Thursday,
Pashinian Aide Reassures Armenian Tycoons
• Harry Tamrazian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
ARMENIA -- A shop owner displays a T-shirt depicting the opposition lawmaker,
Nikol Pashinian, in Yerevan, May 4, 2018
A close associate of Nikol Pashinian has insisted that wealthy businesspeople
linked to the outgoing Armenian government will not risk losing their assets
after the opposition leader’s widely anticipated appointment as the country’s
prime minister.
Ararat Mirzoyan said that the new Armenian leadership will only strive to break
up economic monopolies, boost competition and separate business from government.
“There is going to be no property redistribution because that would mean
building the state from scratch, which would be fraught with very unpredictable
consequences,” Mirzoyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “The
fact is that there are people who own particular businesses. We are not going
to wrest anything from these people. These people will continue [to own their
assets.]”
“But the rules of the game will change,” he stressed in a weekend interview.
“Nobody will have a monopoly in any sector.”
Mirzoyan specifically referred to wealthy individuals who have been linked to
former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) and have long relied
on government connections in doing business. “Everyone [in the HHK] can rest
assured that nothing threatens their businesses and their, their family
members’ and friends’ physical safety,” he said.
“Let the business owners serenely take care of their businesses. They will not
need to hold parliament seats or any state positions in order to secure their
businesses,” added Mirzoyan.
Armenia-Parliament deputy Ararat Mirzoyan is interviewed by RFE/RL in Yerevan,
9 January, 2018.
Pashinian likewise reiterated on Monday that he will not wage “vendettas”
against the HHK leadership or tycoons close it if the Armenian parliament
elects him prime minister on Tuesday. “The page of political and economic
persecutions in Armenia has been turned,” he told reporters.
“The new rules of the game will be the rule of law,” Pashinian said when asked
about policy changes that will affect the business community. He would not say
whether he will order high-profile inquiries into lucrative firms that have
long been suspected of tax evasion.
Some Armenian tycoons have already publicly voiced strong support for
Pashinian’s opposition movement. They include tobacco magnates Mikael Vartanian
and his brother Karen. The Vartanian family is one of the richest in the
country.
Another tycoon, Gagik Tsarukian, has struck an alliance Pashinian. Tsarukian’s
Prosperous Armenia Party boasts the second largest faction in the parliament.
Pashinian made clear on Monday that there will be no “oligarchs” in his
government. But he again shed no light on its likely composition.
Ter-Petrosian Warns Armenian Protest Movement
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia -- Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian (C) with Nikol Pashinian (R)
and Sasun Mikayelian at Liberty Square in Yerevan, 31 May, 2011.
In a stern warning that seems primarily addressed to his erstwhile ally Nikol
Pashinian, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian has claimed that the ongoing
political transition in Armenia may be marred by a violation of the country’s
constitution.
Ter-Petrosian expressed serious concern over the weekend at the resignation of
two lawmakers who broke ranks during the May 1 parliament vote on Pashinian’s
bid to become prime minister.
One of them, Grigor Avalian, stepped down after refusing to join fellow
deputies from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) in voting against
the main organizer of massive street protests that have toppled Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian. Avalian is reportedly linked to two wealthy businessmen
brothers strongly supporting the protest movement.
The other lawmaker, Aghvan Vartanian, represented the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), Sarkisian’s former junior coalition partner which
has also backed the protests. Unlike the six other Dashnaktsutyun deputies, he
refused to vote for Pashinian’s premiership.
The Dashnaktsutyun leadership demanded that Vartanian give up his parliament
seat before expelling him from the party’s ranks on Friday. Vartanian too
decided to resign from the National Assembly.
Ter-Petrosian said that both lawmakers were forced to quit in breach of an
article of the Armenian constitution which protects parliamentarians against
any coercion by their parties or even voters. He said parliament speaker Ara
Babloyan must urge both Avalian and Vartanian to withdraw their resignations.
“Failure to do that would mean that the constitution has been violated not only
by the two parties but also all deputies of the National Assembly,” the
ex-president said in written comments posted on Ilur.am.
“It is unacceptable for ‘New Armenia’ to begin its existence with an
unconstitutional step,” Ter-Petrosian went on. “The leadership of the ongoing
political movement and Nikol Pashinian personally must be first and foremost
interested in [preventing] that.”
