Author: Markos Nalchajian

                                        Tuesday, 
Turkish President Visits Azeri-Controlled Town In Karabakh
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev 
attend a signing ceremony in Shusha, in Nagorno-Karabakh, 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited on Tuesday a part of 
Nagorno-Karabakh that Azerbaijan regained control over last autumn as a result 
of a six-week war against Armenian forces.
Erdogan's visit strongly condemned by Armenia came a day after he met with U.S. 
President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels.
Upon his arrival in Baku Erdogan traveled to the decimated town of Fizuli to the 
southeast of Nagorno-Karabakh which Azerbaijani forces recaptured last autumn 
from ethnic Armenian forces that had controlled it since the early 1990s.
RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported that Erdogan was met in Fizuli by 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his wife. They then traveled into 
Azerbaijani-controlled territory within Nagorno-Karabakh to visit the strategic 
town of Shushi (Shusha).
Azerbaijani forces seized the mountain fortress town overlooking the Karabakh 
capital Stepanakert in early November just days before Russia brokered a 
ceasefire that stopped the fighting.
Erdogan was honored there with an official greeting ceremony. Afterward, he and 
Aliyev signed a document called the Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations 
between Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Turkey provided Azerbaijan with both diplomatic and military support during the 
recent conflict. Aliyev was reported to again thank Ankara for that support at a 
joint news briefing in Shushi. He described Erdogan’s visit as historic.
According to the Turkish daily Sabah, Erdogan said, for his part, that “Karabakh 
has returned to its owners” and announced plans to open a Turkish consulate in 
Shushi.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned Aliyev’s and Erdogan’s visit to Shushi 
as a “provocation against regional peace and security.”
“It is noteworthy that this visit was preceded by the destruction of the 
religious, historical and cultural heritage of the forcibly displaced indigenous 
Armenian population, including the desecration of [Shushi’s] St. Holy Savior 
Ghazanchetsots Cathedral targeted by the Turkish-Azerbaijani forces during and 
after the war against Artsakh,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Restoration of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh (Karabakh), which 
includes de-occupation of the territories of the Republic of Artsakh and safe 
return of the displaced population, is essential for overcoming the 
Turkish-Azerbaijani genocidal threat against the Armenian people,” it said.
Serzh Sarkisian Responds To Pashinian’s Threats
        • Gayane Saribekian
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia - Former President Serzh Sarkisian and other leaders of the opposition 
Pativ Unem bloc hold an election campaign meeting in Masis,.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian has condemned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
threats to “hammer” political foes after Sunday’s parliamentary elections and 
warned that an opposition alliance led by him would put up a stiff resistance to 
any violence.
Campaigning in the northern Armenia city of Vanadzor on Monday, Sarkisian also 
accused Pashinian of being ready to provoke a “civil war” in order to stay in 
power.
Pashinian has brandished a hammer during his campaign rallies held in recent 
days, saying that it symbolizes a “steel mandate” which he hopes to receive from 
voters on election day.
“Right after the elections we will go after you with this mandate. Don’t tell us 
later that we didn’t warn you,” he said at one of those rallies, appealing to 
Armenia’s former leaders and other opposition forces challenging him in the 
elections.
“You see what he is holding in his hand, don’t you?” a visibly furious Sarkisian 
told supporters of the Pativ Unem bloc in Vanadzor. “I guess he wants someone to 
take it from his hand and bang it on his head so that he understands what it is.”
“I have said at one of our meetings that we must counter his ‘steel revolution’ 
with a shield made of a firmer substance and hold a truncheon in another hand so 
that we bang it on the head of anyone approaching us with a hammer,” he said. 
“There is no other option. What else can we do?”
Pashinian kept demonstrating his hammer and doubled down on his threats during a 
campaign trip to Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province on Tuesday. He 
specifically attacked the elected mayors of most Syunik towns and villages who 
demanded his resignation following Armenia’s defeat in the autumn war with 
Azerbaijan.
“With this thing we will be taking out those rusty nails, upstarts huddling in 
various municipalities from many places, including this place,” he told 
supporters rallying in the town of Sisian, also run by an anti-Pashinian mayor.
Armenia - Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian gather outside the main 
government building in Yerevan to join him on a campaign trip to Syunik 
province, .
Many of the local community heads defying the prime minister are affiliated with 
another opposition alliance led by former President Robert Kocharian. Pashinian 
was insulted and jeered by their protesting supporters when he toured Syunik in 
April.
The premier travelled to the region this time around in a motorcade of hundreds 
of cars carrying his own supporters from other parts of the country.
The blocs led by the two former presidents are among the main opposition 
election contenders trying to unseat Pashinian.
Sarkisian’s Pativ Unem consists of his Republican Party and the Fatherland Party 
of former National Security Service Director Artur Vanetsian. The latter tops 
the list of its election candidates.
The ex-president, who was toppled in the Pashinian-led “velvet revolution” in 
2018, is not among those candidates. Nevertheless, he has taken the center stage 
in Pativ Unem’s election campaign.
