Friday,
Armenian Governor Replaced By Son
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Sedrak Tevonian is appointed as governor of Ararat province during a
government meeting in Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has sacked an Armenian provincial governor and
replaced him by his 31-year-old son.
Razmik Tevonian, a 60-year-old businessman, was relieved of his duties on
Thursday just over a year after being appointed as governor of southern Ararat
province. Armenian media outlets had for months speculated about his impending
dismissal.
Pashinian gave no reason for the sacking announced during a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan. Nor did he explain why he decided to name Tevonian’s son Sedrak as
Ararat’s new governor.
Sedrak Tevonian insisted on Friday that the Armenian government is not unhappy
with his father’s track record. He said the latter simply wanted to return to
the private sector and again run a winery belonging to their family.
Tevonian Jr. also said that there is nothing wrong with replacing a senior
official by their son.
“Of course it’s normal,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “I see no problem.
This is what was decided and I’m ready to serve my country.”
Most people randomly interviewed in the streets of the provincial capital
Artashat disagreed.
“It’s a hereditary transition,” said one woman. “Obviously, everybody is against
that.”
“We are going backwards, not forward,” opined another local resident.
There were also those who had no problem with Pashinian’s choice of their new
governor. “We live in the 21st century. Let’s be a bit progressive,” said one
Artashat man.
Nina Karapetiants, a Yerevan-based civic activist, had a very different idea of
progress. She said Pashinian made mockery of his stated commitment to democracy
and good governance.
“This is characteristic of dictatorial regimes, primordial or feudal times,”
Karapetian said of Sedrak Tevonian’s appointment. “This is not normal for the
civilized world.”
Tevonian Jr. was until now a member of the Armenian parliament representing the
ruling Civil Contract party. He is not known to have ever delivered a speech on
the parliament floor.
The new governor claimed that he kept a very low profile in the National
Assembly because he is a “man of action.” However, he was reluctant to talk
about his first actions in the new capacity. He only admitted planning to hang a
picture of Pashinian in his office.
Tevonian also joked that his 8-year-old son too could become Ararat’s governor
“in 20 years from now.”
Turkish-Armenian Talks Start In Moscow
• Aza Babayan
Armenian negotiator Ruben Rubinian (left) and his Turkish counterpart Serdar
Kilic.
Special envoys of Turkey and Armenia held in Moscow on Friday the first round of
negotiations on normalizing relations between the two neighboring states.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the talks took place “in a positive and
constructive atmosphere,” with the two sides exchanging “preliminary views
regarding the normalization process.”
“The parties agreed to continue, without preconditions, negotiations aimed at a
full normalization,” it said in a statement. “The date and venue of their second
meeting will be decided in due time through diplomatic channels.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued an identical statement on the meeting that
lasted for about two hours.
Ankara was represented in the talks by Serdar Kilic, a veteran diplomat who
served as Turkey’s ambassador to the United States from 2014-2021. Kilic’s
31-year-old Armenian opposite number, Ruben Rubinian, is a deputy speaker of the
Armenian parliament.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Vahan Hunanian, on Thursday cautioned
against excessive expectations from the first face-to-face meeting of the two
envoys.
“This will be an introductory meeting,” Hunanian said in written comments. “It’s
hard to expect tangible results from the first meeting, but it will mark the
start of the [normalization] process.”
Rubinian met with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko ahead of his
talks with Kilic. They discussed the Turkish-Armenian dialogue, according to the
Foreign Ministry in Yerevan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reaffirmed on Friday Moscow’s support for
that dialogue. Lavrov said Turkish-Armenian negotiations will contribute to
peace and stability in the South Caucasus.
TURKEY -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) and Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attend a joint news conference following their talks
in Antalya, June 30, 2021
The United States and the European Union have also hailed the negotiations.
Ankara has for decades refused to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan
and kept the Turkish-Armenian border closed out of solidarity with Azerbaijan.
It provided decisive military support to Baku during the 2020
Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
In recent months Turkish leaders have made statements making the normalization
of Turkish-Armenian relations conditional on Armenia agreeing to open a land
corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. They have
also cited Baku’s demands for a formal Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani
sovereignty over Karabakh.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly made clear that Ankara
will continue to coordinate its Armenian policy with Baku.
Cavusoglu’s Armenian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, complained last November that
the Turks are setting “new preconditions” for establishing diplomatic relations
and opening the border with Armenia.
Armenian opposition leaders have accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of being
ready to accept those preconditions. Pashinian’s political allies have denied
that.
Hunanian, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, insisted on Thursday that Yerevan
continues to stand for an unconditional normalization of Turkish-Armenian ties.
Opposition Rejects Constitutional Changes Planned By Pashinian
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Senor lawmakers from the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances
talk during a parliament session in Yerevan, August 24, 2021.
Armenia’s two leading opposition groups have spoken out against constitutional
amendments planned by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, saying that they are aimed
at helping him cling to power.
Pashinian called for major changes to the Armenian constitution last year. He
has since made conflicting statements about which articles of the constitution
he believes should be amended.
Pashinian said about a year ago that his administration will consider restoring
the presidential system of government. But he stated last month that Armenia
should remain a parliamentary republic.
The constitutional reform process will be coordinated by a special council that
will be headed by Justice Minister Karen Andreasian and mostly consist of other
state officials. Other council members are to be nominated by non-governmental
organizations, the three political forces represented in the Armenian parliament
and two other political parties.
The council will in turn choose five legal scholars who will be tasked with
drafting constitutional amendments.
The two opposition alliances holding seats in the National Assembly, Hayastan
and Pativ Unem, confirmed on Friday that they will boycott the work of the
council.
Hayastan’s top leader, former President Robert Kocharian, rejected the changes
planned by Pashinian during a recent news conference.
“I don’t think that every government should write up a constitution to its
liking after taking office,” he said.
Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanian saw ulterior motives behind Pashinian’s desire to
amend the constitution.
“This is a false agenda which is first and foremost aimed at finding a new way
of prolonging the capitulator regime’s rule,” Mamijanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
One of Pativ Unem’s leaders, former President Serzh Sarkisian, faced similar
accusations when he engineered Armenia’s transition to the parliamentary system
through sweeping constitutional changes enacted in 2015.
Sarkisian’s attempt to remain in power as prime minister after completing his
second and final presidential term in 2018 sparked mass protests that brought
Pashinian to power.
Tigran Dadunts, an official from the Armenian Ministry of Justice, suggested
that the constitutional reform council will discuss the wisdom of changing the
country’s existing government system. But Dadunts noted in this regard that
another constitutional task force formed by Pashinian in 2019 decided against
recommending a return to the presidential model.
The task force was disbanded after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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