Speaker Babloyan said on Monday that both lawmakers have assured him that their
resignations were the result of their personal “convictions,” rather than
pressure. There has been no reaction yet from Pashinian and his allies.
Pashinian played a prominent role in Ter-Petrosian’s broad-based opposition
movement that nearly brought the ex-president back to power in a disputed
presidential election held in February 2008. He spent about two years in prison
on dubious charges stemming from the March 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan.
Pashinian fell out with Ter-Petrosian after being released from prison in 2011.
Accordingly, his relationship with Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress
(HAK) opposition party has been strained.
As recently as in February this year, the HAK’s deputy chairman, Levon
Zurabian, scoffed at Pashinian’s plans to try to stop then President Serzh
Sarkisian from extending his decade-long rule. Zurabian said Pashinian and
other leaders of the Yelk alliance themselves made it easier for Sarkisian to
hold on to power when they declined to campaign against his controversial
constitutional changes in 2015.
Even so, the HAK voiced support for the Pashinian-led movement as it gained
momentum in mid-April. It demanded Pashinian’s immediate release when he was
detained on April 22, the day before Sarkisian decided to resign as prime
minister.
Jailed Oppositionist Freed
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Opposition activist Andrias Ghukasian waves to supporters in a
courtroom in Yerevan, 7 May 2018.
An Armenian opposition activist was released from custody on Monday pending a
verdict in his trial on charges of aiding gunmen that seized a police station
in Yerevan in 2016 to demand then President Serzh Sarkisian’s resignation.
The activist, Andrias Ghukasian, was one of the organizers of demonstrations
held in support of the armed members of a fringe opposition group. The charges
levelled against him stem from one of those rallies organized on July 29, 2016
in Yerevan’s Sari Tagh neighborhood close to the besieged police base.
Riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the protesters after
they refused to march back to the city center. Several organizers of the
protest were arrested and charged with provoking “mass disturbances.” All of
them except Ghukasian were subsequently released from custody.
The 47-year-old also stands accused of planning to have the protesters break
through a police cordon, join the gunmen and thus prolong their standoff with
security forces, which left three police officers dead. He denies the
accusations as politically motivated.
Ghukasian offered to post bail shortly after he went on trial in August last
year. The judge in the case turned down the request as “unfounded,” prompting
strong criticism from the defendant and his lawyer.
Ghukasian was freed in the courtroom this time around in return for a written
pledge not to leave Yerevan until the judge, Vartan Grigorian, hands down a
verdict in the case. A trial prosecutor objected to his release.
The court order followed a dramatic change of the political situation in
Armenia. Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian, who is widely expected to become
Armenia’s prime minister on Tuesday, has repeatedly described Ghukasian as a
political prisoner.
Armenian Parliament Majority Vows To Hand Over Power To Protest Leader
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian is about to address the National
Assembly in Yerevan, 1 May 2018.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) again pledged on
Monday to ensure that opposition leader Nikol Pashinian garners enough votes in
Armenia’s parliament to become prime minister on Tuesday.
The 105-member National Assembly will meet again one week after its
HHK-controlled majority blocked Pashinian’s bid to replace Sarkisian as the
country’s leader. The move provoked a fresh wave of anti-government protests
which brought the country to a standstill. The HHK promptly promised on May 2
that it will help the protest leader get elected on May 8.
The HHK spokesman, Eduard Sharmazanov, reaffirmed that pledge after a joint
meeting of the party’s governing board and parliamentary faction which was
chaired by Sarkisian.
“If I’m not mistaken 45 signatures [of parliamentarians] in support of
Pashinian have been collected, and the Republican Party will ensure, with a
sufficient number of votes, that we have a prime minister,” he told reporters.
“This has been decided by the faction. We have urged our deputies to vote for
[Pashinian.]”
Sharmazanov declined to say how many members of the HHK’s 57-strong faction
will support Pashinian’s candidacy. “You’ll find out tomorrow,” he said.
ARMENIA -- Supporters of the opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinian hold a rally
in the Republic square in Yerevan on Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Pashinian, whose massive protests forced Sarkisian to resign as prime minister
on April 23, is expected to be backed on Tuesday by wealthy businessmen who
were elected to the parliament on the HHK ticket. “I will vote for Nikol
Pashinian tomorrow,” one of those tycoons, Samvel Aleksanian, reiterated on
Monday.
