Author: Jhanna Virabian

                                        Friday, 
Russia, Armenia Tout Surge In Bilateral Trade
Kyrgyzstan - Prime Ministers Nikol Pashinian (left) of Armenia and Mikhail 
Mishustin of Russia meet in Cholpon-Ata, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin 
have touted a sharp increase in Russian-Armenian trade which reached a record 
high of more than $1.6 billion in the first half of this year.
Meeting with Pashinian on Thursday, Mishustin said it soared by 42 percent 
despite the Western economic sanctions against Russia.
“These are record indicators in our mutual trade,” Mishustin said during the 
talks held in Kyrgyzstan on the sidelines of a meeting of prime ministers of 
Eurasian Economic Union member states.
Pashinian also hailed the “good news” in his opening remarks at the talks. “The 
figures mentioned by you are a very concrete result of our joint work,” he said.
Armenian government data shows an even sharper rise in bilateral trade: 50 
percent. According to it, Russia accounted for almost one-third of Armenia’s 
first-half foreign trade, solidifying its status as the South Caucasus country’s 
number one trading partner.
Armenia was initially expected to be hit hard by the barrage of sanctions 
imposed by the United States, the European Union and other Western powers 
following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian-Armenian trade fell in March 
but recovered in the following months as the Russian economy proved more 
resilient than expected.
“Together with our Armenian partners, we are making prompt decisions aimed at 
protecting our trade and economic cooperation in the face of, among other 
things, illegal sanctions against the Russian Federation,” Mishustin told 
Pashinian.
The Russian premier said that Moscow wants to “accelerate work” on more Russian 
investments projects in Armenia. He also announced that one of his deputies, 
Alexei Overchuk, will lead a “business mission of Russian companies” in Armenia 
in September.
“We are also doing a lot of work to expand the use of national currencies in 
bilateral trade. I am sure that this will contribute to the growth of our trade 
turnover and, what is very important, the diversification of its structure,” 
added Mishustin.
Yerevan announced in April this year that Armenia has technically started paying 
for Russian natural gas in Russian rubles, rather than U.S. dollars. The switch 
was in tune with Moscow’s broader efforts to minimize the impact of the Western 
sanctions.
Yerevan Reaffirms Support For OSCE Minsk Group
        • Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - The Foreign Ministry building in Yerevan.
The Armenian government reaffirmed support for the OSCE Minsk Group on Friday in 
response to Azerbaijani criticism of apparent U.S. plans to continue using that 
mediation format for a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have an international mandate to assist 
in a lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and 
nobody has invalidated this mandate,” Vahan Hunanian, the Armenian Foreign 
Ministry spokesman, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
A senior American diplomat, Philip Reeker, was appointed on Wednesday as the new 
U.S. co-chair of the group that has long been led by the United States, Russia 
and France. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that in his new capacity 
Reeker will strive for “direct dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan” aimed at 
a “long-term political settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry denounced Blinken’s statement, saying that the 
U.S. risks being left out of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process with its 
attempts to “revive” the group. It again claimed that Azerbaijan’s victory in 
the 2020 war with Armenia put an end to the Karabakh conflict.
Commenting on the Azerbaijani criticism, a U.S. Statement department spokesman, 
Vedant Patel, underlined later on Thursday Washington’s “commitment to 
facilitating peace in the South Caucasus.”
“As a country, we are committed to facilitating direct dialogue between 
Azerbaijan and Armenia bilaterally, multilaterally, and in cooperation with 
likeminded partners to achieve a comprehensive peace settlement between the two 
countries,” Patel told a news briefing in Washington.
Russia says that the U.S. and France stopped working with it in the Minsk Group 
format following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. U.S. Assistant Secretary of 
State Karen Donfried denied that when she visited Yerevan in June. She said the 
Minsk Group remains a “very important format” for Washington.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted afterwards that “the Minsk Group 
stopped its activities at the initiative of the American and French co-chairs.”
In recent months, Armenian leaders have repeatedly called for kick-starting the 
work of the mediating troika.
Four Arrested Over Yerevan Market Blast
        • Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Firefighters and rescue teams work at the Surmalu market in Yerevan 
rocked by a powerful explosion, August 14, 2022.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities on Friday made their first arrests in a 
criminal investigation into the August 14 explosion at a market in Yerevan that 
left at least 16 people dead and dozens of others injured.
The Investigative Committee said the suspects include the deputy director of the 
Surmalu market and three other individuals who used one of its warehouses. The 
committee did not name any of them.
