Category: 2018

Transitional justice will not contradict the RA constitution and Armenia’s obligations under conventions and treaties. This was stated by Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan, referring to the statement made by RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the rally on August 17.

“No provision of the constitution will be suspended,” Zeynalyan stressed at the meeting with journalists. According to him, transitional justice will be called to restore human rights.

As the minister mentioned, the transitional justice will be a support structure by the bodies performing executive function in some cases where there were shortcomings in terms of examining the issue of violation of rights.

The existing judicial system will continue to solve the issues in a judicial manner, said Zeynalyan.

In recent days, Azerbaijan has started to talk about joining the CSTO or getting observer status in the organization at the beginning. However, how likely is it that Azerbaijan will be a part of the organization in the future?

In a conversation with VERELQ, political scientist Grigor Balasanyan expressed the opinion that the talks on this topic are more of a method of “probing the terrain and subjecting Armenia to psychological pressure on one more issue” than a situation with serious foundations. According to him, it is out of date to talk realistically about Azerbaijan’s accession to the CSTO and, in general, it is not necessary to touch on this topic and make noise about it. Balasanyan drew attention to the fact that these conversations became active immediately after the signing of the agreement on the status of the Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan, which, in its opinion, came one step closer to Russia, began to raise this issue in order to show Moscow how reliable a partner it is and that the narrower scope of this partnership and closer relations are still ahead.

“However, there is one circumstance that makes Azerbaijan’s membership in the CSTO impossible. First of all, Azerbaijan’s foreign policy doctrine, which states that Azerbaijan cannot become a member of any pro-Western, pro-Eastern or pro-Russian coalition or integration process,” he reminded.

The political scientist expressed the opinion that the accession of Azerbaijan to the CSTO is not beneficial for Russia either, because in that case the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the negotiations will be transferred to the CSTO framework, willy-nilly, which cannot be accepted by the other member states of the organization. And in this case, according to Balasanyan, it is unlikely that these countries will willingly burden themselves for the settlement of an additional territorial problem, when both sides are their allies in the CSTO framework.

“Of course, Azerbaijan would like to join, because in that case, the purchase of weapons from Russia would be more justified and put on a legal basis, referring to the CSTO statute, by which it will be able to buy weapons from the Russian Federation at domestic prices. However, there is one circumstance that the partners of our neighboring country do not pay attention to. According to the rumors, Israeli military bases or at least military specialists – experts and advisers – are located in the south of Azerbaijan, which both arm the Azerbaijani army and carry out certain intelligence operations in the territory of Iran. I don’t think that Russia and other CSTO member states will agree to include a country in whose territory there are Israeli military bases,” our interlocutor emphasized.

As for the development of Russian-Azerbaijani relations, Grigor Balasanyan noted that it is not new that they are warming up, and the biggest danger for Armenia in this context is the sale of weapons by Moscow to Baku, which is being carried out today. But there is no question of volume change.

“So if this is already a reality, it is premature to talk about other dangers. By the way, since there are rumors about Baku’s interest in the Eurasian Economic Union, I should also mention the fact that Azerbaijan’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union is neither economically nor politically beneficial to Russia today. Without it, the Turkish factor is quite influential in the EAEU today, I mean to bring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and another Turkish-speaking country into the union, where decisions are made by a simple majority of votes, it is not true, there will be a ratio of 3 to 3, which is not at all beneficial to Russia and also to Belarus at the moment,” he added. Balasanyan.

To remind, Ali Husaynli, deputy of the Azerbaijani parliament, head of the Azerbaijani-Russian inter-parliamentary cooperation group, stated that it is appropriate to discuss Azerbaijan’s participation in the CSTO.

Eduard Babayan, head of the bodyguard of “Prosperous Armenia” party chairman Gagik Tsarukyan, was released from the penitentiary. Babayan’s lawyer Armen Melkonyan confirmed this information.

According to him, a petition was submitted to the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction to change Babayan’s preventive detention, according to which the court decided to release Babayan on bail. He mentioned, it is about a 20 million drams bail.   

To remind, Eduard Babayan was charged with the criminal act provided for in Article 112, Part 2, Clause 6 of the RA Criminal Code, that the latter hit Vyacheslav Harutyunov as part of a group and intentionally caused serious harm to Vyacheslav Harutyunov. Babayan was arrested on July 5.

Within the framework of the opening events of the 2nd semester of the current military academic year, on August 21, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Levon Mnatsakanyan of the Defense Ministry of the Republic of Armenia, Defense Forces, relevant planning processes were carried out with the involvement of the personnel of the Defense Department.

The Ministry of Defense of Artsakh informs that, in particular, a line inspection was conducted, during which the presence of the necessary documents of the servicemen’s emergency and officer’s bags and their compliance with the requirements, as well as the level of knowledge of duties, were checked.

Then, according to individual directions, multi-level staff trainings were held, during which the officials of the respective directions made reports on the current and possible developments of the situation, the officers performed various tactical tasks, acted out combat episodes, the superior command made adjustments to their combat plans and combat application, the knowledge of the command participating in the training was checked on the assessment of conventional combat situations, analysis and calculations and in general, in terms of implementation of complex headquarters works

RA Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan also met today with Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, the deputy director of the largest Russian military industrial company, Almaz-Antey, within the framework of the “ARMIA-2018” international military-technical exhibition and the “National Security Week” conference.

Spokesman of the RA Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan reminds that the company recently appeared in the top ten of the world’s best manufacturers.

“Issues of bilateral cooperation were discussed. Davit Tonoyan noted during the meeting that we are interested in individual products of the company and we have a good experience of cooperation,” the spokesperson said.

On August 21, the session of the professional working group of the public transport reform process of Yerevan was held, during which the revised version of the project of the new public transport network was presented to the members of the group, as well as the comparative indicators of the network options, based on which the consultant was instructed to finalize the network and submit a final report.

During the session, the main standards of network service were discussed, which refer to the movement, management and control mechanisms, operation and maintenance of the system.

“Efficiency of the planned route network is of practical importance only in the case of an efficient model of transport system components and management. The network management model developed by us is the key to effective network operation, maintenance and control.
For network maintenance, we have studied models of diesel fuel, compressed natural gas and electric buses offered by European, Russian, Belarusian and Chinese manufacturing companies, we have proposed the main standards of network maintenance,” said the head of the working group, Deputy Mayor of Yerevan, Vahe Nikoyan.

According to the presented standards, all buses will be adapted for moving around with wheelchairs, the halls will have a cooling and heating system, and there will also be light and sound options for signaling stops. Buses will have ticket validator devices and checkpoints near the front doors. The bus will also have a video surveillance system to monitor discipline. Drivers will work in shifts and meet clear professional standards.

As Nikoyan mentioned, after the approval of the standards by the professional working group, it will be possible to make financial calculations and proceed to the next stages of the reform implementation.

RA Ambassador to Ukraine Andranik Manukyan decided to quit diplomatic work. He wrote about this on his Facebook page.

“This decision was matured a long time ago, and let me tell you a little secret: in recent years, I have applied to Yerevan several times to be recalled, the last time this May, but I have always been refused. 

And the problem is not only that I have been the Ambassador of Armenia to Ukraine for two terms and all possible deadlines for remaining in this position have passed.

The problem is that the situation in Armenia is qualitatively different now, and I think it’s time to make way for young people for their growth and development.

I hope that this time I will get a positive answer,” the ambassador wrote.

To remind, according to the circulating news, a number of ambassadors will be recalled in the near future.