Friday,
Vanadzor Election Winner Goes On Trial
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Former Mayor Mamikon Aslanian stands trial in Vanadzor,
The former mayor of Armenia’s third largest city of Vanadzor went on trial on
Friday six months after defeating the ruling Civil Contract party in a local
election and being arrested on corruption charges.
An opposition bloc led by Mamikon Aslanian essentially won the election with
about 39 percent of the vote. Civil Contract finished second with 25 percent,
the most serious of setbacks suffered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party
in local polls held in 36 communities across Armenia on December 5.
Aslanian was thus well-placed to regain his post lost in October. But he was
arrested on December 15, with law-enforcement authorities saying that he
illegally privatized municipal land during his five-year tenure.
The former mayor insisted at the start of his trial that the charges leveled
against him “have nothing to do with criminal justice.” His lawyers petitioned a
Vanadzor judge presiding over the trial to release their client from custody
pending a verdict in the case.
A trial prosecutor objected to the request, saying that Aslanian could exert
pressure on witnesses if set free. Defense lawyers countered that none of the
three dozen witnesses in the case has testified against the ex-mayor.
“If someone gave testimony refuting the accusations why would Mamikon Aslanian
want to influence that person?” one of the lawyers told the court.
The judge will rule on Monday whether Aslanian must remain under arrest.
Armenia - The building of the Vanadzor municipality, December 13, 2021.
Aslanian’s supporters as well as opposition figures in Yerevan say 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 has still not been able to meet and elect the
city’s new mayor. Armenia’s Administrative Council has banned the council from
holding sessions, citing an appeal against the election results lodged by
another pro-government party, Bright Armenia.
The ban remains in force even though the appeal was rejected by two other courts
earlier this year. Bright Armenia, which fared poorly in the December polls,
appealed to the higher Court of Cassation. The latter has still not ruled on the
complaint.
In April, 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.
On May 13, Pashinian appointed 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.
U.S. Official Meets Armenian Oppositionists
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kara McDonald (center) at a
meeting in Yerevan, June 9, 2022.
A senior U.S. State Department official has met with leaders of Armenia’s main
opposition groups holding anti-government protests during a visit to Yerevan.
Kara McDonald, the deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human
rights and labor, arrived in the Armenian capital on Wednesday for talks with
government officials, politicians and civil society members. The officials
included Justice Minister Karen Andreasian and Deputy Foreign Minister Vahe
Gevorgian.
The U.S. Embassy in Armenia said that during the two-day trip McDonald
“underscored the U.S. commitment to continue helping the Armenian people build a
future based on shared democratic values.”
It emerged on Friday that she held a separate meeting with representatives of
the two opposition alliances represented in the Armenian parliament.
Gegham Manukian, an opposition parliamentarian, said they discussed a wide range
of issues, including “shameful practices” in the Armenian judiciary and police
actions against participants of continuing opposition rallies aimed at toppling
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. McDonald took note of concerns voiced by the
oppositionists, he said.
The U.S. Embassy did not comment on that meeting. The embassy posted on its
Twitter page photographs of McDonald’s meetings with other individuals,
including leaders of four parties not represented in the Armenian parliament.
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, May 4, 2022.
The parliament’s two opposition factions criticized the U.S. ambassador to
Armenia, Lynne Tracy, last month after she seemed to hail the outcome of last
year’s parliamentary elections won by Pashinian’s party.
One of their leaders, Ishkhan Saghatelian, accused the United States and other
Western powers of turning a blind eye to government pressure on the judiciary,
the existence of “dozens of political prisoners” and other human rights abuses.
He also said Armenians did not give Pashinian a mandate to “cede”
Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.
Saghatelian is the main speaker at the ongoing street protests which were
sparked by Pashinian’s conciliatory policy towards Azerbaijan and Turkey praised
by Washington.
Reacting to the protests earlier in May, the State Department urged the Armenian
opposition to “refrain from violence and respect the rule of law and Armenia’s
democracy.”
