Author: Emil Lazarian

                                        Thursday, 
Prominent Armenian Oppositionist Arrested
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia - The deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, Armen 
Ashotian, speaks at a press conference, Yerevan, November 16, 2022.
Armen Ashotian, a prominent opposition politician, was arrested on Thursday 
eight months after being indicted on what he and his Republican Party of Armenia 
(HHK) call trumped-up charges.
Ashotian, 47, was an influential figure during HHK leader and former President 
Serzh Sarkisian’s rule, serving as education minister from 2012-2016 and 
subsequently heading the Armenian parliament’s foreign relations committee. He 
has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian since the 2018 “velvet 
revolution” that toppled Sarkisian.
Ashotian was charged last November with abuse of power and money laundering in 
connection with his past chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of Yerevan’s 
Mkhitar Heratsi Medical University. He was not taken into custody at the time 
and was only banned from leaving the country.
The accusations strongly denied by Ashotian stem from a number of property 
acquisitions carried out by the university administration on his alleged orders. 
Armenia’s Investigative Committee claims that those deals caused the state-run 
university substantial financial damage.
The law-enforcement agency also charged Ashotian with “waste” of public funds as 
it detained him on Thursday morning. It promptly asked a court in Yerevan to 
allow his pre-trial arrest.
In a statement issued later in the day, the Investigative Committee claimed that 
Ashotian must be held in detention because he illegally tried to gain access to 
testimony given by several other suspects in the case. It gave no details of the 
alleged interference in the investigation.
The HHK, of which Ashotian is a deputy chairman, voiced full support for him and 
condemned his arrest as an act of “political persecution.” In a statement, the 
former ruling party’s governing body said Armenia’s political leadership ordered 
it to “divert the public's attention from internal and external problems 
worsening day by day.” Representatives of other opposition groups added their 
voice to the condemnation.
Ashotian’s lawyer, Tigran Atanesian, described the accusations brought against 
his client as “ridiculous” when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“Money was not lost,” Atanesian said. “Money was converted into real estate, 
which now belongs to the Medical University and is worth twice as much as it was 
during the acquisition.”
The lawyer also said that Ashotian has not been questioned by investigators for 
almost eight months.
Jailed Election Winner Remains Defiant During ‘Political’ Trial
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian (left) greets supporters during 
his trial in Yerevan, .
A former mayor of Vanadzor arrested in December 2021 after defeating Armenia’s 
ruling party in a local election continued to strongly deny corruption charges 
leveled against him during his yearlong trial on Thursday.
The victory of an opposition bloc led by Mamikon Aslanian was the most serious 
of setbacks suffered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party in 
local polls held in 36 communities across the country on December 5, 2021.
Aslanian, who had governed Armenia’s third largest city for five years, was 
poised to regain the post of Vanadzor mayor lost in October 2021. But he was 
arrested on December 15, 2021, two days before the inaugural session of the new 
city council empowered to elect the mayor. He was charged with illegally 
privatizing municipal land during his tenure.
The 49-year-old ex-mayor rejected the charges as politically motivated both 
before and during his trial that began in June 2022.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in the courtroom, Aslanian insisted that 
he was arrested “so that I don’t take over as mayor, which should have happened 
on December 17.”
“I was ‘coincidentally’ arrested on December 15, even though the criminal case 
was opened on September 10,” he said.
Also standing trial are two of Aslanian’s former subordinates. But unlike the 
ex-mayor, they have not been held in detention.
Aslanian’s supporters as well as opposition figures in Yerevan claim that 
Pashinian ordered the ex-mayor’s arrest and prosecution to make sure that the 
Vanadzor municipality remains under his control. They have accused the prime 
minister of effectively overturning the local election results.
Vanadzor’s new municipal council could have elected Aslanian as mayor despite 
his arrest. However, Armenia’s Administrative Council banned the council from 
holding sessions, citing an appeal against the election results lodged by 
another pro-government party.
In April 2022, Pashinian’s party swiftly pushed through the Armenian parliament 
a bill that empowered the prime minister to name acting heads of communities 
whose councils fail to elect mayors within 20 days after local elections. 
Pashinian appointed the following month a man with a criminal record, Arkadi 
Peleshian, as Vanadzor’s acting mayor.
Peleshian served as deputy mayor from 2017-2021. An obscure party led by him won 
less than 15 percent of the vote in December 2021.
