Category: 2021

                                        Friday, 
Turkey’s Erdogan Condemns ‘Coup Attempt’ In Armenia
        • Lusine Musayelian
Turkey - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference 
following a cabinet meeting in Ankara, December 14, 2020.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned on Friday what he described as 
attempts to stage a military coup in Armenia.
“[Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinian is already in a situation where the people 
could achieve his resignation. But if they are talking about a direct overthrow 
of the government then our position is clear: we are against such steps,” he 
said, according to the Anadolu news agency.
“Turkey opposes any coups, including in Armenia,” added Erdogan, who himself was 
nearly overthrown by Turkish army units in 2016.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made similar comments on Thursday.
“It is unacceptable when the military demands the resignation of an elected 
government,” he said. “So we condemn the coup attempt in Armenia.”
Erdogan and Cavusoglu clearly referred to an unprecedented statement by the 
Armenian military’s top bass that accused Pashinian of misrule and demanded his 
resignation. The statement also charged that Pashinian has put Armenia “on the 
brink of collapse” after the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The prime minister rejected the demand as a coup attempt. By contrast, Armenian 
opposition forces voiced support for the military.
Turkish leaders have rarely commented on domestic political developments in 
Armenia in the past.
Ankara shut down the Turkish-Armenian border in 1993 and has refused to 
establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan out of solidarity with Azerbaijan.
During the six-week Karabakh war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on 
November 10, Ankara supported the Azerbaijani army with weapons and expert 
advice. It also reportedly recruited thousands of Syrian mercenaries and sent 
them to fight on the Azerbaijani side.
U.S. Warns Armenian Military Not To Meddle In Politics
        • Heghine Buniatian
U.S. -- U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price speaks during a press briefing 
at the State Department in Washington, February 8, 2021
The U.S. State Department has warned Armenia’s armed forces to stay out of 
politics but stopped short of calling their demands for Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s resignation a coup attempt.
The department spokesman, Ned Price, said late on Thursday that the United 
States is “very closely” monitoring political developments in Armenia.
“We urge all parties to exercise restraint and to avoid any escalatory or 
violent actions,” Price told a daily news briefing in Washington. “We remind all 
parties of the bedrock democratic principle that states’ armed forces should not 
intervene in domestic politics.”
“The United States has been a steadfast supporter of the development of 
democratic processes and institutions in Armenia. We continue to support 
Armenia’s democracy and its sovereignty, and we urge its leaders to resolve 
their differences peacefully while respecting the rule of law, Armenia’s 
democracy, and its institutions,” he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan issued a similar statement earlier on Thursday amid 
mounting political tensions in the country.
In an unprecedented statement, the Armenian military’s top brass demanded the 
resignation of Pashinian and his government, accusing them of putting Armenia 
“on the brink of destruction” after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinian 
rejected the demand as an attempt to stage a military coup.
Price made clear that the military’s actions have so far not met Washington’s 
definition of a coup d’etat.
“As you know, the Department of State has a process to determine whether a coup 
has transpired … Of course, there has been no such determination in this case,” 
he said.
Unlike Pashinian, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian did not describe the 
military’s demands as a coup attempt. Also, Sarkissian was in no rush to sack 
the chief of the army’s General Staff, Onik Gasparian, and planned on Friday to 
meet the latter as part of his efforts to de-escalate the political situation.
Pro-Government Majority Blocks Parliament Debate On Political Crisis
        • Naira Nalbandian
        • Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Opposition leader Vazgen Manukian addresses supporters blocking a 
street adjacent to the Armenian parliament building in Yerevan, February 26, 
2021.
The leadership of Armenia’s parliament continued to block on Friday an emergency 
debate on the deepening political crisis in the country demanded by opposition 
lawmakers.
The parliamentary groups of the opposition Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Bright 
Armenia (LHK) parties collected enough signatures to force such a debate.
Under Armenian law, the session can go ahead after its agenda is approved by the 
parliament’s leadership. Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan and other senior lawmakers 
affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc twice declined to 
show up for leadership meetings on the opposition initiative.
BHK and LHK representatives accused them of being unwilling to address the 
political crisis aggravated by the Armenian military’s demands for the 
government’s resignation.
Pashinian rejected the demands as a coup attempt as he rallied thousands of 
supporters in Yerevan on Thursday.