Unlike other major contenders, the bloc holds only indoor meetings with 
activists and supporters which are not announced beforehand. Journalists are not 
allowed to attend them and have to content themselves with video clips of those 
gatherings released by Pativ Unem.
Some of those videos have showed Sarkisian, Vanetsian and their political allies 
walking in the streets in and outside Yerevan and talking to local residents.
Armenian Central Bank Again Hikes Key Interest Rate
Armenia - Martin Galtsian, the chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, speaks 
at a news conference in Yerevan, June 3, 2021.
The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) raised its main interest rate on Tuesday for 
the fourth time in six months, saying that inflationary pressures on the Armenia 
economy are continuing to grow.
The CBA’s governing board set the refinancing rate at 6.5 percent, up by 0.5 
percentage points.
The minimum cost of borrowing stood at 4.25 percent when the bank began 
tightening its monetary policy in December after a major depreciation of the 
Armenian currency, the dram, followed by rising consumer prices.
In a statement explaining the latest rate hike, the CBA said that the global 
economy’s faster-than-expected recovery from the coronavirus crisis is causing 
the prices of key foodstuffs and commodities imported by Armenia to rise 
further. It said this “high inflationary environment” will persist in the months 
ahead.
The bank also reported growing consumer demand within Armenia fuelled by renewed 
economic growth, rising cash remittances from abroad and an “increase in the 
public’s inflationary expectations.” “By contrast, private investment activity 
remains weak,” it said.
According to official statistics cited by the CBA, annual inflation in the 
country reached 7.9 percent late last month, well above a 4 percent target set 
by the Armenian authorities for 2021. The CBA governor, Martin Galstian admitted 
recently that the authorities will likely fail to meet the target.
Galstian also said on June 3 that the bank will revise upwards its 1.4 percent 
economic growth forecast for 2021 made earlier this year. The CBA statement 
likewise noted Armenia’s “faster-than-anticipated recovery” from last year’s 
recession but did not specify the bank’s revised growth projections.
The Armenian government and the World Bank expect Armenia’s economy to expand by 
more than 3 percent this year after shrinking by 7.6 percent in 2020.
Armenian Ombudsman Again Slams Pashinian’s Campaign Rhetoric
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian brandishes a hammer at a campaign 
meeting in Sisian, a town in Syunik province, .
Armenia’s human rights defender, Arman Tatoyan, again criticized Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian’s fiery campaign rhetoric on Tuesday, saying that it is further 
heightening political tensions in the country.
Tatoyan described as “extremely concerning” the fact that Pashinian repeatedly 
brandished a hammer during his campaign rallies held in recent days. He also 
deplored Pashinian’s threats to “throw on the ground” and “bang against the 
wall” opposition supporters who would try to illegally influence the outcome of 
Sunday’s general elections.
“The use of phrases such as ‘make them lie on asphalt’ and ‘bang against the 
wall,’ which are addressed to a circle of unknown individuals and are extremely 
dangerous in terms of human rights, must be stopped,” the ombudsman said in a 
statement. “This unacceptable rhetoric is associated with mass violations of 
human rights.”
The hammer demonstrated by Pashinian on the campaign trail is meant to symbolize 
a popular “steel mandate” which he says he needs to continue ruling Armenia with 
a more firm hand.
“With the steel mandate we will take out all rusty nails, including in here 
Ararat [province,]” the premier told on Monday supporters rallying in Masis, a 
small town just south of Yerevan.
Pashinian doubled down on his rhetoric on Tuesday as he held campaign rallies in 
southeastern Syunik province where most town and village mayors have been openly 
defying him since Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. He 
described them as “rusty nails” that will be taken out by his hammer after the 
elections.
“With this mandate we will break their [bank] accounts, destroy their firms and 
shove each of these criminal upstarts into holes on your behalf,” he said, 
brandishing the hammer.
Armenia - Human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan talks to Armenian soldiers 
deployed in Syunik province, May 14, 2021. (Photo by the Armenian Human Rights 
Defender's Office)
In Tatoyan’s words, Pashinian’s recourse to this analogy has triggered 
“dangerous discussions” on social media, with hardcore supporters and opponents 
of the current Armenian government openly threatening violent reprisals.
“Politicians regarded as candidates for the post of Armenia’s prime minister 
must be especially careful about words used by them and take into account all 
their figurative meanings,” the ombudsman stressed.
Former President Robert Kocharian and his political allies leading the 
opposition Hayastan alliance commented scathingly on Pashinian’s hammer when 
they campaigned in Masis on Tuesday.
“We are coming not to smash the hammer on their heads but to make the country 
prosperous,” Kocharian said at an indoor meeting held there.
One of his associates, Ishkhan Saghatelian, sounded less conciliatory. “On June 
20 we will wrest the hammer from his hands and you know what we will do,” he 
told local Hayastan supporters.
Tatoyan already denounced Pashinian and his rivals last week for resorting to 
inflammatory campaign rhetoric. He singled out the prime minister’s pledges to 
“purge” the state bureaucracy and wage “political vendettas” against local 
government officials supporting the Armenian opposition.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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