Thursday,
Ruling Party Slams Opposition Push For Regime Change
• Anush Mkrtchian
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Opposition supporters participate in an "awareness march" in Yerevan,
Representatives of the ruling Civil Contract party on Thursday denounced
opposition efforts to bring down Armenia’s government through street protests
and said they will end in failure.
Accordingly, they ruled out Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation
demanded by the country’s two leading opposition blocs.
The Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs began on Monday small-scale protests in
preparation for mass demonstrations aimed at toppling Pashinian and preventing
what they say are sweeping concessions to Azerbaijan planned by him.
Pashinian signaled earlier this month his administration’s readiness to
recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity through a bilateral peace treaty.
Critics say he is intent on helping Baku regain control of Karabakh. The
premier’s political allies deny this.
Artur Hovannisian, a parliament deputy from Civil Contract, accused the
opposition of exploiting the Karabakh issue for political purposes.
“This narrative ended after 2018,” Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“They are now trying to revive it because they have no legitimate source of
coming to power -- namely, the people’s support -- because we can see that their
actions are not accompanied by strong support from citizens.”
Armenia - Members of the former ruling Republican Party hold an anti-government
rally in Yerevan, .
Hrachya Hakobian, another pro-government lawmaker and Pashinian’s
brother-in-law, also said that the opposition forces will fail to unseat the
current government.
“The [average] guy sitting at home and following their actions hears only
negative messages and will not participate in those actions,” he said.
Both lawmakers rejected any parallels between the ongoing opposition campaign
and the 2018 mass protests that brought Pashinian to power.
Meanwhile, large groups of opposition members and supporters staged “awareness
marches,” blocked streets and entered university campuses in Yerevan for the
fourth consecutive day. Riot police stepped up arrests of protesters as they
unblocked traffic through those streets.
Armenia - Opposition leader Artur Vanetsian and members of his Fatherland party
march through Yerevan, .
A spokesman for the Armenian police said that about 40 persons were detained by
late afternoon. They were expected to be set free a few hours later.
“We must achieve the final result,” Hayastan’s Gegham Manukian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service as he led a group of supporters that began marching to Yerevan
from Armavir province in the morning.
“We must defend Artsakh,” he said. “We must defend Armenia and restore our
security by ousting these authorities because these authorities are not capable
of doing anything anymore.”
The opposition is scheduled its first major rally in Yerevan on Sunday.
Armenian Publisher Attacked By Opposition Protesters
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Publisher Armen Martirosian speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan,
An Armenian book publisher known for his conciliatory views on Azerbaijan and
Turkey was assaulted late on Wednesday by opposition supporters holding an
anti-government demonstration in Yerevan.
Armen Martirosian, the owner of the Antares publishing house, ran into the
protesters on his way to a business meeting. Videos of the incident showed some
of them hitting, shoving and verbally abusing him.
“Some people in the crowd probably recognized me,” Martirosian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service. “They started shouting Antares, calling me a Turk, swearing.”
The Armenian police said on Thursday that they are investigating the incident.
It was not clear whether anyone was questioned or detained by investigators.
Martirosian said that riot police officers escorting the crowd did not protect
him against the violence. He said that the police had also failed to act on
threats received by him in the past.
The publisher suggested that the main reason for the assault was one of his
social media posts made shortly after Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with
Azerbaijan. He criticized at the time Armenian occupation of districts around
Nagorno-Karabakh retaken by Baku as a result of the six-week war. He stood by
the criticism on Thursday.
“Being in the territory of Kubatli (one of those districts) is not the same
thing as being in the territory of Artsakh (Karabakh),” Martirosian said. “There
is a big difference between them.”
The Yerevan rally marred by the attack on Martirosian was part of the Armenian
opposition’s preparations for mass protests against the government. Opposition
leaders say they want to topple Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in order to
prevent further concessions to Azerbaijan planned by him.
Pashinian Faces More Opposition Calls To Resign After Fatal Accident
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Citizens pay their respects to a pregnant woman who was hit and killed
by a police car that was part of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's motorcade,
Yerevan, .
Armenian opposition leaders have blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for the
death of a pregnant woman hit by a police car that led his motorcade in Yerevan.
They said this is another reason why Pashinian must resign four years after
coming to power in a popular uprising.
Security camera footage publicized by Armenian media showed that the 28-year-old
woman, Sona Mnatsakanian, was struck by a police SUV while crossing a street in
downtown Yerevan on Tuesday. The vehicle drove on after throwing the pedestrian
several meters away. Its driver was arrested later on Tuesday.
Nor did any of the seven other cars carrying Pashinian, his bodyguards and other
security personnel stop to try to help Mnatsakanian.
Pashinian has still not publicly commented on the unprecedented accident. He did
not mention it during a weekly session of his cabinet held on Thursday.
Armenia - Law-enforcement officers inspect the scene of a fatal accident caused
by a police car escorting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, April 26,
2022.
The deputy chief of Pashinian’s staff, Taron Chakhoyan, said late on Wednesday,
that the prime minister noticed a “fallen woman” when his limousine drove past
her. Pashinian “gave appropriate orders to the health minister and
law-enforcement officials” after finding out that she was hit by the police
vehicle escorting him, Chakhoyan wrote on Facebook.
The government official claimed that the motorcade would have caused a traffic
jam and made it harder for an ambulance to reach the victim had it stopped right
after the deadly collision.
Opposition figures and other critics of the Armenian government dismissed such
explanations.
“Would the [arrested] police major have stopped right after the collision had he
not escorted Nikol Pashinian?” said Artur Ghazinian, a parliament deputy from
the main opposition Hayastan alliance. “He would have definitely stopped … and
quickly taken [the victim] to the hospital located 300 meters away.”
“Now who is more to blame, the car driver or Nikol Pashinian?” Ghazinian asked,
clearly putting the blame on the prime minister.
Armenia - Deputy parliament speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian (second from left) leads
an opposition protest in Yerevan, .
The accident came as Hayastan and other opposition groups geared up for mass
protests aimed at toppling Pashinian over what they see as sweeping concessions
to Azerbaijan planned by him.
“What else should [Pashinian] do to get people to take to the streets?” Ishkhan
Saghatelian, a senior Hayastan figure, said, commenting on the young woman’s
death.
“This citizen must be our last victim,” Saghatelian told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service. “He [Pashinian] must simply resign.”
Gevorg Papoyan, a parliament deputy from the ruling Civil Contract party,
responded by accusing the opposition of dishonestly exploiting the accident for
political purposes. Papoyan also said Pashinian “did not know that an accident
occurred” when his motorcade raced through Yerevan.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.