Wednesday,
Pashinian Plans No Election Alliances With Other Parties
• Sisak Gabrielian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian talks to a trader while visiting a
Syrian-Armenian arts and crafts fair in Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian made clear on Wednesday that his Civil Contract
party will not form an alliance with any other political group ahead of
Armenia’s forthcoming parliamentary elections.
Pashinian said it could only team up with individuals supporting his and his
government’s political agenda.
Civil Contract already fielded such non-partisan candidates, most of them young
civic activists, in the September 23 municipal elections in Yerevan. Their My
Step bloc won over 80 percent of the vote. Pashinian’s team should also do very
well in the general elections expected in December.
“We will participate [in the December elections] on our own … or in the My Step
format,” Pashinian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
He specifically ruled out an electoral alliance with the Republic and Bright
Armenia parties making up, together with Civil Contract, the Yelk bloc.
Yelk was set up in the run-up to Armenia’s last parliamentary elections held in
April 2017. It won 9 of the 105 seats in the current National Assembly.
Republic and Bright Armenia refused to back Pashinian when he launched in April
this year street protests that eventually toppled the country’s longtime
leader, Serzh Sarkisian. They voiced support for the Pashinian-led campaign
only after it rapidly gained momentum.
Lena Nazarian, a senior Civil Contract member, echoed Pashinian’s statements.
“We will not form alliances with other parties,” Nazarian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service.
“We want to again form an alliance with individual citizens,” she said, adding
that they must be “professionals having experience, knowledge and skills”
needed in the parliament.
Pashinian tendered his and his cabinet’s resignation late on Tuesday in an
effort to ensure that the snap polls are held in the first half of December.
Sarkisian’s Republican Party and other parliamentary forces have pledged not to
try to scuttle his plans.
Ally ‘Still Respected’ By Sarkisian Despite Support For Pashinian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Gevorg Kostanian chairs a session of an ad hoc parliamentary
commission in Yerevan, 26 September 2018.
A senior lawmaker representing Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) claimed
on Wednesday that the former Armenian president “respects” his unexpected
decision to voice support for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Gevorg Kostanian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on legal
affairs, last week backed Pashinian’s efforts to force snap parliamentary
elections in December. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, he said the
premier is “honest in his goals and desires” and enjoys overwhelming popular
support.
The remarks came as a surprise given Kostanian’s status as a Sarkisian loyalist
and his past criticism of Pashinian. The HHK parliamentarian insisted as
recently as in May that the 43-year-old former journalist is too inexperienced
to properly govern Armenia.
Kostanian said he has since become convinced that Pashinian’s actions are aimed
at making things better in the country. “His goals, his principles, his
direction are honest and as long as they remain honest I will fully support
[the new government] regardless of whether I am in or outside the country,” he
told reporters.
“Serzh Sarkisian very much respects my decision,” he claimed. “He has always
respected everyone’s decisions.”
Kostanian, who served as Armenia prosecutor-general from 2013-2016, also
insisted that he is not distancing himself from the HHK. “I just want to you
bear one thing in mind: I am not a member of the party and never will be,” he
said.
“As for [Sarkisian’s] political team, I was and remain a member of the team,”
added the 41-year-old.
Nine other HHK lawmakers also broke ranks to endorse Pashinian’s political
plans last week. The move raised the prospect of more defections from the
former ruling party’s parliamentary faction.
The HHK lost control over the current parliament in June following a series of
such defections. It now technically holds 50 seats in the 105-member National
Assembly.
China Donates More Ambulances To Armenia
Armenia - New Chinese ambulances are donated to Armenia at a ceremony in
Yerevan, .
China has donated 200 new ambulances to Armenia as part of its continuing
economic assistance to the South Caucasus country.
The vehicles fitted with modern medical equipment were officially handed over
to the Armenian side on Wednesday at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian, Health Minister Arsen Torosian and other senior Armenian
officials. Two-thirds of them are due to be distributed to public ambulance
services outside Yerevan.
Torosian stressed the significance of the $13 million donation, saying that 65
of those vehicles are intensive care ambulances that will enable Armenian
doctors to save more lives when providing first medical assistance.
China’s ambassador in Yerevan, Tian Erlong, said Chinese specialists have
trained about 350 Armenian doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers to use the new
equipment.
China already donated 88 ambulances to Armenia in 2011. Its plans to provide
more such vehicles and medical equipment were first announced by the former
Armenian government last year.
