Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s motorcade was accompanied, on the Sevan-Yerevan motorway, by drivers who were honking the horns of their cars and shouting “traitor.”
To note, Pashinyan on Saturday had received the Prime Minister of Georgia—in Dilijan, Armenia.
Thursday,
Armenian Speaker Wants ‘More Active’ Iranian Role In Region
Iran - Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and his Armenian counterpart
Alen Simonian hold a news briefing, Tehran, .
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian has reportedly called on Iran to play a “more
active role” in the region during an official visit to Tehran.
During his separate meeting with Iran’s president, parliament speaker and
foreign minister held on Wednesday and Thursday, Simonian also reaffirmed
Armenia’s desire to deepen ties with the Islamic Republic.
He briefed the Iranian leaders on the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
zone in the aftermath of the 2020 war which he blamed, according to the Armenian
parliament’s press office, on “the Azerbaijani-Turkish duo.”
“We hope that the Islamic Republic of Iran will play a more active role in
developments in the region,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry quoted Simonian as
telling President Ebrahim Raisi. He praised Tehran’s “constructive position” on
those developments, reported the ministry.
Raisi discussed Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian in a phone call on June 1. Iran remains opposed to any change in the
“geopolitics of the region,” he stressed in an apparent reference to Azerbaijani
demands for a land corridor that would pass through Syunik, the only Armenian
province bordering Iran.
Raisi assured Pashinian earlier that Tehran supports Armenian sovereignty over
all roads passing through Armenia. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian likewise said in October that any “changes in the region’s map”
are unacceptable to his country.
Meeting with Amir-Abdollahian, Simonian said that Armenia has always supported
“friendly Iran” in the international arena and expects a “corresponding
attitude” from the Islamic Republic.
“I think that Iran’s impartial approach to pro-Azerbaijani initiatives
circulated on international and regional platforms would seriously contribute to
the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the speaker said.
According to an Armenian parliament statement on the meeting, Simonian also
stressed the importance of “strategic dialogue” between Armenia and Iran, saying
that it will pave the way for “substantial progress” in bilateral ties.
The Armenian ambassador in Tehran, Arsen Avagian, reportedly said in April that
Yerevan wants to turn relations between the two neighboring states into
strategic partnership.
Pashinian Aide Set To Become Armenia’s Chief Prosecutor
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Deputy Justice Minister Anna Vardapetian addresses the parliament,
Yerevan, July 9, 2019.
The ruling Civil Contract party moved on Thursday to install an aide to Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian as Armenia’s next chief prosecutor.
The current prosecutor-general, Artur Davtian, will complete his six-year term
in office on September 15. He was appointed in 2016 by the country’s former
parliament dominated by then President Serzh Sarkisian’s loyalists.
Pashinian and his political allies, who control the current National Assembly,
decided not to appoint Davtian for a second term.
Their candidate for the post, Anna Vardapetian, served as a deputy minister of
justice in 2019 and became Pashinian’s assistant on legal affairs in March 2020.
Vardapetian refused to talk to reporters both before and after meeting with
Civil Contract’s parliamentarians behind the closed doors on Thursday. She did
not honor her promise to “answer all your questions after the meeting.”
The ruling party’s parliamentary leader, Hayk Konjorian, insisted that
Vardapetian will not act on government orders in her new capacity.
“I can express confidence that Ms. Vardapetian will definitely act within the
bounds of Armenia’s constitution and laws and her conscience,” Konjorian told
journalists.
Vardapetian became embroiled in a scandal last year after an Armenian media
outlet published purported evidence of her interference in a criminal
investigation into a fugitive businessman critical of Pashinian’s government.
The online publication, 168.am, posted what it described as screenshots of an
e-mail sent by Vardapetian to a senior law-enforcement officer leading the
investigation. It said that the letter contained instructions regarding
businessman Ruben Hayrapetian’s indictment.
Hayrapetian’s lawyer seized upon the allegation, saying that Vardapetian
committed a crime and must be prosecuted.
Armenia -- Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian (C) at the opening session of former
President Robert Kocharian's trial in Yerevan, May 13, 2019.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General cleared Pashinian’s aide of any wrongdoing,
however, saying that she advised, rather than pressured, the investigator.