A spokesman for the law-enforcement agency, Vartan Tadevosian, said the deputy 
director and another suspect, who rented the warehouse laden with fireworks, 
were charged with a grave violation of fire-safety rules. The two other suspects 
are facing accusations of negligence and involuntary manslaughter, he told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Prosecutors have already asked a Yerevan court to allow the investigators to 
hold them in pre-trial detention, added Tadevosian.
It remained unclear whether the investigators will also bring criminal charges 
against the market’s owner, Razmik Zakharian. The latter has still not been 
interrogated by them.
Armenia - A man is rushed to hospital after a powerful explosion at the Surmalu 
market in Yerevan, August 14, 2022.
The first arrests in the probe came two days after the Armenian Ministry of 
Emergencies ended search and rescue operations at the sprawling market located 
south of the city center. Rescue teams managed to extract 10 survivors and 16 
dead during the ten-day operations. But they failed to find the last person 
still listed as missing following the powerful explosion.
The investigators believe that the blast occurred in a market area where large 
quantities fireworks and other pyrotechnics were stored.
Right after the accident, the Investigative Committee urged businesses and 
individuals who bought fireworks at Surmalu recently to provide their samples to 
the Armenian police. Many of the buyers heeded the appeal, Tadevosian said, 
adding that the samples are now being examined by forensic experts.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Office of the Prosecutor-General 
pointed out that last year fire inspectors identified two dozen violations of 
safety rules at Surmalu. It said they did not carry out a follow-up inspection 
to see whether the violations were eliminated.
Tadevosian would not say whether the inspectors could also be charged with 
negligence. “Employees of the inspectorate have been questioned but they 
currently have the status of a witness [in the case,]” explained the 
Investigative Committee spokesman.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
  

                                        Friday, August 5, 2022
Blinken, Pashinian Discuss Karabakh Escalation
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a sideline meeting of the 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference in New York, August 1, 2022
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Antony 
Blinken the latest upsurge in violence in Nagorno-Karabakh during a phone 
conversation on Friday.
According to the Armenian government’s readout of the call, Pashinian accused 
Azerbaijan of “deviating” from key terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire that 
stopped the 2020 war in Karabakh. He also reaffirmed his administration’s stated 
commitment to “regional peace and stability.”
“Secretary of State Blinken expressed concern about the tension and willingness 
to assist in stabilizing the situation,” added the statement.
Blinken and the State Department did not immediately make any statements on the 
call.
The department spokesman, Ned Price, called for “immediate steps to reduce 
tensions and avoid further escalation” on Wednesday hours after two Karabakh 
Armenian soldiers were killed and 19 others wounded in fighting with Azerbaijani 
forces.
“The recent increase in tensions underscores the need for a negotiated, 
comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining issues related to or 
resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” said Price.
Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed, among other 
things, the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone when they spoke on Thursday.
The top U.S. diplomat held separate phone calls with Pashinian and Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev on July 25. He said afterwards that he sees a “historic 
opportunity to achieve peace in the region.”
Hovannisian Blames Armenian Government For Karabakh Entry Ban
        • Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian speaks at a news conference in 
Yerevan, August 5, 2022.
Raffi Hovannisian, a veteran opposition politician, on Friday again accused the 
Armenian government of thwarting his trip to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Hovannisian headed to Karabakh on July 31 to attend his grandson’s baptism. 
Russian peacekeeping soldiers manning a checkpoint in the Lachin corridor did 
not allow him to enter the territory for still unknown reasons.
Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan, Hovannisian said that he still does 
not know why he was turned away. But he again held the government and Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian in particular responsible for the travel ban.
Asked why Pashinian would want to bar him from visiting Karabakh, Hovannisian 
said: “I can’t speak for him.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry put the blame on the Russian peacekeepers. In 
written comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, it said that their actions ran 
counter to the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the war in 
Karabakh in November 2020.
Hovannisian, who has repeatedly visited Karabakh since the ceasefire, also 
accused Pashinian of mishandling not only the war but also its aftermath and 
demanded the prime minister’s resignation. It must be followed by the formation 
of a provisional government, he said, presenting a list of individuals who he 
believes should join the “national trust council.”
Hovannisian, who had served as Armenia’s first foreign minister, announced no 
concrete plans to organize street demonstrations for that purpose.
The U.S.-born politician and his Zharangutyun (Heritage) party, which has not 
been represented in the Armenian parliament since 2017, did not join the daily 
anti-government protests which the country’s main opposition forces launched on 
May 1 in a bid to topple Pashinian.
