Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

                                        Friday, 
Top Russian General Again Visits Armenia
Armenia - Colonel-General Sergei Istrakov (C), the deputy chief of the Russian 
military’s General Staff, meets with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, 
Yerevan, .
A top Russian army general met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Friday 
during a fresh visit to Armenia aimed at deepening Russia’s already close 
military ties with its main regional ally.
Colonel-General Sergei Istrakov, the deputy chief of the Russian military’s 
General Staff, and high-ranking Russian officers accompanying him arrived in 
Yerevan earlier this week for further “staff negotiations” between the armed 
forces of the two states.
Istrakov held separate talks with Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian and 
his Armenian opposite number, Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian, on Tuesday and 
Wednesday respectively.
According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, he discussed with Davtian the agenda 
of the negotiations. The two generals also “mapped out the scale and directions 
of the upcoming work,” the ministry said in a statement.
A Russian military delegation headed by Istrakov already held weeklong “staff 
negotiations” with the Armenian army’s top brass in January. Harutiunian said 
afterwards the talks were aimed at “assisting us in the reform and modernization 
of Armenia’s armed forces.”
“A very serious emphasis was put on the military-technical component of the 
matter,” the minister told the RIA Novosti news agency, referring to arms 
acquisitions.
The Armenian government announced plans to further deepen Russian-Armenian 
military ties shortly after the six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh stopped by a 
Russian-brokered ceasefire last November. Moscow has since deployed troops in 
Armenia’s Syunik province bordering districts southwest of Karabakh retaken by 
Azerbaijan during and after the hostilities.
Yerevan requested additional Russian troop deployments along Armenia’s border 
with Azerbaijan after Azerbaijani forces reportedly crossed several sections of 
the frontier and advanced a few kilometers into Syunik and another Armenian 
province, Gegharkunik, in May.
Pashinian’s press office said that the prime minister and Istrakov discussed, 
among other things, “the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.” It gave 
no details.
A statement by the office said they also talked about regional security and the 
“agenda” of Russian-Armenian military cooperation praised by Pashinian.
Arrests Of Armenian Opposition Mayors Continue
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Goris Mayor Arush Arushanian.
Law-enforcement authorities arrested on Friday the elected heads of two more 
communities of Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province affiliated with the main 
opposition Hayastan bloc.
Four other local government officials were arrested earlier this month on 
different charges condemned by the bloc as politically motivated.
The latest detainees run the Syunik communities comprising the towns of Goris 
and Sisian and surrounding villages.
Goris’s Arush Arushanian, was remanded in pre-trial custody after being charged 
with trying to buy votes ahead of the June 20 parliamentary elections.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) claims that Arushanian ordered the head 
of a village close to Goris to provide financial aid to local residents who will 
promise to vote for Hayastan. It says that the village chief, Lusine Avetian, 
refused to do that.
Avetian herself was arrested about two weeks ago for allocating such aid from 
the community budget to several villagers in May. The SIS says that the cash 
handouts ranging from 100,000 drams to 220,000 drams ($200-$440) per person were 
vote bribes.
Arushanian strongly denied the accusations when he spoke to journalists before a 
Yerevan court allowed investigators to arrest him. He said the poverty benefits 
approved by the local council were allocated on a regular basis and had nothing 
to do with the elections.
“The law stipulates that every year sums equivalent to 5 percent of our budget … 
must be provided to socially vulnerable families,” said Arushanian.
According to Arushanian’s lawyer, Armen Melkonian, the charges brought against 
his client are based on Avetian’s “contradictory testimony.” Melkonian said he 
will challenge the Goris mayor’s pre-trial detention in Armenia’s Court of 
Appeals.
The head of the Sisian community, Artur Sargsian, was detained overnight by 
another law-enforcement agency. The Investigative Committee charged him with 
abuse of power and forgery of official documents.
One of the two other arrested Syunik mayors, Manvel Paramazian, ran the town of 
Kajaran, while the other, Mkhitar Zakarian, headed a larger community comprising 
the towns of Meghri and Agarak and nearby villages. Like Arushanian and 
Sargsian, they are senior members of Hayastan.
The bloc led by former President Robert Kocharian finished second in the snap 
elections won by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party. It has condemned the 
arrests, saying that the Armenian authorities are trying to suppress the 
country’s leading opposition force.
The arrested mayors were already charged with other crimes this winter. They 
were among the heads of more than a dozen Syunik communities who issued in 
December statements condemning Pashinian’s handling of the autumn war with 
Azerbaijan and demanding his resignation.
Some of them encouraged supporters to disrupt Pashinian’s December visit to 
Syunik. The prime minister faced angry protests when he finally toured Goris, 
Agarak, Meghri and the provincial capital Kapan in May.
During the election campaign Pashinian vowed to wage “political vendettas” 
against local government officials supporting the opposition.
U.S. Reaffirms Support For ‘Lasting’ Karabakh Settlement
        • Astghik Bedevian
JORDAN -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken gives a press conference in the 
Jordanian capital Amman,May 26, 2021
The United States has pledged to continue to seek a peaceful resolution of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh together with Russia and France, the two other co-chairs of the 
OSCE Minsk Group.
In written comments to VOA’s Armenian Service, the State Department reaffirmed 
U.S. support for “the Minsk Group Co-Chairs process.” It said Washington remains 
committed to helping Armenia and Azerbaijan achieve a “lasting settlement to the 
conflict” based on the principles of territorial integrity of states, people’s 
right to self-determination, and non-use of force.
The three principles have been at the heart of peace proposals jointly made by 
the U.S., Russian and French mediators since 2007.
The Karabakh conflict was on the agenda of U.S. Secretary of State Antony 
Blinken’s talks with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held in 
Washington on Tuesday. Le Drian said they discussed “our joint action as 
co-chairs of the Minsk Group to help achieve lasting peace between Armenia and 
Azerbaijan.”
Blinken also discussed the conflict with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
in a phone call on Tuesday.
“The Secretary highlighted U.S. support for the Minsk Group Co-Chairs process 
aimed at a lasting political settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” said 
a State Department spokesman. “He encouraged Armenia to engage constructively at 
the OSCE.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again insisted on Wednesday that Baku 
“unilaterally” resolved the Karabakh dispute with its victory in the six-week 
war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November. He said claims to the 
contrary are “wrong and risky.”
Pashinian dismissed Aliyev’s claims on Thursday, pointing to a joint statement 
issued in April by the U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the Minsk 
Group.
The statement urged Baku and Yerevan to resume high-level negotiations on a 
“comprehensive and sustainable” settlement. It said the mediators “reiterate 
their proposal to organize direct bilateral consultations under their auspices.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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