Monday, December 4, 2017 Armenian Authorities Again Told To End Vote Buying Armenia - Armenians vote in parliamentary elections at a polling station in Yerevan, 2Apr2017. Officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have pressed the Armenian authorities to combat vote buying and abuse of state resources during fresh discussions on the conduct of Armenia's last parliamentary elections held in April. Representatives of the OSCE's election-monitoring arm, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), visited Yerevan last week to formally present their final report on the elections won by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The report released in July says the authorities largely respected "fundamental freedoms" during the "well-administered" vote. But it also cites "credible information about vote-buying, and pressure on civil servants and employees of private companies." The report also contains a set of policy recommendations. It says, among other things, that the authorities should "publicly discourage" vote buying or selling and ensure that Armenians are not forced to "vote in a particular way." In a weekend statement, the ODIHR said its representatives "explored" the report's findings and recommendations at their meetings with government officials, lawmakers, leaders of major Armenian parties and civil society members. It said they also "proposed concrete steps that can be taken by various stakeholders to address the recommendations." "The ODIHR team drew attention to priority recommendations aimed at addressing persisting issues of vote-buying and abuse of state resources with a view to strengthening public confidence in the electoral process," added the statement. "ODIHR stands ready to offer its support in implementing the recommendations, including through a review of amendments to electoral legislation, advice on good practices and matters of technical implementation," it quoted Alexander Shlyk, head of the ODIHR Elections Department, as saying. Throughout the parliamentary race the HHK was accused by its political opponents and independent media of handing out vote bribes and pressurizing schoolteachers, civil servants and other public sector employees to vote for it. Armenian opposition parties say that those illegal practices were decisive in the HHK's election victory. The party headed by President Serzh Sarkisian denies having systematically resorted to them. It insists that the vote was largely democratic. The European Union and the United States endorsed the findings of nearly 440 European election observers that were mostly deployed by the Warsaw-based ODIHR. At the same time they cautiously praised the authorities' overall handling of the April 2 polls. The EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said through a spokesperson on April 4 that the official vote results "reflect the overall will of the Armenian people." The OSCE-led mission did not report significant instances of multiple voting, one of the most serious forms of fraud that marred previous Armenian elections. The authorities in Yerevan enacted last year a set of opposition-backed legal amendments designed to prevent such violations. That led to the introduction of electronic voter authentication devices in all polling stations across the country. The authorities also installed web cameras to broadcast online voting and ballot counting in the vast majority of those stations. The EU allocated over $7 million for the purchase of that equipment. Sarkisian Watches Fresh War Games In Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh - Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian (C) watches a military exercise, 2Nov2017. President Serzh Sarkisian inspected new facilities of Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian-backed army and monitored its latest major exercises during a weekend trip to the disputed territory. The exercises held just southeast of Karabakh reportedly involved more than a thousand soldiers, dozens of tanks, armored vehicles and artillery systems as well as what an Armenian military official called a major "new type of weapon." They simulated defensive and counteroffensive operations in the presence of a Sarkisian, Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian and Armenia's top army general, Movses Hakobian. "I am grateful to you," a uniform-clad Sarkisian told the participating troops. "You have proved your skills with today's exercises. Rest assured that you are thereby responding to those who want to take away our homeland and try to demonstrate their might and wrest something from us." "We can and we will defend our borders, we can and we will defend our homeland," he said in a speech. Nagorno-Karabakh - Tanks and military personnel lined up for military exercises, 2Nov2017. The war games were held the day after Sarkisian met with the top brass of the Karabakh Defense Army in Stepanakert. He was briefed on the current situation along the Armenian-Azerbaijani "line of contact" around Karabakh. It has been relatively calm in recent weeks. In a separate statement released on Monday, the Karabakh Armenian army said Sarkisian also visited a number of its unspecified facilities and familiarized himself with "novelties created with the aim of countering the enemy in a more effective manner." It did not elaborate. Sarkisian travelled to Karabakh less than a week before planned fresh talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. They will try to build on some progress that was reportedly made at Sarkisian's most recent meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held in Geneva on October 16. Right after that summit, Sarkisian and Aliyev pledged to intensify the Karabakh peace process and bolster the ceasefire regime in the conflict zone. The U.S., Russian and French mediators announced in the Swiss city that they will soon hold follow-up "working sessions" with the two foreign ministers. Man Sentenced Over `Armed Revolt Plot' . Anush Muradian Armenia -- Artur Movsisian (L) and his lawyer Arayik Papikian in court, 4Dec2017. An Armenian court sentenced a man to three years in prison on Monday after convicting him involvement in an armed revolt allegedly plotted by Zhirayr Sefilian, a radical opposition figure. The court ignored Artur Movsisian's protestations of innocence voiced before and during his four-month trial. Movsisian was detained in Moscow on an Armenian arrest warrant in November 2016 and handed over to law-enforcement authorities in Yerevan six months later. The authorities claim that he was affiliated with Sefilian's alleged militant group and kept some of its weapons and ammunition in his home. In his concluding remarks made shortly before the