Category: 2021

                                        Friday, 

New Members Appointed To Armenian Judicial Watchdog

        • Tatevik Lazarian

Armenia -- David Khachaturian (L) and Gagik Jahangirian attend a session of the 
Armenian parliament, .

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc installed on Friday two new 
members of a state body empowered to nominate, sanction and fire Armenian judges.

The Armenian parliament appointed Gagik Jahangirian, a controversial former 
prosecutor, and legal expert Davit Khachaturian to vacant seats in the Supreme 
Judicial Council (SJC) in a vote boycotted by its opposition minority.

“We do not find it politically expedient to take part in the vote,” Iveta 
Tonoyan, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), 
told reporters. She said her party also has “reservations” about both candidates 
nominated by My Step.

“In the professional sense we have no problem with the candidates,” said Taron 
Sahakian of the opposition Bright Armenia Party. “Our decision is political and 
results from the fact that the opposition has been barred from participating in 
judicial reforms.”

Jahangirian served as Armenia’s chief military prosecutor from 1997-2006 and was 
accused by civil activists of covering up crimes and abetting other abuses in 
the Armenian armed forces throughout his tenure. He always denied those 
allegations.

Khachaturian is the former head of the governing board of the Armenian branch of 
U.S. billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. His brother Sasun 
Khachatrian runs Armenia’s Special Investigative Service, a law-enforcement 
agency.

The two men joined the SJC amid tensions between Armenia’s government and 
judiciary. Critics of the government say that Pashinian expects them to help 
increase his influence on courts.

In recent months Armenian judges have refused to allow law-enforcement 
authorities to arrest dozens of opposition leaders and members as well as other 
anti-government activists. Virtually all of those individuals are prosecuted in 
connection with angry protests sparked by the Pashinian administration’s 
handling of the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinian charged last month that Armenia’s judicial system has become part of a 
“pseudo-elite” which is trying to topple him after the disastrous war. Ruben 
Vartazarian, the chairman of the SJC, rejected the criticism.

Jahangirian criticized Pashinian’s political team for not “purging” the 
judiciary when he spoke in the parliament before Friday’s vote. He said the 
government-controlled parliament should pass legislation to “get rid of judges 
who committed blatant human rights violations.”

Pashinian accused judges of remaining linked to Armenia’s former leadership and 
controversially urged supporters to block court buildings after a Yerevan court 
released former President Robert Kocharian from custody in May 2019. His 
government subsequently abandoned plans for a mandatory “vetting” of the judges 
at the urging of European legal experts.



Armenian Authorities Gear Up For ‘First Phase’ Of COVID-19 Vaccination

        • Satenik Hayrapetian

Vials with a sticker reading, "COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only" 
and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo, October 
31, 2020.

Health authorities have announced plans to start vaccinating by the beginning of 
March an estimated 3 percent of Armenia’s population against COVID-19.

Gayane Sahakian, the deputy director of the Armenian National Center for Disease 
Control and Prevention, said on Friday that the first batch of a relatively 
cheap vaccine developed by the British company AstraZeneca and Oxford University 
will be delivered to the country soon.

Sahakian said that the choice of the vaccine was made by the supplier, the COVAX 
Facility global partnership supported by the World Health Organization. COVAX 
signed a supply contract with the Armenian government signed late last year.

In Sahakian’s words, the “first phase” of vaccination will cover medical 
workers, care home personnel, people aged 65 and older as well as younger 
Armenians suffering from chronic diseases. This was recommended earlier this 
week by a government commission of health experts.

The commission said that military and law-enforcement personnel, rescue and 
public transport workers, civil servants, schoolteachers and university 
lecturers should be the next to get vaccine shots free of charge. It is not 
clear when that could happen.

Sahakian told the press earlier this month that the authorities are planning to 
vaccinate only 10 percent of Armenia’s population.

She said on Friday that they are now negotiating with Russian officials on the 
possible acquisition of a “large quantity” of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. She 
did not go into details.

Nor did Sahakian say if COVID-19 vaccines could be made available to a larger 
percentage of the population later this year. She stressed only that the 
vaccination process will be voluntary.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many Armenians are wary of the vaccines despite 
the pandemic’s severe impact on their country of about 3 million.

The Armenian Ministry of Health has registered more than 165,711 coronavirus 
cases and at least 3,030 deaths caused by them so far. The real number of cases 
is believed to be much higher.



