Category: 2021

As supporters of the Homeland Salvation Movement continued their protests and kept Baghramyan street closed, President Armen Sarkissian met with the movement’s leaders on Friday.

Present at the meeting were the Homeland Salvation Movement candidate for prime minister, Vazgen Manukyan, the head of Homeland Party Arthur Vanetsyan, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Council of Armenia member Artsvik Minasyan and Republican Party of Armenia leader Vahram Baghdasaryan.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the current political crisis in the country and discussed ways to ease domestic tensions and finding a peaceful resolution to the situation.

The Homeland Salvation Movement representatives presented their approaches and viewpoints to the president.

The meeting with Sarkissian comes a day after Armenia’s top military brass issued a statement calling for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation.

Soon after the announcement on Thursday, the Homeland Salvation Movement called a rally of supporters in front of Armenia’s National Assembly building, where protesters called for Pashinyan’s resignation and blocked the entrance to Baghramyan Street where the parliament is located.

Many protesters stayed overnight, pitching tents and vowing that they would not leave until Pashinyan has resigned.

The Homeland Salvation Movement held another rally on Friday, during which its leaders met with the president.

Vanetsyan, who attended the meeting with the president, briefed the protesters after the meeting saying that he and his colleagues urged the president to swiftly and categorically resolve this situation.

“The president didn’t make any concrete promises to us. He listened to our succinct request and told us that he will me high-level military officials and in the coming days he will make a decision,” Vanetsyan told protesters on Friday adding that they hope the president will make his decision “in the name of Armenia.”

Sarkissian met with staff of the Armed Forces later on Friday, and held a meeting with the Armed Forces Chief of Staff Colonel-General Onik Gasparyan, who had made the announcement on Thursday calling for Pashinyan’s resignation.

The President also held meetings with Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, the head of the ruling My Step bloc Lilit Makunts, the leaders of the parliament’s opposition Bright Armenia and Prosperous Armenia parties Edmon Marukyan and Arman Abovyan respectively.

Following an announcement Thursday by Armenia’s military leaders who called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Council of Europe’s secretary-general called on all parties in Armenia to exercise restrain as Armenia’s domestic political crisis deepens.

“I have been closely following recent developments in our member state Armenia and I call for calm, restraint and responsibility,” said Council of Europe Secretary-General Marija Pejčinović Burić in a statement on Friday posted on the council’s official website.

“All political disagreements should be discussed and resolved in a peaceful manner, around an inclusive negotiating table involving civilian representatives of society and in line with the principles of democracy and the rule of law,” added Burić. “The Council of Europe remains at the disposal of the Armenian authorities and civil society to provide assistance in this respect.”

The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe assigned to Armenia Sweden’s Boriana Aberg and Finland’s Kimmo Kiljunen also expressed their concern over the ongoing developments in Armenia.

“We are extremely concerned by recent developments in Armenia. In particular, we found the statement issued yesterday by the office of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, calling for the resignation of a democratically-elected government, to be unacceptable,” they said in a statement.

“We call upon all political forces and state actors to fully respect democratic principles and the Constitution of Armenia, and to take all necessary steps to immediately de-escalate the current situation,” they added.

“Armenia is going through a very difficult phase in its recent history and – more than ever – needs calm, restraint, wisdom and unwavering support for democratic principles by all concerned in order to resolve the political crisis it is facing,” they said.

The Secretary General of the European Ombudsman Institute Josef Siegele on Friday called on Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian prisoners of war and civilians held in Azerbaijan. The Artsakh Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) welcomed the EIO chief’s appeal.

“Everyone deprived of their liberty for reasons related to the armed conflict should be returned immediately after the cessation of hostilities and without any preconditions,” Siegele said.

“It should be considered exclusively in the context of human rights and the humanitarian process as an international requirement which is to be automatically applied,” he added.

“Delaying the return of the Armenian prisoners of war and civilians undermined human dignity and seriously violates the fundamental requirements guaranteed by the Geneva Convention. This grossly undermines the post-war humanitarian processes and the international human rights mandates,” he noted.

Josef Siegele stressed that the release of the captives and their safe return require immediate resolution.

The Artsakh Human Rights Defender’s Office called on international structures and human rights organizations to condemn Azerbaijan’s non-fulfillment of its international obligations and the creation of artificial obstacles to the return of Armenian captives.

The Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh is a member of the European Ombudsman Institute since 2009.

On a related matter, the European Union issued a statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council session also calling for the immediate release of prisoners of war.

՛՛As regards to Nagorno-Karabakh, the EU stresses that international humanitarian law must be respected and calls for full implementation of the provisions of the November 9, 2020 cease-fire agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war and the repatriation of human remains. Should any foreign fighters still remain in the region, they should be promptly and fully withdrawn. The EU calls for the negotiation of a comprehensive and sustainable settlement of the conflict resulting in lasting peace in the region,՛՛ said the EU statement.

The House of Representatives of the Netherlands on Thursday adopted a resolution reaffirming its recognition of the Armenian Genocide, but also urging the Dutch government to follow suit, the Armenian National Committee of Netherlands reported.

In the past, the legislature has recognized the Genocide, but the Dutch federal government has refused to do so. Thursday’s resolution mandates the government to take action and explicitly recognize the Genocide.

The motion, which was adopted almost unanimously, show that the legislature has been dissatisfied with how the government has dealt with the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of the Netherlands said that years of hard work by all Armenians in the country has yielded results, crediting Van Helvert, a member of the Christian Democratic Party, who was one of the lawmakers who spearheaded the effort.

In earlier motions in 2015 and 2018, the Dutch Parliament reaffirmed its recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which was unanimously adopted in 2004 in a motion, which called on the government “to expressly and continuously raise the recognition of the Armenian Genocide during the bilateral and EU dialogue with Turkey.”

Turkey was quick to denounce the parliament’s vote on Thursday, with its foreign ministry spokesperson Hami Aksoy calling the move “a futile attempt to rewrite history with political motives.”

“Councils are not venues to write history and judge it. Those who agree with this decision, instead of looking for what actually happened in 1915, are seeking votes as populists,” Aksoy said.

“We invite you to support the efforts for a better understanding of a historical issue,” he said, adding that Turkey’s proposal for a joint history commission “was one of these efforts.”

Saying that the Dutch legislature is “detached from reality,” Aksoy urged the Dutch government to fight racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia.