Author: Karagyozian Lena

Morning Star, UK
Syria’s Kurdish administration calls for talks with Damascus in pivot
away from pro-US strategy
By Steve Sweeney
Nov. 1, 2021
KURDISH leaders in northern Syria issued an appeal for talks with
Damascus today indicating a dramatic U-turn from its previous pivot
toward the United States.
Democratic Union Party (PYD) co-chair Aldar Khalil said talks should
take place in the Syrian capital however, without the need to travel
to Geneva.
“What is wrong with us sitting and deliberating as Syrians and
proposing possible solutions to reach a formula…to all issues in
Syria,” he said in an interview with Rojava TV.
The party, which dominates the Autonomous Administration of North East
Syria (AANES) as the Rojava government is formally known, insists that
the system operated under its control could be applied to the whole of
Syria.
Mr Khalil’s pronouncement comes days after Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) second-in-command Cemil Bayik pressed the case for Syrian unity,
saying that the future for Kurds lay with Damascus.
In an interview with the al-Nahar newspaper last week he said the
Syrian government’s demand for all occupying forces to leave the
country was “legitimate.”
And he welcomed President Bashar al-Assad’s plans for decentralisation
announced in April, saying it “opened the door to reconciliation.”
It was viewed by many as an attempt to distance the PKK from the
Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria and its strategy of
seeking recognition from the US and other imperialist powers.
But a tour by Syrian Democratic Council co-chair Ilham Ahmed received
a lukewarm response, with little in terms of concrete results for the
Kurdish administration.
The strategy was criticised by a number of sources close to the
movement who feared that what was initially badged as a short-term
military alliance to defeat Isis was developing into a longer-term
political alliance.
Ms Ahmed came under fire earlier this year for comments made at a
virtual meeting of the US-based Newlines Institute – a CIA cut-out
supporting US regime change operations across the world – in which she
called for the US to maintain its presence in northern Syria.
Kurdish officials have previously stated their desire for talks with
Damascus, insisting dialogue has stalled on a number of key issues.
Today’s about-turn comes as Kurdish forces fear an imminent invasion
by Turkey which has amassed hundreds of military vehicles and hardware
in areas under its occupation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met US President Joe Biden at
the G20 in Rome on Sunday amid fears he was seeking the green light
for a new offensive.
Last week Damascus mobilised Syrian Arab Army units to the Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF)-held Tel Rifaat in anticipation of an attack
by Ankara’s forces.
T-90 battle tanks and BMP-2 infantry vehicles bearing the Syrian flag
were positioned in south-eastern Aleppo as part of defensive build-up.
 

                                        Friday, 
Prosecutors Block Trial Of Former Armenian Officials
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - The main entrance to the Office of the Prosecutor-General.
Armenian prosecutors have refused to pave the way for a trial of former Defense 
Minister Seyran Ohanian and four other men facing corruption charges, saying 
that a two-year criminal investigation conducted by another law-enforcement 
agency was flawed.
The criminal case stems from the 2010 privatization of a hydroelectric plant 
located in Armenia’s northern Lori province. It was sold to a private firm for 
for 3.6 billion drams ($7.5 million) nearly a decade after being handed over to 
the Armenian Defense Ministry.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said in May 2019 that the privatization 
caused “substantial damage” to the state because the DzoraHEK plant was in fact 
worth an estimated 8 billion drams ($16.8 million) in 2010. It subsequently 
indicted Ohanian, who served as defense minister from 2008 to 2016 and is now a 
leading member of the country’s main opposition alliance.
Ohanian has strongly denied any responsibility for the deal, saying that it was 
negotiated by the Armenian Energy Ministry and approved by the former government.
Last year the SIS also brought criminal charges against Robert Nazarian, a 
former chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), and three 
other former members of the body regulating utilities. It claimed that they 
abused their positions to let DzoraHEK’s new owner make extra profits.
An SIS statement issued in August 2020 implied that the 26-megawatt facility 
received privileged treatment from the PSRC because it was owned by “individuals 
linked to former President Serzh Sarkisian’s son-in-law Mikael Minasian.” 
DzoraHEK was sold to another private company, reportedly owned by 
Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian, in 2016.
Nazarian and the three other former utility regulators rejected the accusations 
before the law-enforcement agency concluded its investigation this spring.
Armenia - Former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian addresses an opposition rally 
in Yerevan, March 1, 2021.
A spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor-General said on Friday that it has 
refused to endorse the results of the probe and has sent the case back to the 
SIS for further investigation. He said the SIS must shed more light on “a number 
of important circumstances” of the case but did not elaborate.
It also emerged that Borya Chilingarian, an SIS official leading the 
investigation, recently offered the five suspects to drop the charges on the 
grounds of a statute of limitations. They rejected the offer, however, demanding 
that the investigators formally recognize their innocence.
