- Heghine Buniatian
Armenia has urged the European Union to speed up its aid measures designed to help the country mitigate potentially severe consequences of a Russian embargo on key Armenian imports, according to diplomatic sources in Brussels.
One of the sources told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Foreign Minister conveyed this message to his EU counterparts and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas during a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. The source described the meeting as “positive and important.”
Kallas said that the top European diplomats discussed with Mirzoyan “how we can further strengthen Armenia’s resilience and economic diversification.”
“The EU is already working on a major economic support package to help Armenia withstand Russia’s unfair trading restrictions,” she told reporters.
Kallas and some EU foreign ministers welcomed the official results of Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections that gave victory to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.
In the run-up to the elections, Russian authorities imposed de facto bans on the vast majority of Armenian-made products exported to Russia, the South Caucasus nation’s main trading partner. Moscow also pressed Pashinian’s government to swiftly choose between seeking to join the EU or remaining part of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led economic bloc.
The EU condemned the Russian embargo, saying that Moscow is “weaponizing economic relations for political pressure” on Armenia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also announced on June 4 50 million euros ($58 million) in urgent economic assistance to Yerevan. She said the EU will also open its market to “some Armenian products, in particular agri-food.”
The EU released the first 34 million-euro instalment of that aid on Friday. It said its Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos will visit Armenia on July 5 to “advance the implementation of the support package and discuss further steps to strengthen EU-Armenia cooperation.”
For its part, the Armenian government has approved subsidies for domestic farmers, agribusiness firms and beverage producers that will find new exports markets. Pashinian said on Thursday that some of them are already signing “big and long-term” supply contracts with European partners. But he did not give any numbers.
According to Russian officials, Armenian agricultural exports to Russia totaled over $700 million last year. Armenian analysts are skeptical about Yerevan’s ability to quickly offset the potential loss of such export revenue.
Pashinian and his political allies assured Armenians during the election campaign that Moscow will lift the trade restrictions if they win reelection. Russia’s state agricultural watchdog on the contrary banned more food imports from Armenia on June 11.
Also, Russian leaders have questioned the legitimacy of Pashinian’s election victory rejected by the Armenian opposition as fraudulent. President Vladimir Putin has still not congratulated Pashinian. On June 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov echoed Putin’s earlier demand for the Armenian government to make a choice between the EU and the EEU “as soon as possible.”
Mirzoyan’s June 15 trip to Brussels underlined Yerevan’s intention to continue moving closer to the EU
“Mirzoyan’s visit confirmed the deepening relations between the EU and Armenia,” another European diplomat told RFE/RL. “Foreign Minister Mirzoyan also emphasized Armenia’s desire to diversify the energy sector and stressed the need for the EU to take steps in that direction.”
Armenia imports from Russia the bulk of natural gas used by its households, power plants and manufacturers. Moscow threatened late last month to end a significant discount on the price of Russian gas.
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Constitutional Court Asked To Scrap Armenian Election Results
- Astghik Bedevian
Six opposition groups and one pro-government party petitioned Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Friday to invalidate the official results of the June 7 parliamentary elections that gave victory to the ruling Civil Contract party.
In their separate appeals, they all alleged serious fraud which they said influenced the election outcome. The three main opposition contenders accused election officials of miscounting many ballots and claimed that the Armenian authorities forced many public sector employees and security personnel to vote for Civil Contract. They also pointed to mass arrests of their members and supporters, which continued on election day.
The official election runner-up, the Strong Armenia alliance led by billionaire Samvel Karapetian, suggested that the Constitutional Court alternatively order a run-off vote between it and Civil Contract.
According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party won the elections with 49.8 percent of the vote. Strong Armenia came in second with 23.3 percent, followed by former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan alliance (almost 10 percent) and Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) (almost 4 percent).
The BHK fell just short of a legal threshold for entering the Armenian parliament after the CEC cancelled results in three precincts and refused to rerun elections there. This and other opposition contenders portrayed the controversial decision as further proof that the vote was rigged in the ruling party’s favor.
Also challenging the election results are three other opposition parties that fared worse in the ballot. One of them is led by former human rights ombudsman Arman Tatoyan.
Pashinian and his political allies reject the fraud allegations. They say that the three opposition heavyweights themselves secured hundreds of thousands of votes through illegal vote bribes.
“After these processes are completed, everyone will come to terms with the notion that, overall, the elections were held in a free, transparent and legitimate manner,” said Alkhas Ghazarian, a Civil Contract representative.
The vote-buying allegations are at the heart of an election appeal filed by For the Republic party allied to Pashinian. One of its senior members, Ruben Mehrabian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Strong Armenia, Hayastan and the BHK should not have been allowed to run in the elections in the first place.
