Author: Toneyan Mark

                                        Monday, 
Pashinian Urges End To Mine Site Blockade
Armenia - Gold mining facilities constructed by Lydian International company at 
Amulsar deposit, 18 May 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday called on protesters to unblock roads 
leading to a massive gold deposit in southeastern Armenia, saying that his 
government has no “legal grounds” to ban its development by a Western mining 
company.
Pashinian said that failure to allow the company, Lydian International, to mine 
gold at the Amulsar deposit would have severe consequences for Armenia’s 
economy and even national security. He also argued that Lydian has given the 
Armenian government more guarantees that mining operations there would not 
contaminate water, soil and air.
“As it stands, we have no legal grounds to prohibit the exploitation of the 
Amulsar mine,” Pashinian declared in a 40-minute video message aired on 
Facebook and primarily addressed to residents of Jermuk, a resort town close to 
the would-be gold mine.
“I am asking residents of Jermuk to unblock all roads leading to Amulsar 
because you don’t need to block the roads, because if your government sees a 
legitimate need to block those roads it will do that with its levers, legal 
powers vested in it,” he said.
“I am convinced that on this issue we will adopt a common position and will not 
make mistakes that will create complications for our country,” he added.
Armenia -- Protesters block a road leading to Amulsar mine, July 2, 2018.
Pashinian appealed to the protesters, who disrupted the construction of a gold 
mine and smelter at Amulsar more than a year ago, after a series of emergency 
meetings with government and law-enforcement officials, Lydian’s top executives 
and environmental activists held in recent days.
The meetings followed the release of ambiguous findings of an independent 
environmental audit of the Amulsar project conducted by ELARD, a Lebanese 
consulting firm hired by the Armenian government.
ELARD sent a 200-page written report to Armenia’s Investigative Committee a 
month ago. According to the law-enforcement body, the report concluded that 
Lydian’s operations would pose only “manageable” risks to the environment. It 
said that toxic waste from the Amulsar mine is extremely unlikely to 
contaminate mineral water sources in Jermuk or rivers and canals flowing into 
Lake Sevan.
But at an August 24 video conference with Armenian officials moderated by 
Pashinian, ELARD experts said they cannot definitively evaluate environmental 
dangers of the project. They claimed that Lydian had submitted flawed and 
incomplete information to regulatory authorities before obtaining its mining 
license in April 2016. The British-American company responded by accusing the 
Lebanese consultants of misleading the government.
Lydian’s interim chairman, Edward Sellers, and top Armenian executive, Hayk 
Aloyan, met with Pashinian on Friday. They also attended on Saturday a meeting 
with senior government officials chaired by Pashinian.
The prime minister said on Monday that they made fresh assurances to the effect 
that “not a single liter of toxic water” would be leaked during gold production 
at Amulsar. He said his government will not hesitate to stop mining operations 
and even revoke Lydian’s license if the company fails to honor these 
commitments.
Pashinian also stressed in that context that he has instructed the 
Investigative Committee and the government’s Inspectorate Body on Environment 
Protection and Natural Resources to look into the “questions” raised by the 
ELARD experts.
Armenia -- Edward Sellers (L), interim chief executive of the British-American 
company Lydian International, at a meeting with Armenian officials chaired by 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, September 7, 2019.
A government decision to pull the plug on the multi-million project now, he 
went on, would seriously undermine Armenia’s credibility with foreign investors 
and broader “economic security.” He specifically warned of downward revisions 
of the country’s international credit ratings, saying that this would push up 
the cost of borrowing in the country. The Amulsar blockade is already “creating 
very serious problems” for Armenia,” he added.
Pashinian also implicitly mentioned Lydian’s threats to take international 
legal action against Yerevan. The company headquartered in Colorado and listed 
on the Toronto Stock Exchange claims to have invested $400 million in Amulsar.
Lydian planned to produce 210,000 ounces of gold, worth over $315 million at 
current international prices, annually. It pledged to create about 800 
permanent jobs and pay $50 million in annual taxes.
The company was due to start mining gold at Amulsar in late 2018. The blockade, 
which began in June 2018, delayed those plans indefinitely.
