Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Armenian Speaker Reticent About Karabakh’s Status
May 17, 2022
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Speaker Alen Simonian chairs a session of the National Assembly,
Yerevan, September 13, 2021.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian on Tuesday pointedly declined to say whether
Armenia will champion Nagorno-Karabakh’s right to self-determination in
negotiations on a peace treaty with Azerbaijan.
Responding to Azerbaijani proposals to negotiate such a treaty, the Armenian
government has said that the question of Karabakh’s status must also be on the
agenda of the talks. But it has not publicly clarified its position on the
status or a mechanism for determining it.
Simonian, who is a key political ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, was
similarly reticent about the issue when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Asked whether Pashinian’s administration could recognize Karabakh as a part of
Azerbaijan, he said: “As head of the legislative branch, I cannot be involved in
the negotiating process or somehow predetermine it. The foreign minister, the
head of the government will answer this question.”
Simonian also would not be drawn on the reason for Yerevan’s failure to mention
the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination it its written proposals on
the peace talks communicated to Baku.
“The Armenian proposal is a proposal regarding the status, but that proposal
regarding the status is a subject of discussions,” he said vaguely.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament on April 13, Pashinian said that the
international community is pressing Armenia to “lower a bit the bar on the
question of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status” and recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. He signaled Yerevan’s intention to make such concessions to Baku,
drawing strong criticism from his political opponents and Karabakh’s leadership.
The authorities in Stepanakert made clear that the Karabakh Armenians will never
agree to live under Azerbaijani rule. Armenian opposition leaders charged, for
their part, that Pashinian has agreed to Azerbaijani control over the disputed
territory.
ARMENIA - Police officers detain opposition supporters who attempted to block
streets in the capital Yerevan on May 17, 2022.
The opposition went on to launch daily street protests in Yerevan aimed at
forcing Pashinian to step down.
“You must quit in order for Artsakh (Karabakh) to remain Armenian,” Ishkhan
Saghatelian, one of the protest leaders, appealed to the prime minister as
thousands of opposition supporters again marched through Yerevan on Tuesday.
Pashinian and his political allies have rejected the opposition demands.
Simonian said the ruling political team won a popular mandate to govern Armenia
for the next five years in parliamentary elections held last June. He also
rejected the opposition criticism of the government’s Karabakh policy.
“What does the opposition propose? Nothing,” said the speaker.
Yerevan Sees Rebound In Russian-Armenian Trade
May 17, 2022
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian, Moscow, May 16, 2022.
Armenia’s vital trade with Russia is showing signs of recovery after shrinking
in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian indicated late on Monday.
“Regarding the economy, I also want to note that after a certain decline in
March, there is an intensification of bilateral economic relations looming,”
Pashinian told Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting held following a
Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Moscow.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Pashinian thanked Putin for “prodding
Russian businesspeople to invest in Armenia.” He welcomed the “investment
interest” shown by them but did not specify potential projects that could be
launched soon.
Nor did he cite any projections regarding this year’s volume of Russian-Armenian
trade. It rose by almost 21 percent, to $2.6 billion, in 2021. Russia thus
solidified its status as Armenia’s number one trading partner.
Bilateral trade reportedly shrunk in March following the start of the war in
Ukraine and the resulting Western sanctions imposed on Russia. Visiting Moscow
last month, Armenian Economy Minister Kerobian said the two governments should
work together to “urgently eliminate the causes of the decline and restore
growth.”
Russia - Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov (second from right)
meets with Armenian Economy Minister Vahan Kerobian, Moscow, April 13, 2022.
Pashinian discussed the matter with Putin as well as Russian Prime Minister
Mikhail Mishustin when he paid an official visit to Russia later in April. He
spoke of “common challenges” facing Armenia and Russia.
Because of its close economic links with Russia, Armenia is expected to be
significantly affected by the Western sanctions. The World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund have said that economic growth in the South Caucasus
country will slow down considerably this year.
The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) likewise forecast modest growth in early
March. It argued, in particular, that a sharp depreciation of the Russian ruble
will have a negative impact on Armenian exports to Russia and remittances from
Armenian migrant workers.
The ruble has rallied dramatically since then and is now stronger against the
U.S. dollar and the euro than it was before the Russian invasion.
Hundreds Arrested As Armenian Opposition Keeps Up Protests
May 17, 2022
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Riot police detain an opposition protester in Yerevan, May 17, 2022.
The Armenian police made more than 400 arrests on Tuesday as opposition
supporters again blocked roads across Yerevan in continuing protests aimed at
forcing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign.
Groups of protesters began the blockages at 8 a.m. local time in an attempt to
disrupt traffic and step up pressure on Pashinian’s government. Opposition
leaders claimed to have blocked more than 50 streets in various parts of the
capital.
Riot police stepped in to unblock the streets, clashing with protesters and
detaining many of them. The police reported a total of 414 arrests in the
afternoon, a daily record high since the start of the Armenian opposition’s
“civil disobedience” campaign on May 1.
The protesters included members of Armenia’s parliament affiliated with its two
opposition groups leading the campaign. Security forces tried to detain one of
them, Tadevos Avetisian, but let him go after finding out that he is a
parliament deputy.
Armenia - Opposition supporters block a street in Yerevan, May 17, 2022.
“This is not policing. This is hooliganism,” charged Lilit Galstian, another
opposition lawmaker taking part in the protests.
Some citizens also condemned the police actions as they watched the dramatic
scenes in the city center. They argued that the protests are peaceful.
“Nothing [wrong] was happening,” one woman told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But
they just rounded up [protesters] and took them away.”
The authorities insisted that the police restored public order and did not use
disproportionate forces.
Mobile phone videos posted on social media showed dozens of defiant opposition
supporters chanting anti-Pashinian slogans inside a police bus and a police
station in Yerevan. They and all other detainees were expected to be released a
few hours later.
Armenia - Riot police detain an opposition protester in Yerevan, May 17, 2022.
Ishkhan Saghatelian, an opposition leader, urged supporters to leave the streets
at 11:30 a.m. and gather in the city’s France Square, the site of an opposition
tent camp, in the evening.
“We have fully accomplished the task set by us,” Saghatelian said in a video
message broadcast on Facebook. “We have demonstrated that the people are in
control of the situation.”
Saghatelian said earlier that the opposition objective is to create “diarchy”
that would make Pashinian’s resignation inevitable.
The prime minister and his political allies have rejected the opposition demands
for his resignation fuelled by his recent statements on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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