Opposition leaders seem skeptical about the success of their appeals, mindful of the fact that eight of the court’s nine judges have been installed by Pashinian’s party.
“It is obvious that this Constitutional Court is incapable of administering justice,” Hayastan’s Artsvik Minasian said after submitting the bloc’s appeal.
Under Armenian law, in case of accepting this and other election appeals for consideration by Sunday evening, the court will have to hand down rulings on them within the next 15 days.
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RFE/RL – Tsarukian’s Firms ‘Raided By Tax Officials’
- Astghik Bedevian
Following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s pledges to “dispossess” his main political foes, the Armenian authorities have launched tax audits of companies owned by opposition leader Gagik Tsarukian, his spokeswoman said on Friday.
“Dozens of companies of the Multi Group concern (Tsarukian’s business conglomerate) are undergoing various tax audits these days,” Iveta Tonoyan told reporters.
Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC), the national tax service, did not confirm or comment on the reported audits. Tsarukian was charged with “larges-scale” tax evasion and banned from leaving the country last week just as his Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) accused the Central Election Commission (CEC) of illegally barring it from the new Armenian parliament elected on June 7.
The BHK was one of the three main opposition groups that ran in the elections. According to their official results, it lacked just a few dozen votes to clear a 4 percent legal threshold for winning parliament seats. Tsarukian’s party lost more than 200 votes as a result of the CEC’s highly controversial decision to cancel vote results in three precincts and not rerun elections there.
Pashinian has repeatedly pledged to imprison and “dispossess” Tsarukian as well as the leaders of the two other election challengers of his Civil Contract party. During the election campaign, he announced the impending nationalization of Armenia’s largest cement plant belonging to Tsarukian. He went on to promise to “return to the people” the tycoon’s properties, notably a hilltop villa just outside Yerevan, in case of winning reelection.
Tonoyan confirmed reports that Yerevan’s municipal administration has decided to unilaterally rescind a long-term lease agreement on land in the city center occupied by Tsarukian’s Multi Wellness fitness center. She said the decision is illegal and will be challenged in court.
“That area was leased to the Multi Group concern until 2065,” said Tsarukian’s spokeswoman. “[Multi Group] lawyers have already presented their objections.”
Critics portray Pashinian’s statements as further proof that law-enforcement authorities are acting on his illegal orders. Hundreds of opposition members and supporters were detained on vote-buying charges in the run-up to the elections. The arrests continued on election day and in the following days.
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Armenpress: U.S. and Iran presidents sign ceasefire agreement
The U.S. and Iran released the text of an interim agreement their presidents have signed to end their war on Wednesday, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to resume attacks and kill Iranian officials if they failed to honour their commitments, Reuters reports.
Trump, attending the G7 with other leaders in France, also withdrew at least one of his stated rationales for attacking Iran in the first place, saying it would be “unfair” for Tehran not to have ballistic missiles, having previously vowed to obliterate them.
“We’re going to bomb the hell out of them if they violate the agreement,” Trump said of Iran at a press conference. “I don’t want them to. I want them to honor the agreement.” He also called Iranians “smart people” as U.S. and Iranian negotiators work on a permanent truce over the coming 60 days, which Trump said he hoped would usher in peace in the Middle East and lower oil prices.
Earlier, he had said: “If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, OK?”
Iran’s leaders did not address the new threats while celebrating the moment, releasing photographs of what is believed to be the first agreement signed by both a U.S. and Iranian president since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979.
“Everything we sought to achieve through military action, we obtained several times over through negotiation; it was not even comparable,” Iran’s lead negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told state television about the agreement, which includes the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian assets.
The U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, assassinating the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and military leaders on the first day. It quickly spiralled into a regional conflict that has killed more than 7,000 people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon; driven up energy prices; renewed inflationary pressures and sparked concerns about a major food supply crisis in developing countries.
The 14-point agreement extends a ceasefire announced in April by another 60 days, including in Lebanon, to allow the two sides to negotiate a final truce. Both Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian have digitally signed the memorandum in English and Farsi, U.S. and Iran officials said, with Iran’s foreign ministry saying the agreement was already in effect as of Wednesday.
Trump signed just before a grand dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles, the site of the signing of the eponymous treaty that formally ended World War One.
The memorandum includes an immediate end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, the full resumption of maritime traffic “with no charge” in the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, the waiving of U.S. sanctions on Iran, the unfreezing of its assets, and a $300 billion investment fund for the Islamic Republic’s post-war reconstruction.
Oil prices fell again on Wednesday on prospects for the reopening of the Hormuz, the slender, vital waterway between Iran and Oman, with Brent crude futures below $80, at their lowest level since the war’s start. They later regained more than 1% after Trump threatened renewed violence.