Pashinian, 42, appeared confident about his coming to power when he appealed to
supporters on Facebook earlier in the day.
“As a result of political consultations, I can say that there are now no
indications that the prime minister may not be elected tomorrow,” Pashinian
said in a video address. “I think that everything will go according to plan.
Namely, the National Assembly will appoint the candidate chosen by the people
as prime minister.”
Pashinian again told supporters to gather in Yerevan’s Republic Square and
watch the parliament debate from big screens that will be placed there. He said
he will address them right after the vote.
Pashinian has been nominated for the top executive post by the parliamentary
factions of his Yelk alliance, businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s bloc and the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
U.S. Rock Star Hails ‘Beautiful Revolution’ In Armenia
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Armenian-American rock musician Serj Tankian (L) and opposition
leader Nikol Pashinian appear before thousands of people rallying in Republic
Square in Yerevan, 7 May 2018.
Serj Tankian, a prominent Armenian-American rock musician, received a hero’s
welcome late on Monday after arriving in Armenia to show support for the
protest movement led by Nikol Pashinian.
Tankian saluted the “beautiful revolution” as he addressed thousands of mostly
young people in Yerevan’s central Republic Square, the main venue of massive
anti-government protests led by Pashinian. He said the movement has not only
paved the way for democratic change in the country but also enhanced the
international standing of the Armenian people.
“The world is watching you as a positive example,” Tankian said in a short
speech. “You have achieved your goal by singing, dancing and smiling.”
“Just like you, I dreamed of this day for many years and am now proud of
standing alongside you,” added the lead singer of the U.S. rock band System Of
A Down (SOAD).
Pashinian, who greeted Tankian at the Zvartnots international airport and
personally escorted him to Republic Square, also addressed the crowd, paying
tribute to “our glorious compatriot.”
Tankian has been very supportive of his campaign that forced Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian to resign on April 23. Pashinian is widely expected to succeed
Sarkisian as premier on Tuesday.
“I am elated, I am … excited,” Tankian told reporters at Zvartnots. “I’m so
happy to be here.”
Armenia - U.S. rock band System of a Down holds a first-ever concert in
Yerevan, 23Apr2015.
Sarkisian’s resignation came exactly three years after SOAD’s first-ever
concert in Armenia which took place at Republic Square and drew tens of
thousands of spectators. Tankian, 50, used that show to call on the Armenian
government to end “institutional injustice” in the country.
The world-famous musician likewise called for rule of law and a fight against
corruption in Armenia during his previous trip to his ancestral homeland in
2011. He also deplored serious fraud that was reported during an Armenian
presidential election held in 2013.
Together with several other prominent Diaspora Armenians, Tankian monitored
last year’s parliamentary elections that were won by Sarkisian’s Republican
Party.
Press Review
(Saturday, May 5)
“Zhoghovurd” says that the authors of Armenia’s new constitution made the
conduct of fresh parliamentary elections as difficult as possible in order to
minimize “variants of regime change” and “perpetuate” the Republican Party’s
hold on power. The paper complains about confusing and complicated
constitutional provisions relating to the dissolution of the National Assembly.
“Zhamanak” says that while opposition leader Nikol Pashinian’s appointment as
prime minister seems a forgone conclusion there are lingering worries about the
possible obstruction of his work by not only the Republican Party (HHK) but
also businessman Gagik Tsarukian’s alliance. The paper says that after becoming
prime minister Pashinian will be regarded by Tsarukian as “not only an ally but
also a rival.” “Political capitalization of the velvet revolution remains an
open question,” it says. “The lack of it could become a problem at the next
stage.”
“Aravot” says the widely held belief that the democratic revolution in Armenia
has been a success is “too optimistic.” “It will be possible to speak of
success only if we manage to build a better state and society,” editorializes
the paper. “Thousands of people who have dealt with injustice in the last 25
years or think that they have will protest outside the government building with
their just or not so just demands.” It says that Armenians need to be “a little
patient” and realize that genuine reform of state institutions will take some
time. The paper also warns of the risk of Pashinian or other leaders of his
movement becoming “the kind of figures that have been rejected by the
revolution.” Armenia already went through such a disappointment in the early
1990s, it says.
(Tatev Danielian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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