Karabakh To Evacuate Settlers From Corridor To Armenia
        • Susan Badalian
A view of the village of Aghavno in the Lachin corridor connecting 
Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, April 16, 2022.
Bowing to strong pressure from Azerbaijan, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have 
ordered ethnic Armenian residents of the Lachin corridor connecting the 
territory to Armenia to leave their homes before the end of this month.
The five-kilometer-wide corridor became Karabakh’s sole overland link to Armenia 
following the 2020 war. Armenian forces pulled out of the rest of the wider 
Lachin district under the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped 
the six-week hostilities.
The truce accord calls for the construction of a new Armenia-Karabakh highway 
that will bypass the town of Lachin and two Armenian-populated villages located 
within the current corridor protected by Russian peacekeeping troops.
Karabakh’s leadership revealed on Tuesday that Azerbaijan has demanded through 
the peacekeepers the quick closure of the existing corridor and suggested that 
the Armenian side use a bypass road which has yet to be constructed. Armenia’s 
government dismissed the demands as “not legitimate” before two Karabakh 
Armenian soldiers were killed and 19 others wounded on Wednesday in heavy 
fighting with Azerbaijani forces.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian argued on Thursday that the truce accord requires 
Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia to work out before 2024 a joint “plan” for the 
construction of a new Armenia-Karabakh road. No such plan has been drawn up yet, 
he said.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, however, that the three sides did agree 
on the “route” of the new corridor early this year and accused Yerevan of 
dragging out work on its Armenian sections.
Later on Thursday, the few remaining residents of the town of Lachin said local 
officials told them to evacuate the town for good. A senior official from 
Stepanakert, Hayk Khanumian, communicated the same order to some 200 people 
living in the nearby village of Aghavno at a meeting on Friday.
“He said that the Azerbaijanis will come and the Russians will leave [the 
current corridor] on August 25,” Mariam Hakobian, an Aghavno resident, told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“The people [of Aghavno] look like they are hypnotized,” she said. “We don’t 
know what to do.”
Hakobian said that the Karabakh government promised that each Aghavno family 
will receive 10 million drams ($24,000) for buying a new home in Karabakh or 
Armenia. He dismissed the promised aid, saying that it is well below the current 
housing prices.
“We have nowhere to go,” said Anna Margarian, who lives in the town of Lachin 
with her family.
Officials in Yerevan and Stepanakert did not publicly comment on the planned 
evacuation.
It is also unclear how traffic between Armenia and Karabakh will be carried out 
if the existing Lachin corridor is handed over to Baku by the end of this month.
More than a dozen kilometers south of the corridor, Azerbaijani and Turkish 
firms are reportedly completing the construction of a 32-kilomer-long highway 
that should link up to new road sections in Armenia and Karabakh. Work on those 
sections has yet to start in earnest.
Moscow Reacts To Armenian Criticism Of Russian Troops In Karabakh
        • Lilit Harutiunian
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei 
Lavrov in Yerevan, June 9, 2022.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded on Friday to Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian’s criticism of Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh 
which followed Wednesday’s deadly fighting there.
Pashinian complained on Thursday that Baku has been stepping up ceasefire 
violations despite the presence of the 2,000 peacekeepers deployed after the 
2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. He called for “adjusting details of the 
peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh.” In particular, he suggested giving 
the Russian contingent a “broader international mandate.”
“If we see that solutions are not possible in a trilateral 
[Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] format, we will have to think about activating 
additional international mechanisms,” Pashinian warned without elaborating.
Commenting on Pashinian’s remarks, Lavrov said: “It’s hard for me to answer this 
question because we haven’t seen concrete proposals which the Armenian prime 
minister wants to discuss in the context of the Russian peacekeeping operation 
in Nagorno-Karabakh. So I can’t guess now.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the peacekeepers are “making 
every effort to stabilize the situation on the ground.”
Viktor Bondarev, a senior member of Russia’s upper house of parliament, also 
defended the peacekeepers, saying he is confident that they will prevent another 
Armenian-Azerbaijani war. In a social media post, Bondarev also argued that the 
Karabakh conflict is “extinguished but not resolved.”
“Moreover, it was extinguished by the Russian peacekeepers, not by the goodwill 
of the conflicting sides,” he wrote.
The peacekeepers’ commander, Major-General Andrei Volkov, met on Thursday with a 
group of Karabakh public figures and fringe politicians. A statement released by 
the Russian contingent said Volkov assured them that Moscow will do everything 
to prevent another upsurge in tensions.
Some participants of the meeting came away dissatisfied and rallied several 
dozen supporters in Stepanakert on Friday.