Armenia Backs Alliance With Russia, Other Ex-Soviet States
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan chairs a session of top diplomats of
the CSTO member states, Yerevan,
Armenia on Friday expressed readiness to help strengthen the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO) while again chiding other members of the Russian-led
military alliance for not openly supporting Yerevan in its border dispute with
Azerbaijan.
The Armenian government appealed to the CSTO for help shortly after Azerbaijani
troops reportedly crossed several sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
and advanced a few kilometers into Armenian territory in May 2021. It asked the
alliance of six ex-Soviet states to invoke Article 2 of its founding treaty
which requires a collective response to grave security threats facing one of
them.
Russia and other CSTO member states expressed concern over the border tensions
but did not issue joint statements in support of Armenia. Armenian leaders have
repeatedly criticized that stance.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reiterated the criticism after hosting a
meeting in Yerevan with the fellow top diplomats of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
“While the organization responded in a timely manner to the events in Kazakhstan
in January the issue still remains open in connection with the invasion of
Azerbaijani troops into the sovereign territory of Armenia, which began in May
2021,” he told the press.
Mirzoyan made clear at the same time that Yerevan is intent on “stepping up
cooperation between member states” of the bloc. That includes ensuring a closer
coordination of their foreign policies and “enhancing the CSTO’s role in the
international arena,” he said.
Armenia - The foreign ministers of Russia and other CSTO member states arrive
for a meeting in Yerevan, .
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the CSTO foreign ministers did
not explicitly mention Russia’s war with Ukraine. They voiced concern at the
“continuing degradation of the system of international security.” They said all
countries must respect “the principle of equal and indivisible security.”
From Moscow’s perspective, “indivisible security” means that NATO must pledge
not to admit Ukraine and to scale back its military presence near Russia’s
borders. The U.S. and its NATO allies rejected these demands in the run-up to
the Russian invasion of Ukraine which began on February 24.
Belarus is the only non-Russian CSTO country to have publicly backed the
invasion. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko chided the other member
states for their more cautious stance when he spoke at a CSTO summit in Moscow
last month.
Armenian Opposition Rethinking Protest Tactics
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Parliament vice-speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian leads an opposition
demonstration in Yerevan, May 18, 2022.
A leader of the Armenian opposition said on Friday that it is rethinking the
tactics of its “resistance movement” almost six week after starting regular
demonstrations aimed at toppling Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Ishkhan Saghatelian insisted that the protests are not dying down and that the
opposition has no plans to suspend or end them.
“Yes, we need a new tactic,” Saghatelian told reporters. “Therefore, there may
be changes in our steps and actions. Right now we are engaged in active
discussions and will change some steps and actions.”
He declined to say what those changes will be.
“The movement cannot die down because its collapse or suspension would mean a
defeat for the Armenian people,” he said.
Armenia’s main opposition groups represented in the parliament have rallied
thousands of supporters on a virtually daily basis since setting up a tent camp
in a central Yerevan square on May 1. They accuse Pashinian of renouncing
Armenian control of Nagorno-Karabakh and making other concessions to Azerbaijan
that will jeopardize the very existence of Armenia.
Armenia - Riot police arrest opposition protesters in Yerevan, May 10, 2022.
Pashinian and his political allies dismiss the demands for his resignation. They
say that the opposition has failed to attract popular support for its “civil
disobedience” campaign.
“There is no political crisis in Armenia,” Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said
on Thursday. Echoing statements by other Armenian officials, he said that
Pashinian’s political team won a popular mandate to run the country for the next
five years in the 2021 general elections.
Saghatelian, who has been the main speaker at the protests, dismissed that
argument. He said that Pashinian does not have such a mandate anymore because he
broke his election campaign pledge to help the people of Nagorno-Karabakh
exercise their right to self-determination.
“They are now talking about ‘lowering the bar’ [on Karabakh’s status] and
leading the country to new concessions,” he said.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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