Category: 2021

                                        Monday, November 8, 2021
Kocharian’s Bloc Announces New Push For Regime Change
        • Artak Khulian
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian speaks at a rally held by his 
opposition Hayastan alliance in Yerevan, November 8, 2021.
Former President Robert Kocharian pledged to topple Armenia’s current government 
“through barricades or elections” on Monday as his opposition alliance launched 
what it called a “nationwide resistance” campaign with a rally held in Yerevan.
The rally attended by thousands of supporters of the Hayastan (Armenia) alliance 
was held on the eve of the first anniversary of a Russian-brokered ceasefire 
that stopped the war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Kocharian and his political allies again blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war that left at least 3,800 Armenian 
soldiers dead. They also reiterated their allegations that Pashinian is intent 
on making more unilateral concessions to Azerbaijan.
Kocharian singled out Yerevan’s readiness to embark on a demarcation of 
Armenia’s long and contested border with Azerbaijan where tensions are still 
running high one year after the Karabakh war. He claimed that such a process 
would amount to Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh 
and a narrow land corridor connecting the disputed territory to Armenia.
The ex-president also accused Pashinian of breaking his promises to improve 
living standards, eliminate corruption and create a level playing field for all 
businesses. Poverty in the country has actually increased under the current 
government, he said.
“We are going to fight,” Kocharian told the crowd rallying in Yerevan’s Liberty 
Square. “Rest assured that we will oust them through barricades or elections or 
in other ways. And I will be with standing with you, leading you on those 
barricades.”
Armenia - Supporters of former President Robert Kocharian attend an opposition 
rally in Yerevan, November 8, 2021.
Kocharian and other speakers at the rally gave no details of their stated push 
for regime change. Nor did they announce dates for their next demonstrations.
A Hayastan declaration read out at the end of the rally said the “resistance” 
campaign could “last for a week or months” before achieving its key goal.
“We are starting to get organized,” it said. “Our presence in the National 
Assembly will serve to strengthen the resistance. As soon as conditions are 
ripe, we will move our struggle only to the streets and squares.”
Kocharian, who had ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, cautioned on October 4 that the 
opposition must “generate” greater popular anger at the government before trying 
to topple it with street protests. “The biggest problem is that a considerable 
part of our people has come to terms with this situation and voted for these 
ones,” he said, referring to Pashinian’s political team.
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party won Armenia’s June 20 parliamentary elections 
with almost 54 percent of the vote. Hayastan came in a distant second with 21 
percent, according to official election results rejected by it as fraudulent.
Another Karabakh Civilian Killed In Truce Violation
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Russian APC and soldiers of the peacekeeping force (L) 
patrol in front of an Azerbaijan's army checkpoint near the demarcation line 
outside the town of Shushi (Susa), November 26, 2020
One ethnic Armenian resident of Nagorno-Karabakh was killed and three others 
wounded by Azerbaijani forces on Monday, authorities in Stepanakert said.
According to them, the four men came under fire while repairing water pipes just 
outside the Azerbaijani-controlled town of Shushi (Shusha). The National 
Security Service said it is investigating the incident together with other 
law-enforcement agencies.
Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, reported separately that 
the 22-year-old victim was a utility worker. Stepanian described his killing as 
further proof of Azerbaijan’s “Armenophobic, genocidal and fascist behavior.”
The young man is the second Karabakh civilian killed since a Russian-brokered 
ceasefire stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war on November 10, 2020. A 
55-year-old Karabakh Armenian farmer was shot dead by Azerbaijani troops outside 
the northern Karabakh town of Martakert last month.
The latest shooting reportedly occurred at a section of the sole road currently 
connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Traffic through that road section was suspended 
as a result, according to Stepanian.
The Azerbaijani authorities did not immediately comment on the incident.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev visited Shushi earlier on Monday to mark the 
first anniversary of the town’s capture by the Azerbaijani army during the 
six-week war. “Armenia will always live with the stigma of a defeated nation,” 
Aliyev declared in a speech delivered there.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the “gross violation of the 
ceasefire regime by the Azerbaijani armed forces” as well as Aliyev’s 
“consistent Armenophobic rhetoric.” It said they make mockery of Baku’s offers 
to normalize Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
Armenian Schools Reopen Amid COVID-19 Crisis
        • Robert Zargarian
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Children at a school in Yerevan, November 8, 2021.
Schools across Armenia reopened on Monday two weeks after the start of an autumn 
break that coincided with a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths in the country.
The Armenian government extended the one-week holiday later in October as part 
of its efforts to contain the latest wave of infections. The primary, secondary 
and high schools were thus effectively closed for the first time since October 
2020.
The government last week opted against distance courses and decided to send 
schoolchildren back to classes instead despite clearly failing to cut the 
coronavirus infection rate.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported a record 62 deaths from COVID-19 on 
November 2. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths officially registered 
in the country of about 3 million reached 8,037 on Monday.
