Category: 2018

                                        Wednesday, 
Armenian, Azeri FMs May Meet Again
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Belgium - The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the OSCE Minsk 
Group co-chairs meet in Brussels, 11 July, 2018.
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan may meet again soon for further 
negotiations on reviving the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
Azerbaijan’s Elmar Mammadyarov and his recently appointed Armenian counterpart, 
Zohrab Mnatsakanian, held their first face-to-face talks in Brussels on July 
11. The U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Mins Group, who 
were present at the talks, said they agreed to meet again “in the near future.”
Mammadyarov said on Tuesday that the meeting will likely take place in New York 
in September.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not confirm or deny this. The ministry 
spokesman, Tigran Balayan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that 
there is no final agreement yet on the date and venue of the next 
Mammadyarov-Mnatsakanian encounter.
Speaking at a news conference in Baku, Mammadyarov seemed satisfied with his 
first contact with Mnatsakanian. He said that the latter is a “more 
professional diplomat” than the previous Armenian foreign minister, Edward 
Nalbandian.
A July 12 statement by the mediators said that Mammadyarov and Mnatsakanian 
discussed “a range of possible confidence-building measures” at their Brussels 
meeting. Armenia’s current and former governments have said that such measures 
are essential for making major progress towards a peaceful resolution of the 
Karabakh conflict.
“Unfortunately, with its actions and rhetoric Azerbaijan is undermining an 
atmosphere conducive to peace and we will be acting accordingly,” Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday.
Pashinian said in that regard that Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan was right to 
warn over the weekend that the Armenian side will strike back harder if Baku 
again launches offensive military operations in Karabakh.
The commander of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army, went further on Tuesday, 
warning that the Armenian military could “paralyze Azerbaijan’s economy” with 
missile strikes. Baku responded by threatening devastating strikes on key 
facilities in Armenia, including the Metsamor nuclear plant.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev likewise threatened to hit “strategic” 
Armenian targets during a June 26 military parade in Baku.
Still No Candidates For New Yerevan Mayor
        • Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - A general view of central Yerevan against the backdrop of Mount 
Ararat, 5Nov2014.
Armenia’s leading political groups have not yet nominated candidates for the 
vacant post of Yerevan’s mayor ahead of fresh municipal elections expected soon.
The city’s previous mayor, Taron Markarian, resigned on July 9 under apparent 
pressure from Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his political allies.
Markarian, who had been in office since 2011, is a senior member of former 
President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). He was reelected 
by the current city council formed by Yerevan residents in May 2017.
The HHK-controlled council deliberately failed to elect a new mayor on July 16. 
Under Armenian law, the central government can now disband the legislature and 
call fresh municipal elections. A spokesman for Pashinian said earlier this 
month that the government will not do that before July 30.
That means the polls will not be held before September. Observers believe that 
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party will be the favorite to win them.
At least four members of Civil Contract have expressed their desire to be its 
mayoral candidate. Those are comedian Hayk Marutian, parliament deputy Alen 
Simonian, Deputy Labor Minister Zaruhi Batoyan and an aide to Pashinian, Srbuhi 
Ghazarian.
The party’s governing board discussed Marutian’s and Ghazarian’s candidacies 
late on Tuesday. It will meet with the two other potential candidates in the 
coming days.
It remains unclear whether Civil Contract will contest the elections on its own 
or jointly with the two other parties making up the Yelk alliance. “Wait for 
one week and you will find out,” said Eduard Aghajanian, the chief of the prime 
minister’s staff.
The May 2017 vote was boycotted by Pashinian’s coalition partners, the 
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) of businessman Gagik Tsarukian and the Armenian 
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun).
A senior BHK figure, Naira Zohrabian, said the party will join the mayoral race 
this time around.“Active discussions” are now underway on who should be its 
mayoral candidate, said Zohrabian.
According to Arsen Hambardzumian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader, the party is 
“inclined” to participate in the upcoming polls.
Meanwhile, a senior HHK member, Ruben Tadevosian, said the former ruling party 
has not yet decided whether it will also enter the fray. “When the date of the 
city council election is determined we will discuss that and let you know,” he 
told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
U.S. Mulls Trump-Pashinian Meeting In September
        • Nane Sahakian
Belgium - U.S. President Donald Trump and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian talk during a NATO summit in Brussels, 11 July 2018.
The United States is exploring the possibility of organizing a meeting of 
President Donald Trump and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in New York 
in September, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday.