Pashinian cited Lydian’s top executives as telling him that their company will 
not be able to launch the mining operations before the beginning of 2021 if it 
regains access to Amulsar now. He said Lydian will also need several months of 
preparation to resume the construction of its gold mining and smelting 
facilities, which began in August 2016.
Prosecutors, Kocharian Lawyers Disagree On High Court Ruling
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian (C) and two other prosecutors at 
the opening session of former President Robert Kocharian's trial in Yerevan, 
May 13, 2019.
Prosecutors and lawyers for Robert Kocharian have offered differing 
interpretations of the Constitutional Court’s decision to partly accept an 
appeal filed by Armenia’s jailed former president.
Kocharian’s lawyers had challenged the legality of two articles of the Armenian 
Code of Procedural Justice invoked by investigators accusing him of taking 
bribes and overthrowing the constitutional order shortly before the end of his 
decade-long rule in 2008.
The Constitutional Court ruled that one of those articles is unconstitutional 
because it does not take account of current and former senior Armenian 
officials’ immunity from prosecution guaranteed by the country’s constitution. 
But it upheld the other clause that spells out legal grounds for arresting 
criminal suspects.
The defense lawyers portrayed the ruling as a confirmation of their claims that 
Kocharian’s arrest and prosecution is illegal. They petitioned a district court 
in Yerevan on Saturday to free their client and clear him of the charges.
The court has not yet reacted to the petition yet. It is scheduled to resume on 
Thursday Kocharian’s high-profile trial interrupted nearly four months ago.
Meanwhile, Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General insisted on Monday that 
the Constitutional Court did not declare the criminal case against Kocharian 
null and void. According to its interpretation of the ruling, it is up to 
investigators and the judge presiding over the trial to determine whether the 
ex-president’s legal immunity extends to the accusations leveled against him.
Article 140 of the Armenian constitution says: “During the term of his or her 
powers and thereafter, the President of the Republic may not be prosecuted and 
subjected to liability for actions deriving from his or her status.”
In a statement, the prosecutors stood by their position that this 
constitutional provision does not apply to Kocharian’s decision to use army 
units against opposition protesters in Yerevan in the wake of a disputed 2008 
presidential election.
The statement also accused the ex-president’s lawyers of distorting the essence 
of the Constitutional Court’s decision.
One of the lawyers, Hovannes Khudoyan, countered that the prosecutors 
themselves are misinterpreting the ruling. “I would advise the Office of the 
Prosecutor-General to again familiarize itself with that judicial act in order 
to finally understand what it is all about,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Yerevan Hails ‘Free Elections’ In Karabakh
        • Artak Khulian
Nagorno-Karabakh - The main government buildings in Stepanakert, September 7, 
2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian praised on Monday local elections held in 
Nagorno-Karabakh at the weekend, saying that they were “free, fair and 
competitive.”
Voters in Karabakh elected the mayors of the capital Stepanakert and other 
Karabakh towns and villages as well as local councils. The mayoral race in 
Stepanakert was tight, with five candidates participating in it.
One of them, Davit Sargsian, was elected mayor with 36.4 percent of the vote, 
according to official results. The city’s incumbent mayor, Suren Grigorian, did 
not seek reelection.
“I congratulate the heroic people of Artsakh on the holding of free, fair and 
competitive elections of local government bodies,” Pashinian wrote on Facebook. 
“I also congratulate all elected candidates and wish them fruitful work for the 
benefit of the homeland and the people.”
Pashinian also commended election observers from Karabakh and Armenia, saying 
that they contributed to the proper conduct of the polls.
Two of those vote monitoring missions were deployed by the Yerevan-based Union 
of Informed Citizens (UIC) and Transparency International’s affiliate 
organization in Armenia. At Pashinian’s urging, the Armenian government 
allocated 33.7 million drams ($70,000) to them for that purpose on August 22. 
The premier said the funding is part of his government’s efforts to “create 
additional safeguards” for democracy in Karabakh.
Observers representing the two non-governmental organizations did not report 
serious irregularities.