“Yesterday we heard nothing that gives us reason to believe that the situation 
will be peaceful today,” one of them, Artur Osipian, said. He cited Volkov as 
saying that the peacekeepers lack personnel and powers to prevent fresh 
Azerbaijani attacks on Karabakh Armenian forces.
Wednesday’s attacks left two Karabakh Armenian soldiers dead and 19 others 
wounded. The warring sides blamed each other for the fighting.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
 

                                        Tuesday, August 2, 2022
Armenian, Russian Leaders Talk Amid Heightened Tensions In Karabakh
Russian peacekeepers guard an area in the town of Lachin, December 1, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by 
phone on Tuesday after Azerbaijan reportedly demanded the closure of the sole 
corridor connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, discussed the situation around the 
Lachin corridor with his top security officials as well as leaders of local 
political forces at an emergency meeting held in Stepanakert.
“Through the [Russian] peacekeeping contingent stationed in Artsakh, the 
Azerbaijani side has demanded that traffic [between Armenia and Karabakh] be 
organized along a new route in the near future,” his office said in a statement 
on the meeting.
The Karabakh leaders discussed “measures that need to be taken in the current 
situation, including ensuring safe traffic with the help of the Russian 
peacekeeping forces,” it added without elaborating.
The Azerbaijani side did not immediately comment on the claim. There were also 
no public statements by Armenian officials.
The Kremlin said Putin and Pashinian discussed “some practical aspects of 
implementing the trilateral agreements” reached by the leaders of Russia, 
Armenia and Azerbaijan during and after the 2020 war in Karabakh. It did not go 
into details. Pashinian’s office released an identical statement on the call.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat 
Mirzoyan also held a phone call on Tuesday. According to the Armenian Foreign 
Ministry, they discussed “the security situation in the region.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later in the day that Defense Minister Sergei 
Shoigu phoned his Azerbaijani counterpart Zakir Hasanov. In a short statement, 
the ministry said they spoke about regional security and “other topics of mutual 
interest.”
Nagorno-Karabakh - President Arayik Harutiunian holds an emergency meeting in 
Stepanakert, August 2, 2022.
The five-kilometer-wide Lachin corridor became Karabakh’s sole overland link to 
Armenia following the 2020 war. Armenian forces pulled out of the rest of the 
wider Lachin district under the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire that 
stopped the six-week hostilities.
The truce accord calls for the construction by 2024 of a new Armenia-Karabakh 
highway that will bypass the town of Lachin and two Armenian-populated villages 
located within the current corridor protected by Russian peacekeeping troops.
Azerbaijani and Turkish construction firms have been rapidly building a 
32-kilomer-long highway that will link up to new road sections in Armenia and 
Karabakh. Armenia’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures 
said last Friday that work on the Armenian section will start in August.
The authorities in Stepanakert reported the Azerbaijani demand to switch to the 
new corridor the day after accusing Azerbaijani forces of attacking Karabakh 
Armenian army positions in the disputed territory’s northwest. They said that 
one Karabakh soldier was wounded as a result.
A view of the village of Vank in Nagorno-Karabakh's west.
Baku denied violating the ceasefire regime. However, the Russian Defense 
Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that there were “three ceasefire violations by the 
Azerbaijani Armed Forces.”
“The Russian peacekeeper command, in cooperation with representatives of the 
Azerbaijani and Armenian sides, has resolved the situation,” added the ministry. 
“No changes in the line of contact were allowed.”
The Karabakh army also did not report fresh fighting on Tuesday. Still, its 
commander, Kamo Vartanian, said in the afternoon that “tension persists at some 
sections of the line of contact.”
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried appeared to have discussed the 
heightened tensions with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in 
separate phone calls on Monday.
“She called for de-escalation and encouraged continued dialogue,” the U.S. State 
Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs tweeted afterwards.
The European Union’s special envoy to the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, likewise 
urged the conflicting sides to “deescalate and avoid derailing an historic 
opportunity to turn the page on decades of strife.”
European Body ‘Asked For Advice’ On Armenian Asset Seizures
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Venice Commission President Claire Bazy Malaurie addresses a 
conference on judicial reforms in Yerevan, June 8, 2022.
Armenia’s Constitutional Court claims to have asked legal experts from the 
Council of Europe to give an “advisory opinion” on a controversial Armenian law 
allowing the confiscation of assets deemed to have been acquired illegally.