Vardapetian has still not publicly commented on the scandal.
Davtian, the outgoing prosecutor, has also been accused by government critics,
including ex-President Sarkisian’s allies, of covering up government abuses and
bringing politically motivated cases against Pashinian’s foes. He has denied
such allegations.
Aliyev Warns Armenia Against Raising Karabakh’s Status
• Tatevik Sargsian
Azerbaijan -- President Ilham Aliyev speaks at the Global Baku Forum, June 16,
2022
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday warned Armenia against bringing
up the status of Nagorno-Karabakh in peace talks with Azerbaijan and again
demanded a land corridor passing through Armenian territory.
“Armenia’s leadership must give up attempts to rewrite history,” Aliyev told an
international conference in Baku. “History has already been written and there is
oral agreement that nobody will talk about the status. Unfortunately, there is
talk about that, which could lead to very serious consequences.”
“If Armenia continues to call into question Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity
then Azerbaijan will have no choice but do the same [against Armenia,]” he said.
In that context, Aliyev again described Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province
as a “historically Azerbaijani territory.”
Baku has been pushing for a peace treaty with Yerevan that would commit the two
sides to recognizing each other’s territorial integrity. Yerevan says that
issues relating to the future of status of Karabakh and the security of its
population should also be on the agenda of planned talks on the treaty.
Aliyev already ruled out any discussions on Karabakh’s status and threatened to
lay claim to Armenian territory late last month. The Armenian Foreign Ministry
deplored his “bellicose” statements. It said that “negotiations on the
normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be held on the
basis of proposals of both sides.”
Aliyev on Thursday also reiterated his demands for a corridor that would connect
Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik. He said it should be
similar to the existing Russian-controlled Lachin corridor connecting Karabakh
and Armenia.
Aliyev implicitly threatened to resort to military action if the Armenian side
continues to oppose such an overland link for Nakhichevan.
“If they don’t ensure that link for us it will be very hard to speak about
peace,” he warned.
Armenian leaders have repeatedly rejected such demands. They maintain that
Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Russia and the European Union call
for only conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Visiting Yerevan last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that
Armenia will control the planned road and railway that will connect Nakhichevan
to the rest of Azerbaijan. Lavrov said the Armenian side will only simplify
border crossing procedures for Azerbaijani cargo and travellers.
Armenian Opposition To Seek No-Confidence Vote In Pashinian
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Parliament deputies fromt the opposition Hayastan alliance attend a
session of the National Assembly, Yerevan, August 4, 2021.
A leader of the Armenian opposition said on Thursday that it will push for a
parliamentary vote of confidence in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in addition
to holding more street protests against him.
The country’s two main opposition forces tried unsuccessfully to topple
Pashinian during more than six weeks of virtually daily demonstrations launched
on May 1. They dismantled their tent camp in the center of Yerevan on Wednesday
after announcing that they will now rally supporters on a weekly basis.
“Nikol Pashinian’s removal continues to top our agenda,” said Ishkhan
Saghatelian, the main speaker at the anti-government protests. “Starting from
August, we will have a new tool in our arsenal: the process of deposing [the
prime minister.]”
“To that end, we need to work in two directions,” he told reporters. “First,
creating political and legal grounds for the impeachment … and demonstrating
popular, public demand for this. And second, nominating the people’s candidate
for prime minister.”
Under the Armenian constitution, the parliament cannot oust the prime minister
through a vote of no confidence during their first year in office. Pashinian was
formally reelected by the current National Assembly on August 2, 2021.
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party enjoys a comfortable majority in the
parliament. The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs hold just under
one-third of the parliament seats needed for filing a no-confidence motion
against the government.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian attends his government's
question-and-answer session in the Armenian parliament, June 14, 2022.
Saghatelian did not clarify whether they are confident about provoking
defections from the parliament’s pro-government majority.
“We will start the impeachment process only when there are sufficient conditions
for its success,” he said vaguely.
Pashinian and his political allies have dismissed opposition demands for his
resignation. They say that the opposition has failed to attract popular support
for regime change.