Blinken Backs U.S. ‘Security Assistance’ To Armenia


U.S. -- Antony Blinken, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for secretary 
of state, speaks as Biden announces his national security nominees and 
appointees at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, November 24, 
2020.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state has said that the 
United States should boost Armenia’s security and step up its involvement in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh negotiating process to help prevent another war in the region.

In written answers to questions submitted by pro-Armenian U.S. Senator Robert 
Menendez, Antony Blinken also said that the Biden administration will “review” 
security assistance to Azerbaijan due to the recent war in Karabakh.

“I support the provision to Armenia of security assistance and aid to strengthen 
democratic governance and promote economic growth, both of which will help to 
strengthen Armenia’s security and resilience,” Blinken wrote on Thursday.

“If confirmed, I look forward to working with Congress and the Secretary of 
Defense to determine the appropriate level of assistance to meet the security 
needs of Armenia and the region,” he added in response to a question about how 
the U.S. could help the Armenians defend themselves against “Azerbaijan and 
Turkey’s aggression.”

“If confirmed, I will reinvigorate U.S. engagement to find a permanent 
settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that protects the security of 
Nagorno-Karabakh and helps to ensure another war does not break out,” he said, 
answering another question.

Biden complained about a lack of such engagement during the autumn war in 
Karabakh that coincided with the U.S. presidential race. In an October 28 
statement, he said then U.S. President Donald Trump must “get involved 
personally to stop this war” and freeze U.S. aid to Azerbaijan.

The U.S. Congress had banned such aid through Section 907 of the Freedom Support 
Act passed in 1992. However, U.S. administrations were allowed in the early 
2000s to waive the ban and help Azerbaijan’s military and security agencies.

The Trump administration significantly increased the security aid to Baku, 
reportedly providing over $100 million worth of equipment and other assistance 
to Azerbaijan’s State Border Guard Service in 2018-2019. Azerbaijani border 
guards also participated in the six-week hostilities in and around Karabakh 
stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.

“In light of the recent outbreak of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, the 
Biden-Harris administration will review our security assistance to Azerbaijan,” 
said Blinken. “If the circumstances warrant, the Biden-Harris administration 
will be prepared to suspend waivers of requirements under section 907 of the 
Freedom Support Act.”

The two main Armenian-American advocacy groups were quick to hail Blinken’s 
written comments submitted days after his confirmation hearing before the Senate 
Foreign Relations Committee headed by Menendez.



European Parliament Condemns Turkey’s Role In Karabakh War


Belgium -- A plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, September 
16, 2020.

The European Parliament has strongly condemned Turkey’s “destabilizing role” in 
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, accused Ankara of sending “terrorist fighters” to 
the conflict zone and called for an end to Turkish military aid to Azerbaijan.

In two resolutions adopted this week, the European Union’s legislative body also 
welcomed the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani 
war on November 10. But it cautioned that the conflict remains unresolved.

One of the resolutions calls for a Karabakh settlement based on the Basic 
Principles, a framework peace accord that has long been jointly advanced by the 
three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group: the United States, Russia and France. 
It stresses the “urgent need” to ensure “the security of the Armenian population 
and its cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Turkey provided full diplomatic and military support to Azerbaijan during the 
six-week war. Turkish combat drones heavily used by the Azerbaijani army are 
believed to have been a key factor behind Baku’s military victory. According to 
Western media reports, Ankara also recruited thousands of jihadist fighters from 
the Middle East to fight on Azerbaijan’s side.

The European Parliament resolution “strongly condemns the destabilizing role of 
Turkey which further undermines the fragile stability in the whole of the South 
Caucasus region.” It says the Turks should “refrain from any interference in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including offering military support to Azerbaijan.”


AZERBAIJAN -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President 
Ilham Aliyev attend a military parade in Baku, December 10, 2020.

The resolution also deplores “the transfer of foreign terrorist fighters by 
Turkey from Syria and elsewhere to Nagorno-Karabakh, as confirmed by 
international actors, including the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries.”

France has been especially vocal in its condemnation of that transfer. Its 
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reiterated last month French calls for “the 
departure of the Syrian mercenaries” from the conflict zone.

Turkey has denied sending members of Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups to 
Karabakh. Azerbaijan also denies the presence of such mercenaries in the 
Azerbaijani army ranks.

Armenia hailed the European Parliament resolutions on Friday. The Armenian 
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalian, praised, among other things, the 
EU’s legislature’s calls for an agreement on Karabakh’s future status to be 
“founded on the [Minsk] group’s Basic Principles.” Naghdalian said it thus 
voiced support for the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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