“[Chilingarian] wanted to hear our position about closing or not closing [the 
criminal case] because of the statute of limitations,” Ohanian’s lawyer, Karen 
Mezhlumian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “After Mr. Ohanian refused, he sent 
the indictment to a prosecutor [overseeing the probe] so that the prosecutor 
endorses it and sends it to court.”
Chilingarian insisted earlier this year that SIS investigators have collected 
sufficient incriminating evidence.
Armenian Opposition Demands Probe Of ‘Illegal’ Troop Withdrawal
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Seyran Ohanian (right) and Artsvik Minasian, parliamentary leaders of 
the opposition Hayastan bloc, hold a news conference, Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian must be prosecuted for handing over strategic 
areas along Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province to Azerbaijan shortly after 
last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the main opposition Hayastan alliance said 
on Friday.
Syunik borders the Zangelan and Kubatli districts southwest of Karabakh which 
were mostly recaptured by Azerbaijan during the six-week hostilities stopped by 
a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November.
Armenian army units and local militias were ordered in December to withdraw from 
the rest of those districts as well as territory located along the Soviet-era 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border which has never been demarcated due to the Karabakh 
conflict.
The troop withdrawal sparked angry protests from local government officials and 
ordinary residents of Syunik. They said they can no longer feel safe because 
Azerbaijani forces will be stationed dangerously close to their communities, 
including the provincial capital Kapan.
Opposition leaders in Yerevan likewise accused Pashinian of hastily and 
illegally ceding those lands to Baku. But he insisted that “not a single inch” 
of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory was lost.
Pashinian admitted personally ordering the pullout when he spoke in the Armenian 
parliament on Wednesday.
Armenia -- Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian (R) visits a new Armenian 
army post set up in Syunik province, December 18, 2020.
“I was convinced that if such a decision is not made, military hostilities will 
break out there and we will have problems in Syunik,” he said, answering a 
question from a Syunik-born lawmaker affiliated with Hayastan.
The opposition bloc seized upon the remarks to demand that the Office of the 
Prosecutor-General launch criminal proceedings against the prime minister. The 
bloc’s parliamentary leader, Seyran Ohanian, reiterated opposition arguments 
that the November truce accord did not call for Armenian withdrawal from the 
Armenian-controlled parts of Zangelan and Kubatli.
“Nobody was allowed to issue an oral order to withdraw, especially from areas 
which would later become bones of contentions in [Armenian-Azerbaijani] border 
demarcation,” Ohanian told a news conference.
The former defense minister said Armenia should have at least retained control 
of strategic hills and roads in that border area.
The troop withdrawal left Azerbaijan in control of a 21-kilometer stretch of the 
main Armenian highway leading to Iran. Azerbaijani forces deployed there set up 
a checkpoint there in August before starting to demand hefty fees from Iranian 
trucks using the road.
The move caused serious disruptions in Armenia’s trade with Iran. Pashinian’s 
government scrambled to speed up the reconstruction of an alternative Syunik 
highway bypassing the Azerbaijani checkpoint.
Armenia Allows COVID-19 Vaccines For Minors
        • Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - A man is vaccinated against coronavirus at a mobile vaccination center 
in Yerevan, October 24, 2021.
Health authorities in Armenia have allowed children aged 12 and older to get 
vaccinated against the coronavirus with their parents’ consent.
Until now only people from age 18 onwards have been eligible for vaccines made 
available and increasingly promoted by the Armenian government.
Health Minister Anahit Avanesian announced the expansion of COVID-19 
inoculations to younger people late on Thursday amid record numbers of 
coronavirus cases and deaths recorded by the authorities. She cited the European 
Medicines Agency’s recent recommendation to authorize Moderna’s Spikevax jab for 
minors aged 12 to 17.
Avanesian’s decision means that Armenians in that age group can be inoculated 
only with Spikevax.
Armenia received the first 50,000 doses of the vaccine manufactured by the U.S. 
biotech company from Lithuania early this month. Avanesian said last week that 
another 620,000 doses of Spikevax will be donated by Moderna and the government 
of Norway.
The Armenian National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday 
morning that at least 20 children have already been vaccinated.
They included a 12-year-old daughter of former Health Minister Arsen Torosian. 
Torosian posted on his Facebook page a photograph of her taking her first dose 
of Spikevax.
Less than 10 percent of Armenia’s population has been fully vaccinated so far, 
the lowest immunization rate in wider Europe. Health officials say this is one 
of the reasons for a steady rise in coronavirus cases that began in June and 
reached record levels this month.
Almost 2,100 new cases and 43 more deaths caused by COVID-19 were registered in 
the country of about 3 million on Thursday.
The official death toll from the disease thus rose to 6,232. The figure does not 
include 1,288 other infected people who the Armenian Ministry of Health says 
have died as a result of other, chronic conditions.
Earlier this week, the government ordered Armenian universities to revert to 
online classes and extended autumn holidays in schools until November 7. It is 
now considering delaying school classes by another week.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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