announcement of the verdict, Movsisian again denied the accusations and said he does not even know Sefilian personally. He cited a "complete absence of evidence" to the contrary presented by the prosecution. His lawyer, Arayik Papikian, said afterwards that he will appeal against the ruling. Papikian confirmed that police found two assault rifles in the basement of the defendant's apartment. But he said Movsisian had allowed another man, Galust Grigorian, to put them there only because he had been told by the latter that they are construction tools. Grigorian is one of six persons who are standing a separate trial with Sefilian which began in May. They were arrested in June 2016 on charges of forming an armed group to seize government buildings and military facilities. Both Sefilian and his Founding Parliament opposition group have denied the charges as politically motivated. Sefilian's arrest came less than one month before three dozen gunmen mostly affiliated with Founding Parliament seized a police station in Yerevan. The gunmen demanded that President Serzh Sarkisian free their leader and step down. They surrendered to law-enforcement authorities following a two-week standoff which left three police officers dead. Papikian said the guilty verdict against his client "predetermined the outcome" of Sefilian's trial. He predicted that the radical oppositionist will get a much longer prison sentence. Private Investor To Explore For Oil In Armenia . Satenik Kaghzvantsian Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisian (R) and Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetian inaugurate a new shopping mall in Yerevan, 13Nov2017. A newly established company controlled by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian has asked for a government permission to explore for oil and gas in northern Armenia. The company called Armenian Oil and Gas held on Monday mandatory public hearings in Gyumri on the environmental impact of oil exploration sought by it in the surrounding Shirak province and two other regions in the country's north. They were attended by officials from the Environment Protection Ministry, geologists and ecologists. Under Armenian law, such hearings are must precede the ministry's decisions on whether or not to allow particular companies to take the first step towards exploiting natural resources. Speaking at the discussion, an Armenian Oil and Gas representative, Erik Ananian, said the company would use nuclear magnetic resonance, as opposed to traditional drilling, to determine whether the area close to Georgia has commercially viable hydrocarbon reserves. In Shirak, he said, the exploration would be carried out near six rural communities. "If we see that there is a certain industrial potential [for oil production] we will switch to the next phase," added Ananian. He would not say whether the company already has any tentative estimates to that effect. It also remained unclear when it would start the exploratory work in case of securing clearance from the government. Hmayak Hovannisian of the Geophysics Institute in Yerevan said it is still too early speculate about the potential size of oil or gas fields in the area. But he stressed that magnetic resonance allows for deeper penetration than exploratory drilling done in Armenia to date. Another scientist working at the institute, Roland Gasparian, claimed that the possible discovery and extraction of oil would pose an "enormous danger" to local agriculture, while some environmentalists expressed concern at the new method of oil exploration. Several Western companies have already explored for but found no major oil deposits in Armenia over the past two decades. The company in question belongs to Karapetian's Tashir Kapital group that owns Armenia's national electric utility and will soon also manage the country's state-owned power transmission network. A Tashir subsidiary is also planning to build, together with other Russian-Armenian and Western investors, two major hydroelectric plants. In addition, it recently launched Armenia's first-ever solar power plant. The Armenian-born tycoon further underscored his growing involvement in the Armenian economy on November 13 when he inaugurated another massive shopping mall built by Tashir in Yerevan. Press Review (Saturday, December 2) "Zhoghovurd" says that the Armenian authorities remain euphoric about their Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the European Union that was signed on November 24. "The authorities were just as jubilant when they were joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)," scoffs the paper. It claims that Armenia has still not drawn tangible benefits from its membership in the EEU. "Haykakan Zhamanak" discusses leading Russian TV channels' highly negative reaction to the CEPA, saying that they were "instructed" to do so because the EU-Armenia deal is "not quite to the Russian leadership's liking." The paper says this disproves statements to the contrary that were made by Armenian officials. "Past" also looks at the Russian outcry against Armenia's efforts to deepen its economic and political relations with Russia. The paper says that some Russian commentators have defended in this regard Russia's controversial arms deals with Azerbaijan widely condemned in Armenia. It deplores this fact. "168 Zham" reports on the latest Armenian-drafted statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that was adopted at a summit of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held in the Belarusian capital Minsk. "The CSTO presidency is held by Armenia and Armenia has managed to used that for securing declarations expedient for it," the paper quotes a Russian military analyst, Pavel Felgenhauer, as saying. "With that statement, the CSTO affirmed its position that it can only assist, rather than intervene, the platform which is supposed to help solve this conflict. It is not a pro-Armenian statement. But the three principles mentioned by it are Armenian diplomatic wordings. We have repeatedly heard them." Felgenhauer also makes the point that Armenia could not have gotten the other CSTO member states to back such a statement without Russia's backing. "Russian assisted in the adoption of that statement because both Russia and the CSTO were subjected to criticism after the April [2016] war and Russia is trying to address [that criticism] one by one," he says. "This can also be seen as a step taken for the Armenian society in addition to all those measures that were taken by Russia after the April war." Those measures include new and more powerful weapons supplied to the Armenian military, according to the Russian analyst. (Artur Papian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org