Saghatelian again put a brave face on Hayastan’s and Pativ Unem’s failure so far
to unseat the prime minister. He reiterated that they have at least succeeded in
disrupting Pashinian’s “timetable for new concessions” to Azerbaijan.
The opposition blocs launched their campaign on May 1 two weeks after Pashinian
signaled his readiness to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and
“lower the bar” on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh acceptable to the Armenian
side.
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.
ArmInfo.On June 16, the delegation headed by Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejcinovic Buric, accompanied by RA Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan, arrived in Armenia on an official visit to the Tsitsernakabert Memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
According to the press service of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Deputy Director for Museum Affairs of the Museum-Institute Lusine Abrahamyan introduced the guests to the history of the creation of the memorial and spoke about three khachkars installed on the territory of Tsitsernakaberd, which are dedicated to the memory of Armenians who died during the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population in Azerbaijan at the end of the last century.
Members of the CoE delegation laid flowers at the eternal fire and honored the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide with a minute of silence. They also got acquainted with the permanent and temporary expositions of the Armenian Genocide Museum, after which Mrs. Marija Pejcinovic Buric made an entry in the Book of Honored Guests.
Five days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement on the “simplified regime” of the road through the territory of Armenia, which should connect Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan, it is not officially specified what this means.
However, some details about the ongoing negotiations became known. Azatutyun.am reported.
“So, Azerbaijani cargoes and passengers entering the territory of Armenia will first be checked by the Russian border service and then by the Armenian customs service. Then the crossing will be accompanied by an Armenian patrol, which will include at least one Russian officer. Will the same conditions be applied in case of Armenian cargoes and passengers entering the territory of Azerbaijan? According to the same sources the negotiations are still going on. Journalist Tatul Hakobyan wrote about it the other day, according to whose information Baku demanded a Russian patrol.
Official Moscow and Yerevan published different information after the meeting of the three countries’ vice-premiers in Moscow about ten days ago. According to the Russian government, the sides have brought their positions closer on border, customs and other controls. Meanwhile, according to the Armenian government, the sides clarified their approaches. The approaches have not been officially clarified yet,” the media reported.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10. On the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, changes have been made to the statements of the head of the foreign policy department of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, about the situation in the village of Farrukh, Khojaly region, voiced by him in Yerevan during a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, Trend reports.
Earlier, commenting on the situation in the village of Farrukh, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said that “the Russian military continues to keep the situation as one of its priorities. There are certain results on the ground in terms of the de-escalation of this situation. And we have an understanding that as part of the ongoing substantive work on delimitation, these issues will definitely be considered and resolved.”
The transcript of the press conference between Lavrov and Mirzoyan was published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry. The transcript was amended and Lavrov’s words were published in the following edition:
“As for the situation, the Russian military (our Armenian friends are well aware of this) “keep” it as one of their priorities. There are already certain results “on the ground” in terms of de-escalation of the situation. We expect that the launch of the process of delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border will help increase confidence between Baku and Yerevan and prevent incidents like Farrukh in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.”
As the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said earlier in response to these statements by Lavrov, the activities of the delimitation commissions set up by Azerbaijan and Armenia pursue the goal of delimiting the state border of the two countries, as it was envisaged.
“This process doesn’t envisage consideration of any issues outside the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, including those related to the Azerbaijani territories where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporary deployed [in accordance with the trilateral statement signed between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders following the 2020 Second Karabakh War],” ministry said.
11:10,
YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. “Arabic reports from Armenia: Heritage for Cultural Dialogue” temporary exhibition will open in the National Library of Qatar on June 14 with the support of the Armenian Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport.
The Armenian governmental delegation led by the Prime Minister is in Qatar on a two-day official visit.
9 duplicate samples from the numismatic and archeological collections of the History Museum of Armenia will be displayed at the exhibition, the ministry of culture said.
The posters will display cultural values and historical facts about the Armenian-Arabic long-lasting relations.
The exhibition will be open at the Qatar National Library for a week.