Chinese government aid to Armenia has totaled at least $50 million since 2012.
It includes 250 Chinese-manufactured buses donated to Yerevan’s public
transportation system six years ago.
Tian attributed this “selfless” aid to what he called centuries-old “friendship
of our peoples.” “I am confident that China and Armenia will continue to
cooperate in various areas and that Chinese-Armenian ties will be continuous
and strong,” the envoy said at the ceremony.
Political relations between the two nations have been cordial ever since
Armenia gained independence in 1991. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his then
Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian reported “mutual understanding on issues
relating to pivotal interests and concerns of the two countries” after talks in
Beijing in 2015.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Chinese Ambassador Tian Erlong
pose for a photograph with students of the Chinese-Armenian Friendship School
in Yerevan, 22 August 2018.
The current Armenian government seems keen to maintain the warm rapport with
Beijing. Pashinian said China and Armenia share “many common interests” when he
attended the inauguration in August of a new school in Yerevan where hundreds
of Armenian children study the Chinese language.
The Chinese government spent over $12 million on building and equipping the
school. Intensive language courses there are taught by Chinese teachers.
China further underscored its interest in Armenia last year when it started
building a new and much bigger building for its embassy in Yerevan. The vast
embassy compound is due to be completed by the end of 2019. It will reportedly
be the second largest Chinese diplomatic mission in the former Soviet Union.
China has been Armenia’s second largest trading partner for the last several
years. According to official Armenian statistics, Chinese-Armenian trade soared
by nearly 50 percent, to $342 million, in the first half of this year.
Ex-PM Abrahamian’s Brother Freed For Now
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Former parliament deputy Henrik Abrahamian.
The brother of Armenia’s embattled former Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian was
released from pre-trial custody on Wednesday two months after being charged
with illegal arms possession.
The National Security Service (NSS) arrested Henrik Abrahamian on August 8
after raiding a former industrial plant in his native village of Mkhchian and
finding three machine guns, seven Kalashnikov assault rifles and other firearms
stashed there.
The NSS and the Special Investigative Service (SIS) said at the time that they
are trying to determine whether the weapons were used against opposition
protesters in Yerevan in the wake of a disputed 2008 presidential election. The
SIS chief, Sasun Khachatrian, admitted late last week that they have found no
evidence of that.
An Armenian court then agreed to Henrik Abrahamian on bail. Both he and his
once influential brother deny any connection to the confiscated weapons.
In early September, Hovik Abrahamian was charged with abuse of power and
illegal entrepreneurial activity. Another law-enforcement agency, the
Investigative Committee, claimed that in 2008 he forced a businessman to give
up a majority stake in a mining company. Investigators refrained from arresting
him.
Abrahamian, who served as prime minister from 2014-2016, denied the charges as
politically motivated, saying that the new Armenian authorities are cracking
down on dissent.
Abrahamian, 60, held high-ranking state posts and developed extensive business
interests during former Presidents Robert Kocharian’s and Serzh Sarkisian’s
tenures. He managed Sarkisian’s 2008 and 2013 presidential election campaigns.
Abrahamian fell out with Sarkisian a few months after being sacked by the
latter in September 2016. He left Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) in January
2017.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” says that strong popular support is what makes Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian confident that he will not lose power and will succeed in forcing
parliamentary elections after tendering his resignation late on Tuesday. “The
main thing is that from now own on the public, the citizens must be not just
observers in the process of the parliament’s dissolution but also start a
parallel process of dismantling the old [political] system,” writes the paper.
They should also “fill the political arena with new ideas,” it says.
“Past” says that all major political forces now need to “redefine their goals.”
“The revolution did not just end the rule of one individual or one force,”
explains the paper. “The revolution showed that the time is up for many of the
political veterans.” It says that they never managed to “adapt to the new
situation.” “Now that Armenia has entered a period of active and transparent
political processes new and old political forces need to present themselves …
with new faces who do not shy away from actively talking and being
transparent,” it says.
Lragir.am says that on the day of his resignation Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian made government appointments that prompted criticism even from his
supporters. The appointment of the retired police General Hunan Poghosian as
governor of the southern Syunik province proved particularly controversial.
Pashinian also faced criticism when he appointed Garegin Baghramian as energy
minister last week. Baghramian is related to Artur Vanetsian, the director of
the National Security Service (NSS).
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org