“Our monitoring team did not witness obvious and deliberate violations that 
could influence the course of the elections or cast shadow on their results,” 
said Vahram Tokmajian, head of the UIC’s Stepanakert office. He also said 
Karabakh election officials cooperated with the monitors and swiftly responded 
to “issues” in some polling stations reported by them.
Karabakh’s Central Election Commission said, for its part, that it has received 
no reports of serious fraud during and after Sunday’s voting. It reported that 
nearly two-thirds of Karabakh’s 103,000 eligible voters participated in the 
polls.
Karabakh will hold presidential and parliamentary elections early next year. 
Its incumbent president, Bako Sahakian, is not eligible for another term in 
office. He has been in power since 2007.
Neither Sahakian nor Pashinian has endorsed any potential presidential 
candidates so far. Speaking at an August 5 rally in Stepanakert, Pashinian said 
the Armenian government will act as a “guarantor” of the freedom and fairness 
of the 2020 polls.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

                                        Wednesday, 
Armenia Reports Continuing Rise In Tourist Arrivals
Armenia - Tourists at the 13-14th century Noravank monastery in Vayots Dzor 
province, August 20, 2016.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia increased by 12 percent in the 
first half of this year, a senior government official said on Thursday.
Susanna Safarian, the head of the Economy Ministry’s depart on tourism, told 
the Armenpress news agency that Russian nationals accounted for the largest 
share of 770,000 tourist arrivals recorded in that period, followed by citizens 
of Georgia, the United States and Iran. All four countries have large ethnic 
Armenian communities.
Safarian said her department is now striving to attract more European tourists 
to Armenia.
Armenia already unilaterally abolished visas for citizens of the European Union 
member states and the U.S. in 2012 and 2014 respectively. In 2017, it also 
lifted visa requirements for citizens of Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar 
and several other nations and allowed Russians to visit Armenia with Russian 
internal passports.
Official Armenian statistics shows that the number of foreigners visiting 
Armenia has grown by roughly 9 percent annually since 2012. It reached a new 
high of almost 1.5 million in 2018. The last several years have also seen a 
major rise in new hotels and guesthouses across the country.
This growth appears to have been facilitated by the former Armenian 
government’s decision in 2013 to liberalize the domestic civil aviation sector. 
The average cost of air travel to and from Armenia has fallen considerably 
since then.
The government’s Civil Aviation Committee reported recently a 9.4 percent rise 
in the total number of passengers processed by the country’s two international 
airports in the first half of 2019.
Former Yerevan Mayor Under Corruption Investigation
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Energy Minister Yervand Zakharian at a press conference in Yerevan, 
January 14, 2015.
An Armenian law-enforcement body has launched a criminal investigation into a 
former energy minister and mayor of Yerevan suspected of illegally privatizing 
municipal land.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said on Wednesday that it has “factual 
data” suggesting that in 2008 then Mayor Yervand Zakharian made a “baseless and 
illegal” decision to sell a 10,000-square-meter green area to the owners of a 
luxury hotel.
The area was then part of Yerevan’s largest and most popular public park. It 
was “not subject to privatization,” the SIS said in a statement.
The SIS also said that the land was sold at a suspiciously low price of about 
165 million drams ($346,000). It noted that the hotel owners subsequently used 
the plot as collateral for obtaining a commercial bank loan worth as much as 12 
billion drams.
The statement added that the SIS is holding an investigation into abuse of 
power. It said investigators are taking necessary measures to “fully establish 
the circumstances of the matter and identify the guilty.”
A spokesperson for the law-enforcement body declined to clarify on Thursday 
whether Zakharian has already been formally charged or at least questioned as 
part of the probe. For his part, Zakharian did not answer phone calls.
Zakharian was Yerevan’s government-appointed mayor from 2003-2009. He went on 
to run the Armenian government’s Real Estate Cadaster Committee before being 
appointed as energy minister in 2014 by then President Serzh Sarkisian. He held 
that post until 2016.
Government Funds Pay Rise For Teachers
Armenia -- A primary school teacher in Yerevan welcomes students at the start 
of a new academic year, Yerevan, September 1, 2019.
