Author: Nahapetian Samvel

Agence France Presse
July 20, 2017 Thursday 12:21 PM GMT
Azerbaijan jails Russian-Israeli blogger for three years
 Baku, July 20 2017
Azerbaijan on Thursday sentenced a Russian-Israeli travel blogger who
wrote in support of Armenian separatists to three years in jail for
visiting the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh.
Alexander Lapshin -- who also has Ukrainian citizenship -- was put on
trial after he was arrested in the Belarusian capital Minsk in 2016
and extradited to Azerbaijan in February.
Lapshin was found guilty of illegally crossing tightly controlled
Azerbaijan's state border by visiting the territory of Nagorny
Karabakh in 2011 and 2012. He was acquitted of a second charge of
making public statements against the country.
Nagorny Karabakh has been under Armenian control since it was seized
during a bloody conflict in the early 1990s after the break-up of the
Soviet Union.
The territory is still internationally recognised as part of
Azerbaijan and visiting it without Baku's permission is a criminal
offence in the country.
In court Lapshin told the judge that he felt a "moral, not a criminal
guilt" and apologised for writing blogs advocating for Nagorny
Karabakh to be split officially from Azerbaijan.
The sentence makes Lapshin the first foreigner to be jailed in
Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorny Karabakh.
Amnesty International has previously condemned the detention of
Lapshin -- who mainly wrote about his experiences travelling the globe
-- and called for his immediate release.
Azerbaijan and Armenia remain locked in a bitter dispute over Nagorny
Karabakh, with frequent exchanges of fire along the volatile frontline
nearly spiralling back into all-out war last year.
The two sides have never signed a definitive peace deal and attempts
to negotiate a final settlement have long been stalled.
Azerbaijan has been under the authoritarian rule of President Ilham
Aliyev since he rose to power after the death of his father Heydar.
The oil-rich country has repeatedly been accused by rights groups of
using spurious charges to crack down on dissent against Aliyev's
regime.

Please find the attached press release of the Ministry of Diaspora.
Sincerely,
Media and PR Department:
( 374 10) 585601, internal 805
----------------------
Sincerely
Department of Press and Public Relations
( 374 10) 585601, extension 805

Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan participated in the award ceremony of "Armenian PR Association".docx
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                                        Monday, July 3, 2017
Major Loan To Help Modernize Armenian Electric Utility
Armenia - A newly refurbished energy distribution facility in Gyumri,
13Sep2014.
The Asian Development Bank (ABD) has provided Armenia's national power
distribution network with an $80 million loan designed to further cut
its substantial losses and make electricity supplies in the country
more reliable.
"The investment will help the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA)
improve private sector electricity distribution in Armenia by reducing
distribution losses from around 10% in 2016 to around 8% by 2021," the
Manila-based lending institution said in a statement released on
Monday.
This will be achieved through "rehabilitating, reinforcing, and
augmenting the distribution network, connecting new customers and
introducing international standards of management and automated
control system," said the statement.
"The investment program will contribute to the government of Armenia's
goal of energy independence and energy efficiency," Sonali Tang, a
senior ADB executive, was quoted as saying.
ENA had incurred mounting losses since 2010, despite repeated
increases in electricity prices approved by Armenian state
regulators. The electric utility had $220 million in outstanding debts
to Armenian power plants and commercial banks when it was acquired by
the Tashir Group of the Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian
from Inter RAO, a state-run Russian energy giant, in October
2015. Karapetian pledged to make the troubled utility "much better
under our management."
The most recent electricity price hike announced by Armenia's Public
Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) in June 2015 sparked two-week
demonstrations in Yerevan. They forced the Armenian government to keep
the energy tariffs unchanged for most households and some small
businesses through a subsidy.
The protests were driven by a widely held belief that Armenians are
made to pay for widespread corruption within the ENA management. While
defending the tariff rise, government officials acknowledged that the
power grids have been mismanaged by the Russians.
The government stated over a year ago that the new owner has managed
to cut ENA's losses within months after buying the troubled network.
Armenian Watchdog Decries Vote Buying
 . Anush Muradian
Armenia - Armenians vote in parliamentary elections at a polling
station in Yerevan, 2Apr2017.
Vote buying was decisive in the ruling Republican Party's victory in
the recent parliamentary elections, Armenia's leading anti-corruption
watchdog claimed on Monday.
In a report on the conduct of the April 2 polls, the Armenian
affiliate of Transparency International, the Anti-Corruption Center
(ACC), said its members recorded 90 cases of vote bribes during the
parliamentary race. Most of them were handed out by the ruling HHK, it
said.
Presenting the report, the ACC's director for programs, Varuzhan
Hoktanian, said that other election contenders, notably businessman
Gagik Tsarukian's Bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun), also engaged in the illegal practice. "But if we
look at the scale [of vote buying,] it was mainly done by the
Republican Party," he told a reporters.
Western observers mostly deployed by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe said although "fundamental freedoms were
generally respected" the elections were "tainted by credible
information about vote-buying, and pressure on civil servants and
employees of private companies."
In a joint April 3 statement, they did not report significant
instances of other violations such as multiple voting or ballot
stuffing. The United States and the European Union echoed the findings
of the OSCE-led mission, while cautiously praising the overall conduct
of the vote.
An HHK spokesman admitted on April 5 that vote bribes were
distributed. But he insisted that they did not have a "substantial
impact on the election results" that gave a landslide victory to the
party headed by President Serzh Sarkisian.
The ACC report also accuses the HHK of illegally using government
resources in its election campaign. In particular, it says, government
officials and public sector employees worked for HHK campaign offices
or participated in campaign events organized by the party during their
work hours. Also, employees of schools, kindergartens and even
hospitals were pressurized into campaigning for the HHK, according to
the report.
The anti-graft watchdog also accused the Tsarukian Bloc and
Dashnaktsutyun of abusing their administrative resources in a similar
fashion in local communities run by their members.
Hoktanian was very skeptical about several dozen criminal cases that
were opened by Armenian law-enforcement agencies in connection with
reported election irregularities. "I don't think that # that will lead
to some really serious results," he said.
Hoktanian also said that the abuses of administrative resources were
facilitated by the weakness of Armenia's opposition forces. "Money
plays a very important role in politics," he said. "I don't mean to
say that they are weak only because of [a lack of] money. But those
financial problems do exist."
Karabakh Leader Set To Extend Rule
 . Hovannes Movsisian
 . Ruzanna Stepanian
Nagorno-Karabakh - Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president, at a polling
station in Stepanakert, 20Feb2017.
Bako Sahakian, Nagorno-Karabakh's president, looks set to remain in
power for at least three more years after controversial constitutional
changes that were enacted earlier this year.
A new Karabakh constitution approved in a referendum in February
abolished the post of prime minister and gave more powers to the
president of the unrecognized republic.
