Friday,
U.S. Envoy Reveals Meeting With Armenian Opposition Lawmakers
Armenia - U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy speaks with journalists, September 15,
2021.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said on Friday that Ambassador Lynne Tracy met with
Armenian opposition lawmakers earlier this week to “hear their concerns
regarding recent judicial and political developments.”
“The Ambassador stressed U.S. support for Armenia’s democratic trajectory,” the
embassy wrote on Twitter.
It did not name the deputies who met with Tracy. It said only that they are
affiliated with the main opposition Hayastan bloc.
The bloc headed by former President Robert Kocharian did not issue any
statements on the meeting held on Wednesday.
Hayastan and the other parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, issued a
joint statement on February 3 strongly condemning criminal proceedings launched
against a judge who freed a well-known opposition figure on January 26.
The judge, Boris Bakhshiyan, was arrested on Monday on charges stemming from
another decision made by him recently. He rejects them as government
retribution. Armenia’s Union of Judges and outgoing human rights ombudsman,
Arman Tatoyan, have also deplored Bakhshiyan’s arrest.
In their statement, Hayastan and Pativ Unem demanded that the international
community react to the “collapse of democracy in Armenia” and be “conscious of
their share of responsibility.”
Armenia - Opposition supporters protest outside the EU Delegation office in
Yerevan, .
In recent months, representatives of the two opposition groups have repeatedly
accused Western powers of turning a blind eye to what they see as government
crackdowns on opposition figures and independent-minded judges.
U.S. and European Union officials have not publicly echoed the Armenian
opposition concerns. They regularly voice support for “reforms” promised or
implemented by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration.
On Thursday, Tracy met with Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian. She
stressed, among other things, “the importance of judicial independence and
integrity,” according to the U.S. Embassy.
The ambassador’s meeting with Davtian came the day after Pashinian’s Civil
Contract party pushed through the Armenian parliament last-minute legal
amendments that will make it easier for law-enforcement authorities to indict
and arrest judges.
Opposition lawmakers denounced the amendments as another blow to judicial
independence.
Ex-Official Sees Few Benefits From Armenia’s Rail Link With Azerbaijan
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian at a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, 16Jun2016.
Armenia should not anticipate significant economic benefits from a planned rail
link with Azerbaijan that could give it a new trade route to Russia, former
Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian insisted on Friday.
“It will definitely not hurt, but it will not be a game changer given the
structure of our economy,” Gabrielian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in an
interview.
The two South Caucasus countries are due to establish transport links under the
terms of a ceasefire that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and follow-up
agreements also brokered by Russia. The agreements specifically commit Armenia
to opening a transit road and railway that will connect Azerbaijan to its
Nakhichevan exclave.
Armenia should in turn gain rail links with Russia, its main trading partner,
and neighboring Iran via Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian regularly
emphasizes this fact, predicting a massive boost to the Armenian economy.
“Shipping goods to Russia [by rail] through Baku doesn’t make much economic
sense for us,” said Gabrielian, who served as deputy prime minister from
2014-2018 and had held other senior positions in Armenia’s government and
Central Bank since 1999. “This used to be our main trade route in Soviet times.
But back then we transported metal ores and other heavy industrial output.”
“We don’t have such products [exported to Russia] now. Nor are we implementing
large investment projects for which we need to import things from Russia,” he
said.
Gabrielian argued that Armenian exports to Russia now mostly consist of
beverages, prepared foodstuffs and fresh fruits and vegetables. It will be
cheaper and quicker to deliver them through Georgia than Azerbaijan, he said.
Georgia - Armenian and other heavy trucks are lined up on a road leading to the
Georgian-Russian border crossing at Upper Lars, 6May2016.
Most of Russian-Armenian trade, which totaled $2.6 billion last year, is carried
out by trucks passing through the main Georgian-Russian border crossing at Upper
Lars. Traffic through that mountainous pass is periodically blocked by bad
weather, especially in winter months.
Gabrielian said that extensive road upgrades launched by the Georgian
authorities in that area last year will eliminate this problem and make the
Upper Lars road even more attractive to Armenian exporters and importers.
“So I don’t quite understand the economic rationale for that railroad,” added
the 53-year-old economist, who is now the dean of the College of Business and
Economics at the American University of Armenia.
Most Armenians appear to share this skepticism. According to a U.S.-funded
opinion poll conducted late last year, only 5-6 percent of them think that the
economic impact on their country of open borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey will
be “definitely positive.”