Iran also undertakes not to build nuclear weapons, reaffirming a vow it had made for decades.
Published by Armenpress, original at
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Iranian president lauds ‘historic’ deal with US
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian welcomed on Thursday what he called a “historic” deal with the United States to end their war and pave the way for negotiations toward a final settlement.
“This is a historic document and a message from a powerful Iran: peace will be achieved in the shadow of mutual respect,” Pezeshkian said on X.
The Iranian president posted an image of the document, which bore his signature as well as those of US President Donald Trump and their mediator, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Pezeshkian added that Iran is always committed to global peace by preserving dignity and independence, progress, and regional cooperation.
The agreement includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a $300bn plan for Iran’s “reconstruction”, and the US terminating “all types of sanctions” on Iran.
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Turkish FM urges regional cooperation over ambitions of dominance
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has described the 3+3 format as a “highly important” mechanism for deepening cooperation among regional countries.
“This is a very important mechanism for deepening cooperation between Türkiye, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia, and Georgia,” Fidan told the Türkiye newspaper.
“As countries of the region, we must prioritize cooperation over competition and ambitions of dominance. We see that this understanding is reaching a certain point in the context of recent developments in the Middle East. With the same outlook, we can strengthen our economies and increase stability in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. The pursuit of dominance must come to an end. Peace, calm, and stability will benefit everyone. We must change our understanding. The 3+3 formula will serve to facilitate significant cooperation in the Caucasus. Of course, there are obstacles. Mutual distrust between some countries has reached a serious level. On the other hand, there is also a shared aspiration,” Fidan said.
The first 3+3 meeting, a regional cooperation platform intended to include Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, and Iran, was held in December 2021. Since then, several meetings have taken place, although Georgia has repeatedly refused to participate. Despite this, the format is still referred to as 3+3.
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Turkish FM hails “very important” steps toward normalization with Armenia
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has credited Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s administration with taking “very important” steps toward normalizing relations between the two countries.
In an interview with the Türkiye newspaper, Fidan said that Ankara is ready to normalize ties when the necessary “conditions” emerge.
“The Pashinyan government has taken very important steps. At the will of our President [Erdogan], even more important steps have been taken, including direct trade and direct flights. It is also clear what needs to be done in the new period. We are ready for normalization when those conditions emerge,” Fidan said.
The Pashinyan administration launched intensified normalization efforts with Türkiye in 2022. Several rounds of talks have resulted in agreements, most recently an announcement on trade facilitation involving procedural changes. The two sides are also exploring the relaunch of the railway.
Another agreement concerned the partial opening of the land border—which has been unilaterally closed by Türkiye since the early 1990s—to diplomatic passport holders and third-country nationals as a first phase. This agreement has yet to be implemented.
On May 4, on the sidelines of the 8th European Political Community Summit in Yerevan, Armenia and Türkiye signed a memorandum of understanding on the restoration of the historic Ani Bridge.
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Court jails Strong Armenia candidate in vote-buying case
A court has approved the investigator’s motion to place Strong Armenia bloc parliamentary candidate Davit Ghazinyan in pre-trial detention for two months, the Anti-Corruption Committee announced on Thursday.
Ghazinyan was arrested and charged on June 17 with conspiracy to commit electoral bribery ahead of the June 7 elections. He denied any wrongdoing.
At the request of the Anti-Corruption Committee, the electoral commission stripped Ghazinyan of parliamentary candidate immunity, allowing the criminal proceedings to move forward.
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More arrests in Strong Armenia vote-buying probe
The Anti-Corruption Committee announced further arrests on Thursday in an ongoing criminal investigation into alleged vote-buying involving representatives of the Strong Armenia party.
The law enforcement agency said in a press release that it had gathered evidence that party representatives working at the party’s offices in Yerevan’s Kanaker-Zeytun district conspired with accomplices to distribute electoral bribes and carried out the scheme.
The Anti-Corruption Committee also released an audio recording obtained during surveillance, allegedly capturing the suspects discussing the scheme.
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Short-term heatwave to bring temperatures up to 37°C in Armenia
Temperatures across Armenia are expected to rise sharply in the coming days, with a short-term heatwave forecast to peak on June 20, when temperatures are expected to reach 37°C in the Ararat Valley and 35°C in Yerevan, according to meteorologists.
The Deputy Director of the Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center, Gagik Surenyan, said in a statement that temperatures of up to 36°C are forecast in the low-lying areas of Syunik.
Air temperatures across the country will rise by 3–4°C from June 18–20 due to the intrusion of warm air currents from the southwest, he said.
Despite the overall warming, short-term thunderstorms are expected in the northern regions during the evening and nighttime hours.
According to forecasts, temperatures will gradually decrease starting from June 21.
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