An alliance of more than a dozen opposition parties, including the BHK, staged 
rival demonstrations to voice support for the military.
Supporters of the Homeland Salvation Movement alliance blocked on Thursday a 
major street adjacent to the parliament compound and remained camped there on 
Friday. Riot police did not attempt to unblock Marshal Bagramian Avenue.
Leaders of the alliance said they will continue nonstop protests until Pashinian 
agrees to step down and hand over power to an interim government. One of them, 
Vazgen Manukian, urged Armenia’s police, National Security Service and other 
state bodies to “join the army and issue similar statements.”
Manukian addressed protesters before they again marched through the city center 
to reiterate the opposition demands.
The protesters also urged President Armen Sarkissian to reject Pashinian’s 
motion to fire Armenia’s top army general, Onik Gasparian.
Armenia - President Armen Sarkissian meets with leaders of the opposition 
Homeland Salvation Movement, .
Later in the day, Sarkissian held separate meetings with Mirzoyan and 
parliamentary leaders of My Step, the LHK and the BHK as well as other 
opposition figures. The presidential press office said they discussed ways of 
“easing the tensions and peacefully resolving the situation.” It gave no details.
As well as ruling out his resignation, Pashinian on Thursday offered to start 
“political consultations” with the opposition to end the crisis sparked by 
Armenia’s defeat in the autumn war with Azerbaijan. But he sent conflicting 
signals about his readiness to hold snap parliamentary elections.
A senior BHK lawmaker, Arman Abovian, said his party has received no negotiation 
offers from Pashinian and is skeptical about the success of such talks. Still, 
he did not exclude the possibility of discussing “technical” details of 
elections with the authorities.
For his part, LHK leader Edmon Marukian indicated that while his party, which is 
not part of the Homeland Salvation Movement, also wants Pashinian to step down, 
it would not boycott a snap vote organized by the current government.
Russia Denies Pashinian’s Iskander Missile Claim
RUSSIA -- Iskander missile system is displayed at the "Army 2017" International 
Military-Technical Forum outside Moscow, August 23, 2017
Russia has officially denied Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s claim that the 
Armenian army’s most advanced Russian-made missiles seriously malfunctioned 
during the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Earlier this week, Pashinian responded to former President Serzh Sarkisian’s 
claim that the army failed to adequately use its Iskander missiles against 
advancing Azerbaijani troops because of wrong government orders.
Pashinian said they were fired but “did not explode or exploded by 10 percent.” 
He also suggested that the sophisticated missile system might be outdated.
Pashinian’s remarks provoked a storm of criticism from Russian pro-government 
lawmakers and pundits. They accused him of incompetence and deceit.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that it was “bewildered and 
surprised” by the remarks. The chief ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said 
Moscow has “objective and credible” evidence that the Armenian army did not fire 
any Iskander missiles during the six-week hostilities stopped by a 
Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.
“The entire stockpile of the missiles remains in arms depots of Armenia’s Armed 
Forces,” Konashenkov said in televised remarks.
“In all likelihood, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was misled, as a 
result of which he used inaccurate information,” added the official. He insisted 
that the Iskander is the best weapon of its kind in the world.
RUSSIA -- Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov attends a 
bbriefing in Moscow, August 30, 2017
With a firing range of up to 500 kilometers, the Iskander is known for its 
precision and ability to overcome modern missile defense shields. Russia 
supplied such systems to Armenia in 2015.
On Wednesday, several Armenia media outlets quoted the first deputy chief of the 
Armenian army’s General Staff, Tiran Khachatrian, as also refuting Pashinian’s 
claim. Khachatrian was sacked later on Wednesday.
In a statement issued the following morning, the army’s top brass strongly 
condemned the sacking, accused Pashinian’s government of incompetence and 
misrule and demanded its resignation. The prime minister responded by accusing 
the military of attempting to stage a coup d’etat and moving to fire the chief 
of the General Staff, Onik Gasparian.
Armenian opposition groups campaigning for Pashinian’s resignation voiced strong 
support for the military.
Later on Thursday, Pashinian phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss 
the deepening political crisis in Armenia.
Armenian Human Rights Activists Say Attack On RFE/RL Crew Results From Impunity
        • Robert Zargarian
Armenia-Lawyers and human rights activists Zhanna Aleksanian and Nina 
Karapetiants, 24Feb2021
One of the reasons for the attack against the crew of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service 
(Azatutyun) was that no one gets to be held accountable for obstructing the work 
of journalists and using violence against them, human rights activists and 
representatives of media organizations say.
