal Care Center, an organization tasked with vaccinating and sterilizing and then releasing stray dogs back to the streets, told Armenpress that the animals will be vaccinated, treated, sterilized and permanently cared for by veterinarians at the new shelter.
The stray dogs will not be caged in the facility, Arakelyan said. The animals will instead freely move within the shelter.
The shelter is planned to be opened in 2024.
Furthermore, the Animal Care Center of the city will then focus on the adoption process. Arakelyan said that there are numerous problems concerning the issue of stray dogs because there are no clear laws on the matter. “We’ve had many meetings with lawmakers, now there is a bill aimed at preventing irresponsible treatment of animals envisaging, among others, fines for those who would violate the regulations, and this will overall regulate the area,” he said, noting that some dog owners irresponsibly abandon their dogs in the streets after few months of ownership.
After the first permanent shelter is opened, authorities plan to open such facilities in other districts.
Over 3,400 stray dogs were sterilized and vaccinated against rabies in 2023 by the Animal Care Center, which now runs a clinic.
Asbarez: Aliyev Casts Ballot in Occupied Stepanakert
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan cast his ballot for his re-election during Wednesday snap polls in Stepanakert, the capital of occupied Artsakh.
Aliyev announced the snap election after the September attack in Artsakh, which saw the forced displacement of more than 100,000 Armenians who fled to Armenia.
He hailed Wednesday’s vote as the first elections to be held in the “entire territory” of Azerbaijan, with the country’s Central Electoral Commission reporting that 26 polling stations were established in occupied Artsakh.
As the polls closed at 7 p.m. local time, Aliyev was expected to be the “winner” of the election with more than 93 percent of the votes. This will secure the Azerbaijani despot another seven years at the helm of the country, which he and his father, Haydar, have been ruling for 30 years.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey did not wait until the official results and called to congratulate Aliyev on what he called “his decisive” victory. Erdogan also expressed hope that after the elections, a peace treaty with Armenia will be signed.
“The negotiations with Armenia, in which you have done a great job as a victorious leader, will also lead to the signing of a peace treaty,” Erdogan reportedly told Aliyev.
The press in Turkey also hailed Wednesday’s Azerbaijani elections as a “victory.”
Media outlets reported that more than 23,000 people cast ballots in the occupied city of Shushi.
The only international organization invited to monitor the elections was the OSCE. A member of that monitoring team, Swiss lawmaker Nik Gugger was arrested on Monday and later expelled from Azerbaijan for his previous criticism of the Baku regime.
Armenian President meets Hungary’s Orban
12:17, 7 February 2024
BUDAPEST, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan has met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest during his official visit.
The meeting took place at Orban’s office.
The Armenian President will then visit the Hungarian parliament to meet with Speaker László Kövér.
Khachaturyan held a meeting with Hungarian President Katalin Novák on February 6.
Russian president’s visit to Turkey postponed – source
20:50, 7 February 2024
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Turkey, which was scheduled for February 12, has been put off, a diplomatic source in Turkey told TASS without elaborating.
"The visit has been postponed. No details are still known," the source said.
Earlier, Hande Firat, a journalist for the Hurriyet newspaper and a columnist for the CNN-Turk television channel, announced that the visit had been canceled, Tass reports.
Media outlets previously reported that Putin would visit Turkey on February 12, but the Kremlin did not confirm this information.