“We are looking at whether it might be possible for President Trump and the 
prime minister to meet when they are both in New York around the margins of the 
UN General Assembly,” U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills told reporters in Yerevan.
“I know both sides would like to see a meeting happen, but as you can imagine, 
the schedules of both the president and the prime minister are very tight,” he 
said. “So we will have to see if we can find a way to make that happen.”
“But no decision has been made yet on whether it will be possible,” added Mills.
Trump and Pashinian greeted each other and chatted briefly during a NATO summit 
held in Brussels two weeks ago. But they have held no talks yet. The Armenian 
premier took office on May 8 after mass protests organized by him brought down 
the country’s pervious government.
Last week several pro-Armenian members of the U.S. House of Representatives 
started collecting the signatures of fellow lawmakers on their joint letter to 
Trump urging him to meet Pashinian in New York. It says that Pashinian led a 
peaceful revolution that “can be a model for nations seeking democracy around 
the world.”
“As Armenia seeks to bolster government transparency, strengthen democratic 
institutions, and empower civil society, it is critical for the United States 
to deepen its ties with this regional partner at every level of government,” 
reads the letter. “Without question, your meeting with Prime Minister Pashinian 
would help to further this goal and strengthen dialogue between our countries.”
Some of those lawmakers met with Armenia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Ararat 
Mirzoyan in Washington last week.
Pashinian expressed readiness to “strengthen and expand” Armenia’s relationship 
with the U.S. when he congratulated Trump on America’s Independence Day on July 
4. “Your support [to Armenia] is called-for today more than ever before,” he 
wrote.
Afghans Detained On Armenia’s Border With Turkey
Armenia -- A border-guard watchtower on the Armenian-Turkish frontier pictured 
against the backdrop of Mount Ararat.
Russian border guards deployed in Armenia said on Wednesday that they have 
detained five citizens of Afghanistan who crossed into the country from 
neighboring Turkey.
A statement by the guards’ headquarters in Yerevan cited by the Armenpress news 
agency described the Afghans as members of a “criminal group that tried to 
illegally enter Armenia.”
“The intruders have been handed over to law-enforcement bodies of the Republic 
of Armenia in a legally defined manner,” it said. “A set of necessary measures 
are being taken to ascertain all circumstances of the incident.”
A photograph released by the Russians showed three blindfolded men lying on the 
ground.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), which is also charged with 
protecting the country’s borders with Turkey and Iran, made no statements on 
the incident.
The NSS reported in May that it is investigating possible links with “terrorist 
groups” of six Bangladeshi men who were detained while crossing into the 
country from Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave which also borders on Turkey and 
Iran. It said they claimed to have accidentally strayed into Armenian territory 
while trying to reach Turkey “for the purpose of finding work.”
The men were charged at the time with illegally border crossing, a serious 
criminal offense in Armenia.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” says that Armenian officials have made ambiguous statements on 
Armenia’s participation in an upcoming NATO-led military exercise in Georgia. 
The paper suggests that Yerevan is wary of a negative reaction from Moscow. “We 
don’t know yet what its decision will be but there is no doubt that this is the 
problem and that Yerevan will take a look at it before making a final 
decision,” it says. “Russia always makes tough statements on NATO presence in 
Georgia and that is understandable. Moscow does not want to see the alliance 
expand into an area of its vital interests.”
“Zhoghovurd” says that one negative consequence of the democratic revolution in 
Armenia is the emergence of more “one-man parties” with disproportionate 
ambitions. There are already about 100 parties registered in the country. The 
paper says that the vast majority of them violate provisions of an Armenian law 
on political parties, including a requirement to hold conventions at least once 
in two years. And they get away with that, it complains.
“Aravot” reacts to a decision by Echmiadzin’s municipal council to strip Manvel 
Grigorian, a retired general prosecuted on corruption charges, of the title of 
the town’s honorary citizen. The paper says that while the charges levelled 
against Grigorian are very serious indeed the council should have waited for a 
court ruling on the case before making such a decision.It says the council 
should have also held a discussion on why Grigorian had received the title in 
the first place.
“Hraparak” claims that Russia has made a “political decision” to raise the 
price of its natural supplied to Armenia. The existing gas price is set by a 
Russian-Armenian agreement that will expire at the end of this year. The paper 
quotes an unnamed Russian source as saying that Moscow is “bewildered” by some 
of the statements and actions of the new Armenian government.
(Tigran Avetisian)
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