Friday, July 1, 2022
Armenian Military Said To Draft Scores Of Oppositionists
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Police officers detain opposition supporters during anti-government
demonstrations in Yerevan on May 18, 2022.
The Armenian military has allegedly moved to call up dozens of opposition
activists who have actively participated in opposition demonstrations aimed at
toppling Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Pashinian’s cabinet approved last week a three-month call-up of more than 1,440
army reservists which will start on August 1. It cited the need to reinforce the
armed forces with skilled and combat-ready personnel.
Gegham Manukian, an opposition leader, said on Friday that he knows of several
dozen opposition activists who have since received summonses from military
commissariats dealing with mobilization.
“We are now putting together all data to see which military commissariats are
especially active,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Manukian linked the development with an effective order which a senior
pro-government lawmaker issued to the country’s security apparatus on May 5 five
days after the Armenian opposition began daily antigovernment protests in
Yerevan.
Armenia - Andranik Kocharian is interviewed by RFE/RL, January 11, 2022
Andranik Kocharian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defense
and security, suggested that many of the protesters detained by riot police
evade compulsory military service or periodical call-ups of army reservists.
Speaking at a committee meeting in Yerevan, he said law-enforcement agencies
should “collect personal data of these citizens and pass them on to the Armenian
Defense Ministry.”
High-ranking police and military officials attending the meeting backed the idea
condemned by human rights activists as illegal and despicable.
Armen Avtandilian, the chief of the Defense Ministry’s mobilization service,
claimed on Friday that Kocharian’s remarks did not affect the choice of
military-age males who will perform the three-month service. “There is nothing
political,” he said.
Manukian insisted, however, that Pashinian and his team are keen to punish
active participants of the rallies and discourage other Armenians from joining
more street protests planned by the country’s main opposition groups.
In his words, many of these reservists called up by the Defense Ministry are
affiliated with his Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party.
They include his son Taron, who was recently arrested along with several other
opposition activists on assault charges strongly denied by them.
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, May 6, 2022.
“Guys, are you really completely unaware of the situation?” Manukian said,
appealing to military authorities. “My son is in prison. Go and see him in
prison if you want to.”
Taron Ghazarian, the leader of Dashnaktsutyun’s student organization who
participated in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan, has also received his military
call-up papers. He has pledged to show up at his local recruitment center next
week.
“I definitely link this with Andranik Kocharian’s infamous statement,” Ghazarian
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The young man, who has been repeatedly detained during the protests, said the
authorities have also called up several of his friends in order to “keep us away
from the opposition movement.”
“I believe that these people [in power] have turned the army, in addition to the
law-enforcement system, into a political tool in their hands,” he charged.
The Armenian military has never been accused in the past of deliberately going
after opposition supporters in its recruitment efforts.
Turkey, Armenia Agree On First Step Towards Border Opening
Turkey -- Dogu Kapi border crossing with Armenia near Kars, April 15, 2009
Turkey and Armenia on Friday agreed in principle to allow citizens of third
countries to cross their border which Ankara has for decades kept closed.
Special envoys of the two neighboring states reported the agreement after
holding a fourth round of Turkish-Armenian normalization talks in Vienna.
“They agreed to enable the crossing of the land border between Armenia and
Turkey by third-country citizens visiting Armenia and Turkey respectively at the
earliest date possible and decided to initiate the necessary process to that
end,” the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries said in identical statements.
“They also agreed on commencing direct air cargo trade between Armenia and
Turkey at the earliest possible date and decided to initiate the necessary
process to that effect. Furthermore, they discussed other possible concrete
steps that can be undertaken towards achieving the ultimate goal of full
normalization between their respective countries,” added the statement.
It did not specify just when the two sides could take the first step towards
opening the Turkish-Armenian border.
Austria - Turkish and Armenian envoys hold a fourth round of normalization talks
in Vienna, July 1, 2022.
Ankara has long made the normalization of relations with Yerevan conditional on
a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Turkish
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly said that his government
coordinates the Turkish-Armenian dialogue with Baku.
Armenian leaders have said, for their part, that they want an unconditional
normalization of Turkish-Armenian ties.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan complained in late May that Ankara is
“synchronizing” the Turkish-Armenian normalization process with
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
“This is certainly not making the atmosphere more constructive,” he said.
“Discussions are going on. Unfortunately, there are no tangible results at this
point.”
Ruben Rubinian, the Armenian negotiator, likewise said on Thursday that the onus
is on the Turks to bring the process to fruition.
“The success of the process depends on Turkey’s constructiveness and political
will,” Rubinian told reporters before flying to Vienna to meet the Turkish
envoy, Serdar Kilic.
Armenia’s Top Judicial Officer Resigns Amid Scandal
Armenia - Gagik Jahangirian, the acting head of the Supreme Judicial Council,
speaks in the National Assembly, September 14, 2021.
Gagik Jahangirian, the controversial acting head of Armenia’s judicial watchdog,
resigned on Friday amid a continuing scandal sparked by leaked audio of his
conversation with his ousted predecessor.