Almast Avetisian, the principal of Yerevan’s Secondary School No. 197, welcomed 
the government’s decision. She said that many of her students were infected with 
the coronavirus or seasonal flu in the run-up to the two-week break.
“The children have recuperated during this period and we have very good 
attendance today,” Avetisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Her students were also happy to be back at school while admitting that they have 
trouble wearing mandatory face masks during the classes.
“We don’t learn as much during distance courses as we do when coming to the 
school,” said one schoolgirl.
Health Minister Anahit Avanesian cautioned that schools having major coronavirus 
outbreaks will have to switch to online classes.
On October 29, the Ministry of Health allowed children aged 12 and older to get 
vaccinated against the coronavirus with their parents’ consent. Only about 50 
minors have been inoculated since then, according to Avanesian.
The ministry said in the morning that nearly 264,000 citizens have been fully 
vaccinated to date. Avanesian put a brave face on this statistics, arguing that 
the pace of vaccinations in Armenia has accelerated significantly over the past 
month thanks to administrative measures taken by the government.
Moscow Confirms Plans For Aliyev-Pashinian Talks
        • Aza Babayan
RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev 
and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian attend a joint press conference 
following a trilateral meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, January 11, 2021
The Kremlin has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to organize 
fresh talks between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan one year after 
brokering a ceasefire that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Yes, such a meeting is being prepared, and it is prepared in the format of a 
video conference,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency 
on Sunday.
Peskov gave no date for the talks. He told journalists on Monday that it is 
still not clear when the video conference will likely take place.
Armenia and Azerbaijan did not immediately confirm the announcement. In 
televised remarks aired late on Sunday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that 
no meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been scheduled for 
November 9, which will mark the first anniversary of the ceasefire.
An Armenian media outlet reported late last month that during the upcoming talks 
Aliyev and Pashinian will sign two Russian-drafted documents announcing the 
start of the demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the opening of 
transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Pashinian met in Yerevan on Friday with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei 
Overchuk, a co-chair of a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force dealing 
cross-border cargo traffic. Overchuk said that the group has made important 
decisions. Armenia and Azerbaijan will “retain sovereignty over roads passing 
through their territory,” he stressed.
In a statement issued later on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry likewise 
said the working group has reached an agreement to that effect. The ministry put 
that in the context of media speculation about the “so-called Zangezur corridor” 
that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave via Armenia’s Syunik 
province.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that the truce accord 
envisages such a permanent “corridor.” Armenian leaders deny that.
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.
 

                                        Monday, November 1, 2021
Azeri-Controlled Road ‘Safe For Armenians’
November 01, 2021
        • Naira Nalbandian
An Azerbaijani checkpoint set up at on the main road conneting Armeia to Iran, 
September 14, 2021.
Armenians can safely use an Azerbaijani-controlled section of the main highway 
that connects Armenia to Iran, a senior security official in Yerevan insisted on 
Monday.
The 21-kilometer section is part of contested border areas along Armenia’s 
Syunik province which were controversially handed over to Azerbaijan following 
last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijani forces set up a checkpoint there on September 12 to tax Iranian 
commercial trucks transporting cargo to and from Armenia. The move caused 
serious disruptions in Armenian-Iranian trade operations and raised tensions in 
Baku’s relations with Tehran.
Officials in Syunik accused Azerbaijani officers of bullying some Armenian 
drivers and their passengers at the same section of the road that also connects 
the Syunik towns of Goris and Kapan. Later in September, Russian and Armenian 
border guards reportedly began escorting Armenian vehicles driving through it.
“It is safe,” said Aram Hakobian, a deputy head of Armenia’s National Security 
Service (NSS). “I was there yesterday, it’s very safe.”
“True, representatives of the neighboring state [Azerbaijan] are standing there 
but they don’t stop Armenian citizens,” he told reporters.
Commenting on incidents that are still periodically reported from the 
Goris-Kapan highway, Hakobian said: “I have no such information.”
The Azerbaijani roadblock left the Armenian government scrambling to speed up 
the reconstruction of an alternative Syunik highway bypassing the border area. 
The government has assured senior Iranian officials that it will be essentially 
completed by the end of November.
Armenians Ignore COVID-19 Mask Rule
November 01, 2021
        • Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Passengers on a commuter bus in Yerevan, March 12, 2021.
Few Armenians wore masks outdoors on Monday despite being legally required to do 
so following a surge in coronavirus cases that have killed more than 1,000 
people in the country of about 3 million over the past month.
The Armenian government decided to impose the rule, effective from October 1, in 
a bid to contain the latest wave of infections. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
said the measure will make it easier for authorities to enforce mask wearing on 
public transport and inside shops and other enclosed areas.
An RFE/RL correspondent saw very few people with face coverings in the center 
and outskirts of Yerevan. Residents of other parts of Armenia have been even 
more reluctant to put on masks throughout the pandemic.
There were also no police officers in sight fining people or warning them to 
comply with the new legal requirement.
Critics questioned the effectiveness of the requirement in the absence of strict 
enforcement of physical distancing rules in public areas.
