Wednesday,
Pashinian Sends Mixed Signals On Constitutional Changes
• Emil Danielyan
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a parliament session chaired
by speaker Ara Babloyan, 23 May 2018.
Seemingly backtracking on a statement made last week, Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian said on Wednesday that he will not necessarily push for
constitutional changes meant to facilitate the conduct of fresh parliamentary
elections in Armenia.
He also denied claims by the country’s former leadership that he is bullying
the current Armenian parliament and seeking to control the judiciary and stifle
dissent.
Under Armenia’s constitution, snap general elections can be held only if the
prime minister resigns and the National Assembly twice fails to elect his or
her replacement. Former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK)
still has the largest faction in the parliament.
Addressing tens of thousands of supporters rallying in Yerevan on Friday,
Pashinian warned of the possibility of the HHK and other parliamentary forces
installing another prime minister in case of his resignation. He said his
political team will therefore draft constitutional amendments that would allow
the parliament to dissolve itself. He told his supporters to be ready to force
lawmakers to enact those amendments.
The premier stated on Wednesday, however, that the constitutional changes are
only “one of the scenarios” considered by his government. “What was said at
[Yerevan’s Republic] square must be taken into consideration but it is not the
only option,” he told reporters. “We will have discussions.”
Pashinian’s earlier pledge to try to amend the constitution through popular
pressure prompted serious concern from senior HHK figures and parliament
speaker Ara Babloyan in particular. In an extraordinary video address to the
nation, Babloyan accused Pashinian of subjecting the parliament to “pressure
and coercion.”
Babloyan also deplored Pashinian’s stern warnings to his political opponents
and judges who he claimed are linked to Sarkisian’s political team. “Prime
Minister Pashinian’s speech at the rally contained extremely dangerous messages
to the constitutional order which simply run counter to Armenia’s international
obligations to build a democratic and rule-of-law state,” said the speaker.
Babloyan added that he is planning to discuss his “deep concerns” with
Pashinian, President Armen Sarkissian as well as other Armenian officials and
foreign diplomats based in Yerevan.
Pashinian said that he is ready to meet with the speaker. “It is very important
to us that our fellow citizens, including parliament deputies, correctly
understand our political activities and have no unnecessary fears and
concerns,” he said.
The 43-year-old former journalist at the same time rejected the HHK criticism,
saying that the former ruling party’s leadership still does not “understand the
situation correctly.” “I am not exerting pressure on anyone,” he said. “I am
just calling on everyone to reckon with the people’s opinion … They must not
put the people in a situation that would force us to again carry out a
revolution or the next phase of the revolution.”
In that context, Pashinian claimed to be unfazed by the declared political
comeback of Robert Kocharian, another former president who is now facing coup
charges stemming from a 2008 crackdown on anti-government protesters in
Yerevan. Kocharian is too unpopular to pose a serious threat to the current
government, he said.
Accordingly, Pashinian stood by his assertions that he is strongly backed by
the overwhelming majority of Armenians. “I am not in power, the people are in
power,” he said.
Chinese School Inaugurated In Armenia
Armenia - The newly constructed Chinese-Armenian Friendship School in Yerevan,
.
China has built a state-of-the-art school in Yerevan where hundreds of Armenian
children will study the Chinese language in addition to subjects taught in
secondary and high schools across Armenia.
The Chinese-Armenian Friendship School was inaugurated on Wednesday at a
ceremony attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Chinese Ambassador Tian
Erlong.
Officials said that the Chinese government has spent over $12 million on
building and equipping the school located in Yerevan’s northern Kanaker suburb.
It is designed for up to 405 students aged between 10 and 18 who will have
intensive language courses taught by Chinese teachers.
“Knowledge of Chinese opens up opportunities to access information about a huge
layer of human history and civilization,” Pashinian said at the ceremony. “I
hope that this school will become a channel through which Armenians will gain
more in-depth knowledge of the enormous influence which China and Chinese
civilization have had on the development of humankind.”
The educational institution, Pashinian went on, is also opening a “new page” in
Chinese-Armenian relations which should now grow closer. China and Armenia have
“many common interests” and like “strategic thinking,” he said.
Pashinian said that having many Chinese speakers is also an “economic
necessity” for Armeniagiven a rising number of Chinese tourists visiting the
country. Chinese investors are likewise showing a growing interest in the
Armenian economy, he added.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Chinese Ambassador Tian Erlong
pose for a photograph with students of the Chinese-Armenian Friendship School
in Yerevan, .
According to official Armenian statistics, China has been Armenia’s second
largest trading partner for the last several years. Chinese-Armenian trade
soared by nearly 50 percent, to $342 million, in the first half of this year.