12:15, 7 June 2022
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. VK First Deputy CEO Vladimir Gabrielyan and the company’s procurement director Sergey Merzlyakov died in an accident in the Nenets Autonomous Region in Russia’s Arctic, the Russian social networking company told TASS.
“Very sad news emerged this morning about the tragic death of Vladimir Gabrielyan and Sergey Merzlyakov in an accident. We mourn [their deaths] with their families and friends”, the VK press service said.
Earlier, the Union of Reindeer Herders reported that Gabrielyan had gone missing near the village of Shoina. The all-terrain vehicle he was riding in overturned.
PanARMENIAN.Net – The situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh village of Parukh is in the center of attention of Russian peacekeepers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a press conference with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in Yerevan on Thursday, June 9.
“As for the situation (in Parukh), it is a priority for the Russian military, and our Armenian friends are aware of this. There are already certain results on the ground in terms of de-escalation of the situation,” Lavrov said, according to Sputnik Armenia.
The Russian foreign policy chief maintained that there is an understanding that these issues will be considered and resolved as part of the upcoming work on delimitation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani troops continue to remain in positions they set up on Karaglukh, a strategic height in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azeri forces stormed in March, killing injuring Armenian soldiers.
17:15, 9 June 2022
YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan commented on the ongoing protests in the country, stating that there is no political crisis in Armenia.
During a press conference today with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Mirzoyan told a reporter that he can substantiate his statement by two facts. “Firstly, snap parliamentary elections were held last summer, where the citizens of Armenia gave very clear answers to a number of questions and solved the political crisis that really existed that time. It’s worth noting that these elections were recognized as democratic and transparent by all observer missions. So, this shows that citizens undoubtedly had a chance to express their position and make a decision.
Secondly, we follow, as far as I managed to follow, the small number of people participating in rallies, perhaps, doesn’t show that these rallies are supported by the citizens of Armenia. But I want to note that Armenia is a democratic country, and everyone has a right to hold peaceful rallies”, the FM said.
Touching upon the logical sides of this process, the FM said he could present his own, personal position. “I see some problems with sound judgment here and I can state why. Firstly, that political forces have a chance to run their activity in the parliament and strongly criticize the authorities and ask the sharpest questions, which, unfortunately or fortunately, they do not use. It is their right again.
And secondly, the most important, the content part of the issue: as far as I managed to follow and understand, the forces that organize and participate in the rallies state that Armenia is not running a right policy over Nagorno Karabakh, is not running a right policy in the directions, the negotiations, I already mentioned, with Azerbaijan, and is not running a right policy in the process of normalizing the relations between Armenia and Turkey, and so on.
And here I want to state that strangely we have not seen statements that, if our government resigns, and the power is somehow transmitted to these forces, they are going to cancel, for example, the November 9 trilateral statement, or the trilateral statements of 2021 January 11 and November 26, or they are going to withdraw from the delimitation process, or they are going to suspend the process of unblocking the regional communications, etc. In other words, if such an approach was announced, perhaps it would have been logical, because I have already presented our approach and it has been announced long ago. And I suppose that it would have been logical if these aspiring political forces have had opposite positions on these key matters. As I said, I didn’t manage to follow much, but as far as I managed, I didn’t meet any talk on suspending the processes I mentioned or withdrawing from that processes, which allows me to suppose that the topic that is being discussed is just a way and occasion of manipulation by the opposition”, he said.
Opposition leaders and supporters on Friday staged a protest outside the Armenian presidential palace in central Yerevan hosting a CSTO summit.
Demonstrators demanding Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation marched towards the presidential palace from France Square in the morning to tell the CSTO foreign ministers that the current authorities have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Armenia and Artsakh.
Opposition MPs made statements and protesters chanted anti-Pashinyan slogans near the palace heavily guarded by police officers.
“Today, we communicated a clear message,” Hayastan bloc MP Gegham Manukyan said. “Every delegation [visiting Armenia] now realizes that the situation in Armenia has changed and one should not make long-term plans with those in power.”
He reiterated that there is a political crisis in Armenia, which the Resistance Movement is striving to resolve. Afterwards, Manukyan urged protesters to return to France Square to plan their further actions.