The law enacted two years ago allows prosecutors to seek asset forfeiture in 
case of having “sufficient grounds to suspect” that the market value of an 
individual’s properties exceeds their “legal income” by at least 50 million 
drams ($120,000).
Armenian courts can allow the nationalization of such assets even if their 
owners are not found guilty of corruption or other criminal offenses. The latter 
would have to prove the legality of their holdings.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has repeatedly portrayed this as a major 
anti-corruption measure that will help his administration recover “wealth stolen 
from the people.” Opposition figures claim, however, that Pashinian is simply 
planning a far-reaching “redistribution of assets” to cement his hold on power.
Last November, lawmakers representing Armenia’s main opposition forces appealed 
to the Constitutional Court to declare the law in question unconstitutional. 
They said that it contradicts articles of the Armenian constitution guaranteeing 
the presumption of innocence and property rights.
The court has still not ruled on the appeal. It announced on July 8 that it has 
asked the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe for legal advice on the 
matter.
The Strasbourg-based organization’s press office told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service 
on Tuesday that the Venice Commission has not yet received the application from 
Armenia’s highest court.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with judges of the Constitutional 
Court, December 27, 2021.
Ara Ghazarian, an Armenian expert on international law, suggested that the 
commission is unlikely to recommend a blanket scrapping of the law sought by the 
opposition.
“Through its case law, the European Court [of Human Rights] has long given the 
green light to the adoption and enforcement of such laws, saying that they do 
not contradict the European Convention [on Human Rights] in principle,” argued 
Ghazarian. “The Venice Commission will draw conclusions along those lines.”
At the same time, he said, the commission could call for limiting retroactive 
application of the law and making it harder for the authorities to seize assets.
Armenian prosecutors have filed 12 asset forfeiture cases in courts to date. 
They involve about 200 properties and vehicles as well as 21 billion drams ($51 
million) in cash belonging to former government or law-enforcement officials 
and/or their family members.
So far no court rulings have been handed down on any of those cases. There have 
been suggestions that judges dealing with them have serious misgivings about the 
legality of asset forfeiture.
The prosecutors have also secured court injunctions freezing a comparable amount 
of assets held by 25 other individuals or their relatives. The latter too will 
have to fight for their expensive properties, businesses and cash holdings in 
court.
Government Official Denies Crackdown On Former Yerevan Mayor
        • Narine Ghalechian
        • Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Mayor Hayk Marutian walks out of a session of Yerevan's municipal 
council shortly before it voted to oust him, December 22, 2021.
The head of an Armenian government inspectorate has denied suggestions that its 
allegations of serious financial irregularities committed by Yerevan’s municipal 
administration are designed to quash former Mayor Hayk Marutian’s political 
ambitions.
The State Oversight Service (SOS) began auditing the municipality’s financial 
operations last December just days after the city council controlled by Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party ousted Marutian.
The SOS claimed last week to have found evidence of various “violations” worth a 
combined 8.5 billion drams ($20 million). It asked law-enforcement authorities 
to investigate the findings of the audit, raising the possibility of criminal 
charges against Marutian.
Speaking in the RFE/RL studio in Yerevan on Monday, the head of the SOS, Romanos 
Petrosian, insisted that the audit and the resulting allegations are not 
politically motivated. He argued that his agency is also inspecting many other 
state bodies.
“It’s not that the SOS can arbitrarily ignore obedient [officials] and audit 
disobedient ones,” said Petrosian.
The official, who is a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party, said he 
believes that at least some of the alleged irregularities resulted from 
“corruption schemes.”
“But Hayk Marutian did not govern the city of Yerevan on his own, and [all 
municipal officials] from junior specialists to the mayor exercised their 
powers,” he went on. “So this must not be politicized.”
Responding on the SOS’s allegations late last week, Marutian said through a 
spokesman that he welcomes “efforts to increase the efficiency of resource 
management” in central and local government bodies. He did not comment further.
The ex-mayor commented scathingly on July 1 after several pro-government 
websites alleged that the Yerevan municipality embezzled or misused otherwise as 
much as $40 million on his watch. He suggested that the allegations are aimed at 
discouraging him from participating in the next municipal elections.
Marutian, 45, is a former TV comedian who actively participated in the “velvet 
revolution” that brought Pashinian to power in May 2018. Pashinian chose the 
popular entertainer to lead his bloc’s list of candidates in the last Yerevan 
elections held in September 2018
Relations between the two men deteriorated after the 2020 war over 
Nagorno-Karabakh. Marutian increasingly distanced himself from the prime 
minister’s political team and pointedly declined to support it during snap 
parliamentary elections held in June 2021.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.