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 holding
talks in Beijing in 2015.
Beijing further underscored its interest in the South Caucasus country last
year when it started building a new and much bigger building for its embassy in
Yerevan. The 40,000-square-meter 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 provided at least $37 million in economic assistance to Armenia since
2012. It has also donated hundreds of public buses and ambulance vehicles to
Yerevan. “The Armenian people highly appreciate that assistance,” said
Pashinian.
Major Armenian Copper Mine Still In Limbo
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Open-pit mining at Teghut copper deposit, 20Dec2014.
Armenia’s second largest copper and molybdenum mine is facing an uncertain
future eight months after being shut down because of environmental risks.
Vallex Group, a private mining company, sent 1,200 or so employees working at
the Teghut deposit on indefinite leave in early January, citing the need for
“planned prophylactic repairs.” Vallex claimed that it needs time to commission
feasibility studies on its plans to significantly boost production there.
Environment protection activists said, however, that the shutdown is the result
of growing toxic leaks from the mine contaminating a nearby river. For their
part, government officials said that the company’s waste disposal facilities
need major upgrades.
In April, Vallex rehired around 300 of the laid-off employees to work at other
metal mines belonging to it. The remaining 800 workers, most of them residents
of nearby villages, are still jobless.
One of them, Haykasar Marukian, said on Wednesday that the Vallex management
has failed to make good on its promises. “We were told that the company is
going to resume work, and so people took loans [from banks] to improve their
living conditions,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “They now have trouble
repaying those loans.”
According to Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, in order to
restart mining operations at Teghut Vallex needs substantial investments to
refurbish its tailings dump which poses a threat to the environment. The
Liechtenstein-registered company is now trying to secure a fresh loan from the
Russian bank VTB for that purpose, he said.
“We [the government] will do everything so that those negotiations are
completed and a solution is found very soon,” Avinian told reporters during a
visit to the northern Lori province encompassing Teghut.
“We have no solution at the moment,” he said. “Either Vallex will again exploit
the Teghut mine or a new company will take over.”
VTB had already provided the bulk of $380 million which Vallex claims to have
spent on building mining and ore-processing facilities at Teghut.
Environmentalists opposed open-pit mining there even before it began in 2014.
They argued, among other things, that the multimillion-dollar project will lead
to the destruction of hundreds of hectares of rich forest.
Vallex pledged to plant a new and bigger forest in adjacent areas. It also
promised to create 1,300 jobs, build new schools and upgrade other
infrastructure in local communities.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” is encouraged by official statistics showing that the Armenian
economy has continued to grow despite the recent political turmoil in the
country. But the paper urges Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other
government officials to be careful in touting the latest figures released by
Armenia’s Statistical Committee. “The society has long lost faith in official
statistics because of the former authorities,” it says. “And now a vast segment
of the society is not inclined to believe these authorities’ figures either and
has its own standards for gauging the government’s performance. Have their
living standards improved? Have their incomes risen?”
“Aravot” comments on Pashinian’s revelation that the brother of a former senior
Armenian official not named by him holds $30 million in a single bank account
in Armenia. “Having $30 million or even $30 billion in your bank account is not
a crime in itself,” writes the paper. “It must be proved that the money was
acquired illegally. If [Pashinian] referred to [Serzh Sarkisian’s brother]
Aleksandr Sarkisian then nobody will doubt that he would not have accumulated
such a huge sum had he not been the former president’s brother. But it’s one
thing to suspect and another to investigate, indict, try and sentence.”
“Hraparak” says lawyers and other pundits are now trying to make sense of
Pashinian’s plans to create “bodies of transitional justice” in Armenia. The
paper says that some of them have already spoken out against or in favor of the
idea even though “nobody has any idea what exactly it involves.” “One does not
need to have much legal and historical knowledge to realize that no matter how
much we want it we cannot say that we are in the process of transition from one
social order to another which necessitates transitional bodies.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” claims that the former ruling HHK and former President
Robert Kocharian planned a coordinated “attack” on the new government ahead of
a rally held by Pashinian on Friday. The paper linked to Pashinian says they
hoped that the rally will not draw a huge crowd. “The August 17 rally
completely precluded that scenario and a second pre-planned scenario was put in
motion,” it says. “At the heart of that scenario was parliament speaker Ara
Babloyan’s address. The most important part of that speech is that he
is planning to discuss the existing situation with representatives of foreign
diplomatic missions. In other words, Kocharian’s team is going to organize
external pressures on the government. But this is a wrong calculation. No major
foreign power will even try to blackmail the government enjoying an
unprecedented level of popular support for the sake of preserving the freedom
and assets of several persons.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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