The Armenian government allocated on Thursday 1.7 billion drams ($3.5 million) 
for financing this year a 10 percent increase in the salaries of schoolteachers 
effective from September 1.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian promised the pay rise in March when he touted 
additional tax revenues collected by the State Revenue Committee (SRC).
The measure will affect the nearly 38,000 teachers of Armenia’s public schools. 
Their monthly salary has averaged approximately 80,000 drams until now.
The average monthly wage in Armenia currently stands at over 187,000 drams 
($392), according official statistics.
“We certainly don’t regard this pay rise as revolutionary,” Pashinian said at 
the latest cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “On the other hand, this is the 
beginning of a process which will continue if we manage to put in place the 
right mechanisms.”
Education Minister Arayik Harutiunian said in this regard that his ministry 
hopes to raise the teachers’ minimum wage to 108,000 drams already next year 
through the introduction of a “new formula for financing schools.” He denied 
“false” reports about ongoing massive staff cuts in the chronically underfunded 
schools.
“The staff cuts have been ordinary, just like they were in the past,” said 
Harutiunian. “They are mainly to do with [teachers’] retirement age.”
Pashinian Aide Rules Out Kocharian’s Return To Power
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's spokesman Vladimir Karapetian 
speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, March 15, 2019.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s press secretary shrugged off the arrested 
former President Robert Kocharian’s stated political comeback on Thursday, 
saying that he stands no chance of returning to power.
Vladimir Karapetian said that Armenians “with normal consciousness” will have 
access to shocking information about Kocharian’s role in the 2008 post-election 
violence in Yerevan after his trial resumes on September 12.
“In light of that, I exclude that any serious political force or figure can 
stand with that person,” Karapetian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
He claimed that Kocharian can count only on the backing of “those people who 
are paid” to stage rallies in support of the man who ruled Armenia from 1998 to 
2008.
Kocharian announced his return to active politics shortly after being first 
arrested and charged in July 2018 with overthrowing the country’s 
constitutional order in the wake of a disputed 2008 presidential election. He 
subsequently called on opposition groups and individuals to rally around him in 
challenging the current Armenian government.
Kocharian, who was arrested again in June this year, denies the coup and 
corruption charges brought against him as politically motivated.
Kocharian’s official Facebook page posted on Wednesday a picture of the 
ex-president and the following quote from him: “I have unique experience in 
state and army building and implementation of large-scale socioeconomic reforms 
as well as understanding of applying mechanisms of contemporary business.”
Press Review
“Zhamanak” says that Wednesday’s ruling by Armenia’s Constitutional Court means 
that the latest legal battle between former President Robert Kocharian and the 
Armenian authorities ended in a “draw.” The paper says the ruling at the same 
time intensified conflicting interpretations of the Kocharian case and left “no 
clues for the settlement” of this legal conundrum.
“Hraparak” says that the ruling triggered a new “wave of emotions” in Armenia. 
“Some are delighted while others see a tragedy, even though there seems to be 
no reason to be ecstatic or suffer,” comments the paper. “Especially given that 
it is still not clear whether or not the country’s most important prisoner will 
be freed as a result of this decision.” It says that “the society would not 
gain anything” from Kocharian’s remaining behind bars or being released.
Lragir.am dismisses growing concerns over Russian-Armenian relations voiced by 
opposition figures in Armenia. The pro-Western publication insists that “by and 
large nothing has changed” in those relations and that “Russia is continuing 
its traditional policy towards Armenia.” “Only some circumstances have 
changed,” it says. It argues that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government 
is sticking to Russian-Armenian treaties. “It’s just that unlike the former 
[Armenian] authorities, Yerevan has started bringing up problems that had 
always existed,” concludes the publication.
“Aravot” sees growing signs of discord within Armenia’s ruling political team. 
The paper points to conflicting views expressed by various government officials 
and pro-government lawmakers on at least two major issues: the Amulsar mining 
project and ratification of the controversial Istanbul Convention. “In effect, 
[government decisions on] both issues have been postponed but, as they say, the 
fallout is lingering on,” it says in an editorial. “The issues are different in 
the procedural sense. The former is not in the parliamentarians’ domain while 
the latter requires a vote by the National Assembly.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org