Russia Again Slams EU Monitoring Mission In Armenia
Armenia - European Union monitors patrol Armenia's border with Azerbaijan.
Russia has accused European Union monitors deployed along Armenia’s border with 
Azerbaijan of failing to reduce tensions there and again claimed that the main 
purpose of their mission is to drive Moscow out of the region.
“There is no ‘added value’ from the dubious activity of EU ‘experts’ in the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border area. Moreover, they are incapable of ensuring 
security and compliance with the ceasefire agreements reached with the decisive 
role of Russian mediation,” Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry 
spokeswoman, said in written comments released late on Wednesday.
Zakharova reacted to the impending opening of three more EU monitoring “hubs” in 
the Armenian towns of Kapan, Ijevan and Yeghegnadzor close to the Azerbaijani 
border. She said the EU is thus keen to “strengthen its presence in Armenia” 
with the ultimate aim of “squeezing Russia out of the Transcaucasus.”
The EU mission countered on Thursday that it always planned to “operate from 6 
hubs with maximum 103 international staff.” “We aim to reach this full 
operability soon,” tweeted the mission, which has had three such “hubs” until 
now.
The EU’s special envoy to the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, voiced support for 
the mission, calling it an “important element” of EU efforts to facilitate 
regional peace.
The EU deployed the 100 or so monitors in Armenia in February. The Armenian 
government said the mission requested by it will reduce the risk of a serious 
escalation in the conflict zone. Its critics point out that ceasefire violations 
at various sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border have continued unabated 
since then.
The EU monitors’ assessment of those incidents is not known. Foreign Minister 
Ararat Mirzoyan said in March that Yerevan has no access to their confidential 
reports sent to Brussels.
Armenia, Azerbaijan Report More Truce Violations
A view of an Azerbaijani checkpoint set up at the entry of the Lachin corridor, 
Nagorno-Karabakh's only land link with Armenia, by a bridge across the Hakari 
river on May 2, 2023.
One Armenian and one Azerbaijani border guards were wounded on Thursday in 
continuing ceasefire violations reported from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Azerbaijan’s Border Guard Service accused Armenian troops of opening fire at its 
checkpoint controversially set up last month in the Lachin corridor connecting 
Armenia to Karabakh. It said that one of the servicemen manning the checkpoint 
was wounded.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said, meanwhile, that its border 
guards stopped a group of Azerbaijani servicemen from advancing into Armenian 
territory from the checkpoint and placing an Azerbaijani flag there.
Later in the morning, fighting also erupted at a nearby section of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Armenian soldiers and border guards deployed there 
came under Azerbaijani mortar and small arms fire, the NSS said, adding that one 
of them was wounded early in the afternoon. Baku accused the Armenian side of 
provoking that skirmish.
Armenia - An Azeri military post just outside the Armenian border village of 
Tegh, April 4, 2023/
In a statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry condemned the Armenian 
“provocation” near the Lachin checkpoint, saying that Armenia is trying to 
thwart its “successful functioning.” It also claimed that Yerevan is “not 
interested” in the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
Shortly after that incident, authorities in Karabakh reported that the 
Azerbaijan completely halted the movement through the Lachin corridor of 
humanitarian convoys organized by Russian peacekeepers and the International 
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They said Red Cross vehicles carrying 25 
Karabakh patients and their family members were turned away from the checkpoint 
and had to return to Stepanakert.
Baku set up the checkpoint last month in what Yerevan and Stepanakert regard as 
a gross violation of a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020 war in 
Karabakh.
Armenia - A construction site in the border village of Yersakh, .
The latest skirmishes highlight tensions along the border between the two South 
Caucasus countries and the Karabakh “line of contact” which have been rising 
despite major progress made during recent Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
On Wednesday, two Indian workers building a new metallurgical plant in the 
Armenian border village of Yeraskh were seriously wounded in what the Armenian 
military described as cross-border fire from nearby Azerbaijani army positions.
“We are deeply concerned that two civilian employees of a U.S.-affiliated 
company in Armenia sustained injuries from gunfire from the direction of 
Azerbaijan,” the U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, tweeted 
afterwards.
“We reiterate our call for restraint along the borders as the parties work 
toward a durable and balanced peace,” Miller wrote.
Several dozen foreign diplomats, including the Yerevan-based ambassadors of 
France, Germany and China, visited Yeraskh on Thursday.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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