Armenian bars, restaurants and other leisure and cultural facilities have 
operated with few sanitary restrictions since the summer of 2020. Nor have the 
authorities banned or restricted mass events in recent months.
Armenia - An official from the Food Safety Inspectorate inspects a grocery store 
in Yerevan, September 3, 2021.
Davit Melik-Nubarian, a public health expert, said the government should shorten 
the work hours of leisure venues and consider introducing a mandatory 
coronavirus health pass for entry to them if it is to slow the spread of 
COVID-19.
The Armenian Ministry of Health registered 55 more coronavirus-related deaths on 
Sunday, raising the official death toll from the disease to 6,379. The figure 
does not include almost 1,300 other infected people who the ministry says have 
died as a result of other, chronic conditions.
Pashinian made clear last Thursday that the government has no plans to impose 
lockdown restrictions. It will instead step up its vaccination campaign and push 
for greater mask wearing, he said.
Nearly seven months after the launch of the campaign, less than 10 percent of 
Armenia’s population has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the 
lowest immunization rate in wider Europe.
Armenia - A crowded cafe downtown Yerevan, May 14, 2020.
Vaccinations have accelerated over the past month after the authorities began 
requiring all public and private sector employees to get inoculated or take 
coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense. But there are growing 
complaints about poor and unsafe organization of the process mainly carried 
inside state-run policlinics across the country.
Gohar Abrahamian, a Yerevan resident, feared contracting the coronavirus when 
she stood in long waiting lines to get vaccinated late last week.
Abrahamian said she first waited at the entrance to a policlinic together with 
about 40 other people, some of whom had possible COVID-19 symptoms and wanted to 
see a doctor. Once inside the building, she had to join an even longer line of 
citizens crammed into a narrow corridor and waiting outside a single vaccination 
room.
“I kept looking around to see who is sneezing and who is not,” the woman told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Social distancing was out of the question in those 
circumstances.”
New Gyumri Mayor Elected After Deal With Ruling Party
November 01, 2021
        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - Vardges Samsonian attends a public discussion in Gyumri, October 15, 
2019.
A leader of the political force that won the October 17 municipal election in 
Gyumri became the mayor of Armenia’s second largest city on Monday after 
striking a power-sharing deal with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party.
Gyumri has been run by Samvel Balasanian, a local businessman, for the last nine 
years. Although Balasanian decided not to seek another term in office, a newly 
created bloc bearing his name joined the mayoral race.
The Balasanian Bloc garnered 36.6 percent of the vote, earning it 14 seats in 
the 33-member city council empowered to elect the mayor. In a serious setback 
for Pashinian, the ruling Civil Contract party finished second with 11 seats. 
The remaining eight seats were distributed among three opposition parties.
The new council elected Balasanian Bloc’s mayoral candidate, Vardges Samsonian, 
by 24 votes to 8.
Samsonian, who previously headed a municipal agency providing utility services, 
pledged to strive to turn Gyumri into a “well-maintained, green, tranquil, 
consolidated, clean and developing city looking to its future with confidence.”
Armenia - The Mayor's Office in Gyumri.
He was backed by council members representing his bloc and Pashinian’s party in 
line with a “memorandum of cooperation” signed by the two political forces on 
Saturday.
A senior Civil Contract member who signed the deal said they agreed to share 
“responsibility for governing the city” and pursue a “coordinated staffing 
policy.” The deal entitles Civil Contract to naming Gyumri’s deputy mayors, she 
said.
It was signed two days after two senior municipal officials affiliated with the 
Balasanian Bloc were arrested by Armenia’s National Security Service on 
corruption charges. The bloc did not publicly allege political reasons behind 
the arrests.
Some Armenian outlets reported earlier in October that the Balasanian Bloc is 
facing strong pressure from the central government to reach a power-sharing deal 
with Pashinian’s party and even cede the post of mayor to it. Senior party 
figures denied such pressure.
Civil Contract’s list of candidates in the Gyumri election was topped by 
Hovannes Harutiunian, the governor of surrounding Shirak province. Harutiunian 
is now widely expected to be sacked and replaced by a pro-government member of 
the Armenian parliament, Nazeli Baghdasarian. The latter will be the fourth 
provincial governor handpicked by Pashinian in the last three and a half years.
Armenia -- A street in the center of Gyumri, August 25, 2019.
The Balasanian Bloc would have still managed to install Samsonian as mayor had 
it accepted a coalition proposal from the opposition Zartonk (Awakening) party 
that controls four seats in the new Gyumri council. A representative of the 
bloc, Sona Arakelian, said it chose to team up with the ruling party instead 
because “the people of Gyumri gave the largest number of votes to these two 
forces.”
Less than one-quarter of the city’s eligible voters went to the polls on October 
17.
Samsonian also defended his bloc’s political choice criticized by opposition 
groups. “By gaining an absolute majority [in the council] we will manage to 
jointly address Gyumri’s problems even more rapidly,” the newly elected mayor 
told reporters. “If we were not united, there would be a problem.”
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.
 

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