Armenian Opposition To Boycott Karabakh War Inquiry
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Leaders of the opposition minority in the Armenian parliament talk
during a failed session boycotted by the ruling Civil Contract party, Yerevan,
November 15, 2021.
Armenia’s two main opposition forces have decided to boycott a parliamentary
inquiry into the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that it will be controlled
by pro-government lawmakers and therefore cannot be objective.
The ruling Civil Contract party’s parliamentary group announced on Thursday the
establishment of an ad hoc commission that will examine the causes of Armenia’s
defeat in the war, assess the Armenian government’s and military’s actions and
look into what had been done for national defense before the hostilities.
The parliamentary majority said it will appoint seven of the eleven members of
the commission. The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs were offered to
name the four other members.
Both blocs officially rejected the offer on Friday. In a joint statement, they
argued that “the authorities cannot objectively investigate their own actions.”
“It is clear that the investigative commission will be engaged in staging the
‘innocence’ of the authorities,” they said.
“Taking into account these and a number of other circumstances, the opposition
Hayastan and Pativ Unem factions decided not to participate in the work of the
investigative commission set up by the authorities,” added the statement.
Representatives of Hayastan and Pativ Unem said earlier that such a commission
must be headed by an opposition lawmaker and that Civil Contract and the
opposition must be equally represented in it.
Armen Khachatrian, a senior Civil Contract lawmaker, deplored the opposition
boycott. “They are doing everything to question the legitimacy of the
investigative commission,” Khachatrian told reporters.
“They are not interested in taking part in clarifying the objective reality,” he
said. “They are interested in continuing to sling mud.”
Virtually all Armenian opposition groups hold Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
responsible for the outcome of the six-week war that left at least 3,800
Armenian soldiers dead.
For his part, Pashinian has blamed former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh
Sarkisian, who lead Hayastan and Pativ Unem respectively, for the defeat.
Kocharian ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, while Sarkisian, his successor, lost
power more than two years before the outbreak of the devastating war.
Court Extends Arrest Of Vanadzor Election Winner
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian at an election campaign meeting
with voters in Vanadzor, November 23, 2021.
An Armenian court has extended the pre-trial arrest of the former mayor of
Vanadzor who defeated the ruling Civil Contract party in a municipal election
held in the country’s third largest city two months ago.
A bloc led by Mamikon Aslanian essentially won the election with about 39
percent of the vote. Civil Contract party finished second with 25 percent, the
most serious of setbacks suffered by it in local polls held in 36 communities
across Armenia on December 5.
Aslanian was thus well-placed to regain his post lost in October. But he was
arrested on December 15 on corruption charges rejected by him as politically
motivated.
The court on Thursday allowed law-enforcement authorities to hold Aslanian in
detention for two more months. His lawyers denounced the decision as baseless
and said they will appeal it.
Prosecutors deny any political reasons behind the case. They claim that Aslanian
illegally privatized municipal land during his five-year tenure.
Vanadzor’s new municipal council has still not been able to hold its inaugural
session and elect the community head. Visiting the city earlier this week,
Minister for Territorial Administration Gnel Sanosian downplayed the fact that
it has had no mayor for over two months.
Armenia -- A street in Vanadzor, November 5, 2018.
Four other communities where Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party was defeated
or failed to win outright on December 5 also remain in limbo.
In one such community comprising the town of Vartenis and surrounding villages,
police cordoned off the municipal administration building in early January to
prevent a local opposition figure, Aharon Khachatrian, from taking over as mayor.
Khachatrian was elected by 14 members of the 27-seat local council representing
two opposition blocs. Armenia’s Administrative Court declared his election null
and void last week following a lawsuit filed by the ruling party.
Khachatrian’s main ally was arrested shortly after the blocs led by two men
reached a power-sharing agreement in December.
Armenia - Opposition supporters hold pictures of former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon
Aslanian and other arrested opposition members during a demonstration in
Yerevan, December 17, 2021.
Opposition politicians and human rights campaigners in Yerevan have accused
Pashinian of sabotaging the election of new heads of these communities to
prevent them from falling under opposition control.
Arman Tatoyan, Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, similarly charged on December
17 that opposition groups that did well there are being illegally pressured not
to install their leaders or allies as mayors. Pashinian and his political allies
deny this.
Last summer, the authorities also arrested the opposition-linked heads of four
major communities of southeastern Syunik province. Two of them were set free in
December after the Constitutional Court deemed their arrest illegal, saying that
they were elected to the parliament and enjoy immunity from prosecution.
The two other Syunik mayors remain under arrest. A bloc led by one of them
defeated Pashinian’s party by a wide margin in a local election held in October.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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