Ruben Vartazarian, the former chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC),
publicized on June 20 a 14-minute audio clip which he secretly recorded during a
February 2021 meeting with Jahangirian. The meeting took place two months before
Vartazarian was controversially suspended as SJC chairman amid rising tensions
with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The recording suggests Jahangirian warned Vartazarian that he will face criminal
charges unless he resigns as head of the powerful body that nominates judges and
can also fire them.
Opposition leaders and civil society members seized upon the recording to demand
Jahangirian’s sacking and even prosecution. Jahangirian dismissed those demands
on June 23.
“I have never been forced by any political force, alliance to tender
resignation,” the former prosecutor told state television. He claimed that he
did not blackmail Vartazarian and simply used “psychological ploys” to engineer
the latter’s resignation.
The SJC officially refused to censure Jahangirian as recently as on Thursday. It
said the “edited recording” is not sufficient grounds for launching disciplinary
proceedings against him. It also cited a statute of limitations applying to
misconduct by judges or other judicial officers.
SJC spokeswoman Lilit Shaboyan said that Jahangirian decided to resign because
of “health problems.” She did not elaborate.
The 67-year-old reportedly underwent non-urgent surgery in a Yerevan clinic
earlier this week.
Pashinian admitted on Monday that the scandal has undermined the credibility of
judicial reforms declared by his administration. But he did not say whether he
believes Jahangirian should step down.
The stated goal of those reforms is to strengthen the rule of law and judicial
independence. Pashinian’s political opponents say that they are on the contrary
aimed at increasing government influence on courts.
Ever since Jahangirian took over the SJC in April 2021, Armenian courts have
rarely rejected arrest warrants sought by law-enforcement authorities for
opposition figures prosecuted on various charges rejected by them as politically
motivated.
Independent and pro-opposition media outlets have regularly accused Jahangirian
of pressuring judges to make such decisions. He has denied that.
Armenian Opposition Leaders Stripped Of Parliament Posts
• Anush Mkrtchian
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenian - Pro-government deputies attend a session of parliament boycotted by
their opposition colleagues, Yerevan, July 1, 2022.
Armenia’s parliament controlled by the ruling Civil Contract party voted on
Friday to dismiss one of its deputy speakers and the chairman of its economic
committee affiliated with the main opposition Hayastan bloc.
The bloc condemned the decision and said it will give up other leadership
positions in the National Assembly in protest.
Speaking before the vote, Civil Contract lawmakers again said that deputy
speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian and the committee chairman, Vahe Hakobian, must be
dismissed because of boycotting sessions of the parliament and its standing
committees.
Civil Contract’s Arusyak Julhakian also accused Saghatelian of “provoking
clashes” and “using hate speech” during antigovernment rallies launched by the
Armenian opposition on May 1.
Saghatelian, Hakobian and the 33 other deputies representing Hayastan and the
other parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, began the boycott ahead of the
daily rallies aimed toppling Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. They have said that
they have no plans yet to return to the parliament.
Armenia - Riot police block a street leading to the parliament building in
Yerevan, July 1, 2022.
In a joint statement, Hayastan and Pativ Unem condemned Saghatelian’s and
Hakobian’s dismissal and portrayed it as another sign of a “deepening political
crisis” in Armenia.
“With this behavior the current authorities once again demonstrated that they
are concerned solely with posts, engaged in persecutions, devoid of any ability
to confront challenges facing the country, lack legitimacy and do not represent
Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh),” said the statement. “In these
circumstances, their exit is inevitable.”
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian said ahead of the vote that the pro-government
majority in the National Assembly is open to considering other opposition
candidates for the two posts.
“We will not nominate any candidates,” Saghatelian told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service shortly after his ouster. “Moreover, our colleagues will likely give up
the other administrative posts occupied by the opposition [in the parliament.]”
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian (center), Ishkhan Saghatelian
(right) and Vahe Hakobian at a campaign rally, June 18, 2021.
Armen Gevorgian, a Hayastan lawmaker heading the parliament committee on
“regional and Eurasian integration,” was quick to tender his resignation. He
said he cannot go against “clear rules of political, public and human ethics.”
Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanian similarly resigned as deputy chairman of the
parliament committee on foreign relations.
Civil Contract has not yet carried out its threats to strip all opposition
lawmakers of their parliament seats for absenteeism. Senior representatives of
the ruling party led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian say it has not yet made a
final decision on that.
Saghatelian again scoffed at those threats. He said the opposition deputies
themselves may decide to leave the parliament.
Hayastan and Pativ Unem decided to scale back the protests earlier this month
after failing to unseat Pashinian. But they pledged to continue to fight for his
removal from power. Their next rally was scheduled for Friday evening.
The two opposition forces accuse Pashinian of planning to make sweeping
concessions to Azerbaijan that would place Nagorno-Karabakh under Azerbaijani
control and jeopardize the very existence of Armenia.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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