Sahakian's administration says a fully presidential system of
government would put the Armenian-populated territory in a better
position to cope with the unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan. Its
opponents maintain, however, that the main purpose of the change is to
enable him to stay in power after he completes his second and what was
supposed to be final five-year term in September 2017.
The previous constitution barred him from seeking a third term. The
new one essentially abolished this restriction. It will fully come
into force after Karabakh's current legislature dominated by
Sahakian's supporters serves out its term in 2020.
Karabakh would be governed by an interim president chosen by the
parliament until then. The local legislature will meet to fill that
position at the end of this month.
The Democratic Party of Artsakh, one of Karabakh's main pro-government
groups, formally nominated Sahakian's candidacy for the interim
presidency on Saturday. Free Fatherland, the largest parliamentary
force headed by Ara Harutiunian, the Karabakh prime minister, is
expected to follow suit at a conference slated for Wednesday.
Sahakian's spokesman, Davit Babayan, confirmed that the Karabakh
leader may extend his decade-long rule. "The law does not prohibit
that," he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Hayk Khanumian, the leader of the opposition Revival party, predicted
that local lawmakers will duly vote for Sahakian. Khanumian said the
constitutional change was always aimed at allowing him to cling to
power.
In Armenia, meanwhile, President Serzh Sarkisian's Republican Party
(HHK) voiced support on Monday for Sahakian's continued rule. Eduard
Sharmazanov, the HHK spokesman, dismissed critics' concerns that it
will reflect negatively on Karabakh's declared democratic credentials
and image abroad. "Many countries would dream about having a national
leader like Bako Sahakian," he said.
"For the Republic of Artsakh (Karabakh), the number one issue is
security, and Bako Sahakian is the kind of leader who can solve it,"
Sharmazanov told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Sahakian will also be able to run for president in 2020 and hold
Karabakh's top post for two consecutive terms.
Red Cross Officials Visit Armenian Captive In Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan- Zaven Karapetian, an Armenian captive.
Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
have met with an Armenian man who was detained by Azerbaijani
authorities last month after crossing into Azerbaijan in still unclear
circumstances.
The Azerbaijani military claimed to have captured the 43-year-old
Zaven Karapetian while thwarting an Armenian incursion into
Azerbaijani territory on June 20. A televised video circulated by it
showed him presenting himself as a resident of Dovegh, a border
village in Armenia's northern Tavush province, and saying that he
works for an Armenian army unit stationed in the area.
The Armenian Defense Ministry was quick to deny that Karapetian is a
serviceman. For their part, residents of Dovegh said that they do not
know him.
According to the Armenian police, Karapetian resided in Vanadzor, an
Armenian city around 130 kilometers southwest of Dovegh. A police
statement also said that he has a history of mental disorders.
An ICRC spokeswoman in Yerevan, Zara Amatuni, told RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) that the Azerbaijani authorities allowed
officials from the Red Cross office in Baku to visit Karapetian in
custody on Saturday. Amatuni declined to give details of their
conversation with the Armenian captive.
Press Review
(Saturday, July 1)
Areg Galstian, a political analyst, tells "168 Zham" that Armenia
should tell Russia that it has no reason to be worried about the
planned signing of a new framework agreement between Armenia and the
European Union. Armenian leaders could also argue, he says, that
although Armenia has joined the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union
(EEU) and voted against anti-Russian UN resolutions Moscow has
continued to sell weapons to Azerbaijan. He says Yerevan could also
rebuke Moscow for not adequately reacting to Azerbaijani truce
violations along Armenia's border with Azerbaijan.
"Hraparak" that says that Tatevik Grigorian, a 30-year-old judge, is
too young and inexperienced to preside over the trial of Zhirayr
Sefilian, a radical opposition figure prosecuted for allegedly
plotting to seize government buildings. The paper argues that she took
the bench only two years ago. "She was entrusted with the trial
despite her lack of experience, the gravity of the case, the
pronounced public interest [in the case] and the involvement of
experienced adversaries: defense lawyers," it says. "The presence of
such a judge makes observers want to joke, to ridicule and to
politicize the trial."
"Aravot" welcomes calls for an armed uprising against the Armenian
government that have been made by Varuzhan Avetisian, a senior member
of Sefilian's Founding Parliament movement who the led the armed group
that seized a police station in Yerevan last year. The paper says that
although it strongly disapproves of violent methods of political
struggle it finds Avetisian's calls "sincere" and thinks that they
draw a clear line between proponents and opponents of armed resistance
to the government.
"Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that a powerful hailstorm swept through
Armenia's central Aragatsotn province on June 29, causing serious
damage to farmers in several local villages. The paper says that the
damage was particularly severe in one of those villages, Kakavadzor.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

Please find the attached press release of the Ministry of Diaspora.
Sincerely,
Media and PR Department:
( 374 10) 585601, internal 805
----------------------
Sincerely
Department of Press and Public Relations
( 374 10) 585601, extension 805

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