On February 23, a group of people participating in an opposition Homeland 
Salvation Movement march demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian attacked RFE/RL Armenian Service journalist Artak Khulian and 
cameraman Karen Chilingarian, kicking them and using abusive language against 
them.
In recent months RFE/RL’s Armenian Service has periodically become the target of 
attacks during opposition rallies, and on the night of the riots on November 10 
that followed the signing of a Russian-brokered trilateral statement putting an 
end to six weeks of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, several dozen people, 
including members of the nationalist ARF Dashnaktsutyun party, attacked the 
office of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in Yerevan.
Earlier on February 23, a cameraman of Sputnik Armenia was injured during a 
police operation. Other media have also been attacked during this period.
Human rights activist Nina Karapetiants believes the attacks may have more 
serious consequences. “This is very alarming. This violence may lead to much 
more serious consequences,” she said.
Karapetiants said she does not understand the logic of the attack on the RFE/RL 
Armenian Service crew, as the journalists were covering the opposition protest 
live, therefore, the purpose of the actions remained unclear to her.
“Citizens mostly do not have enough information to come to such a conclusion 
[for attacking]. The [hate speech] generation that comes from the podium, from 
the so-called opposition, the rhetoric, the attitude, including a personified 
attitude towards individuals, structures, news sites, could not but lead to 
this. But there is another aspect to this. Authorities also allow such 
unacceptable aggressive manifestations towards journalists of websites, even if 
many do not like them [journalists, websites] and even if for many they are 
unacceptable,” Karapetiants said.
Zhanna Aleksanian, the head of the Journalists for Human Rights NGO, reminded 
that in 2016 during the seizure of a police compound in Yerevan by a fringe 
opposition group, the police used force against journalists, as a result of 
which many were injured; a criminal case was opened then, but after the 2018 
'velvet revolution' the case was closed. Aleksanian said that if the current 
government treats such cases so easily, why, in this case, all this should not 
continue.
“It is accepted in Armenia: violence is not punishable, and this government 
treats it with ease. Now every day we hear calls for violence, we hear about 
cases of violence. And it is clear that journalists and human rights activists 
also become targets, and there is no reaction from the authorities,” Aleksanian 
said.
Aleksanian said she believes that if those who attacked the office of RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service on November 10 had been punished, the February 23 incident 
would not have happened. “In general, the prosecutor’s office has its own, 
personal approaches when it comes to opening a case, this is an arbitrary 
approach… This is the reason why this violence continues,” the human rights 
activist said.
Head of the Freedom of Information Center Shushan Doydoyan also stressed that no 
one in Armenia has ever been duly brought to account for violence against 
journalists.
“For 10 years we were proudly saying that it is good that journalists are no 
longer harassed in the streets and that disputes have moved to courts where 
disgruntled citizens can sue journalists and try to solve their problems with 
media or journalists using the legal mechanism. Now, unfortunately, it seems 
that everything is moving back to the streets again, which can have a very 
negative impact on the status of press freedom in Armenia as a whole,” Doydoyan 
said.
Doydoyan also considers the accusations of politicians against journalists to be 
problematic, for example, the allegations that journalists are bribe-takers and 
write articles only by order.
Responding to a question about violence against RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, 
Vazgen Manukian, a candidate for prime minister from the opposition Homeland 
Salvation Movement, said on February 24 that he is against violence against 
journalists, but stressed that he does not believe that the attack against 
RFE/RL’s crew was for no reason.
“I do not accept any violence against a journalist, regardless of whether I like 
this journalist or the company or not,” said Manukian.
The attack on the RFE/RL Armenian Service crew was also condemned by a dozen 
journalistic organizations in Armenia. They demanded that the police exclude any 
obstruction to the work of journalists, and demanded that political groups 
organizing protests send a clear message to their supporters and followers about 
the inadmissibility of aggression and intolerance towards the media.
The attack against RFE/RL’s Armenian Service was also condemned by the 
Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, which called for a 
transparent and independent investigation of the case.
The Office of Armenia’s Prosecutor-General told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that 
it was probing the February 23 attack on the RFE/RL Armenian Service reporter 
and cameraman.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.