Thursday, Opposition Bloc Moves To Field Presidential Candidate . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Artak Zeynalian of the opposition Yelk bloc at a parliament session in Yerevan, 12Dec2017. The opposition Yelk bloc announced on Thursday plans to nominate one of its senior members as a candidate for the post of Armenia's president who will be elected by the parliament in March. The candidate, Artak Zeynalian, is a parliament deputy and prominent civil rights campaigner. Under the Armenian constitution controversially amended in 2015, the next head of state must be chosen one month before President Serzh Sarkisian completes his second and final term in early April. The end of his decade-long rule will be followed by the country's transition to a parliamentary system of government. It means that Sarkisian's successor will have largely ceremonial powers. The constitution stipulates that only those individuals who are backed by at least 26 members of the 105-seat National Assembly can run for president. Yelk holds 9 parliament seats. One of the bloc's leaders, Nikol Pashinian, said Yelk will start in the coming days "consultations on this theme" with businessman Gagik Tsarukian's alliance represented in the parliament by 31 deputies. He said Yelk hopes that the Tsarukian Bloc will back Zeynalian's candidacy. The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) controls the majority of parliament seats, putting it in a position to install the next president. It can also count on the backing of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), its junior coalition partner holding 7 seats. The HHK, which is headed by President Sarkisian, has still not clarified who its presidential candidate will be. "It's obvious that such initiatives cannot lead to success," Aghvan Vartanian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader, said of Yelk's plans. "But political struggle is a show. Let them nominate [a presidential candidate.]" Pashinian seemed to acknowledge that the Yelk candidate is extremely unlikely to get elected. "We just want to show our people and voters that had they voted [in the April 2017 parliamentary elections] otherwise the turn of events would have also been different," he told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Echoing statements by other Yelk leaders, the oppositionist again claimed that the HHK won the elections primarily as a result of vote buying. U.S. Citizen Accused Of Plotting Terror Attacks In Armenia Armenia - The National Security Service headquarters in Yerevan. Authorities in Armenia have issued an arrest warrant for a U.S. citizen of Armenian descent who they claim plotted "terrorist attacks" against the South Caucasus nation's senior state officials. According to Armenia's National Security Service (NSS), they have asked security services in the United States to help them prevent the crimes allegedly planned by the unnamed individual residing in America. In a statement released on Thursday, the NSS said the individual whom it identified as "R. K." opened in September a Facebook account to promote a radical group campaigning for a violent overthrow of Armenia's government. It said the account user posing as "Martin Avagyan" posted messages calling for bombings, arson attacks and even assassinations of Armenian government and law-enforcement officials that would destabilize the situation in the country and thus put "illegal pressure" on its government. The group called Fighters for Justice (MHA) has also sought to recruit through the social media platform disgruntled Armenians willing to carry out such attacks, according to the NSS. The security agency claimed that R.K. also actually "prepared for terrorist acts" through "accomplices" in Armenia. It said it is now taking measures to identify them. The suspect has been formally charged under corresponding articles of the Armenian Criminal Code. A Yerevan court has allowed the NSS to arrest him or her pending investigation, said the statement. "Given that the suspect is a U.S. citizen, resides in the U.S. and their place of residence has been established, Armenia's Office of the Prosecutor-General has forwarded this information to relevant U.S. bodies in order to prevent the planned crimes," it added. The Facebook page cited by the NSS contains numerous posts and reposts extremely critical of Armenia's political leadership. One of them is a purported September 24 statement by Fighters for Justice (MHA) saying that the nationalist group will use "guerilla methods" to "punish the pillars of the ruling regime." It said separately that senior figures of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia and police officers guilty of human rights abuses will be the "targets" of the campaign. In a December 6 post, "Martin Avagyan" declared that the MHA has embarked on "the second phase of the armed struggle" launched by three dozen gunmen that seized a police station in Yerevan in July 2016. "Join the guerilla struggle, follow MHA statements and act accordingly," it said. The gunmen demanded that President Serzh Sarkisian free the jailed leader of their Founding Parliament opposition movement, Zhirayr Sefilian, and step down. They laid down their arms after a two-week standoff with security forces which left three police officers dead. Later on Thursday, the Yerevan daily "Haykakan Zhamanak" identified the accused man as Robert Koorkian and posted an interview with him on its website. Koorkian did not deny opening the "Martin Avagyan" account but insisted that he never plotted any violence. "I did not and do not have any group," said the California resident. "What I have is thoughts which people like and which have terrified the authorities." "They say that they have a monopoly on beating up and torturing people, while I say no," Koorkian also told the paper that U.S. law-enforcement officers have already questioned him in connection with the Armenian arrest warrant. "Yes, they came and interrogated me, and I explained in detail the conditions of total dictatorship in which the people of Armenia live now," he said, adding that the officers took no further action "for now." Official Denies Russian Obstruction On Armenian-Iranian Border . Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia/Iran - The Arax river separating Armenia and Iran. A senior official claimed on Thursday that Russian border guards did not block construction work on Armenia's border with Iran which was commissioned by an Armenian government agency earlier this year. The State Committee on Water Resources contracted an Armenian construction company in April to reinforce a 40-meter section of the northern bank of the Arax river separating the two countries. Ahead of its latest weekly session in Yerevan, Prime Minister Karen Karapetian's cabinet publicized a draft decision allowing the committee to annul the contract. An explanatory note posted on the government website said that the construction firm has failed to reach an "agreement" with Russian border guards deployed in the area. It said the Russians' consent to any construction on the border is necessary for security reasons. Opposition figures and media commentators were quick to criticize the statement, saying that the border guards cannot challenge Armenia's sovereignty. The head of the State Committee on Water Resources, Arsen Harutiunian, insisted, however, that there was a "typo" in the government statement and that in fact it was the Iranian side that prevented the planned works. "The Russian side has nothing to do with that," he said after Thursday's cabinet meeting. "We are talking about the Iranian side # We have no problems with the Russian side." Harutiunian said that Iranian authorities also have a say on such matters because the planned measure to guard against floods could change the river bed and affect Iran as well. "We are now negotiating with the Iranian side to sort out the issue," he told reporters. Despite these assurances, a parliament deputy from the opposition Yelk alliance, Gevorg Gorgisian, raised the matter on the parliament floor later in the day. "I consider this a very serious issue and think that the government must give explanations so that we can understand why we can't repair that section of the extremely important border and what we should do to stop being dependent on the whims of that Russian security unit," he said. Russian border guards are deployed along Armenia's frontiers with Turkey and Iran in line with Russian-Armenian agreements signed in the early 1990s. Armenian conscripts make up a considerable part of their personnel. U.S. Envoy Sees Continued NATO Assistance To Armenia . Hovannes Movsisian Armenia -- U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills speaks to journalists in Yerevan. 13Sept., 2017 The United States and other NATO member states stand ready to continue their assistance to an Armenian army unit contributing troops to the NATO-led missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills said on Thursday. Mills said NATO's Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller will make this clear when she arrives in Yerevan on Monday for talks with President Serzh Sarkisian and other Armenian leaders. Gottemoeller will reaffirm the U.S.-led alliance's readiness to provide Armenian peacekeepers with more "support, assistance and training they need to carry out their work," he told reporters. Over 120 Armenian soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan and 35 others in Kosovo at present, highlighting Armenia's increase cooperation with NATO. "We greatly appreciate Armenia's participation in international peacekeeping operations and NATO-led and other multinational exercises," U.S. President Donald Trump said in a September letter to his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian. Mills likewise said that Armenians should be "very proud" of their soldiers serving in Afghanistan. He said they are helping NATO forces boost peace and security in the war-torn country and prevent it from becoming a "safe haven for terrorists." The soldiers serving there are part of the Armenian army's peacekeeping brigade that has received considerable assistance from the U.S. and other NATO militaries. As recently as on October 31, senior Armenian and U.S. military officials inaugurated the brigade's newly renovated training center near Yerevan. Armenia has pledged to join more multinational peacekeeping missions abroad with specialized medical and demining units in the near future. They will undergo U.S. training before such deployment. In October 2016, Mills and Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian inaugurated a new paramedic school of the Armenian armed forces. U.S. military instructors trained the first group of Armenian teaching personnel for the school in August 2015. Mills said in July this year that Armenia's military and political alliance with Russia does not prevent it from forging closer security ties with the U.S. Press Review "Zhamanak" says that the still unanswered question of who will be Armenia's prime minister after April 2018 is not as important as many think. The paper says the question of "who will be in opposition in Armenia" then is at least just as important. "Will there be any opposition at all?" it asks. "Will the opposition camp in Armenia manage to reset itself and present itself with a new structure, logic and agenda to the public?" "Hraparak" says that President Serzh Sarkisian's political allies claim that he is keen to hold on to power because he is only motivated by an altruistic desire "not to leave the country without a master." The paper says even assuming that they are telling the truth this notion is not a convincing one. It says that what Sarkisian has created in the last ten years is not a well-functioning "system" but a "hierarchy" of individuals who care first and foremost about their status and remuneration. "Zhoghovurd" criticizes Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian for stating during a visit to Greece that Armenia's accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union opened up "new opportunities" for commerce and investments. Nalbandian also argued that foreign investors can now use Armenia as a platform for tariff-free access to Russia's market. The paper dismisses that argument, saying that Armenian exports remain modest despite the EEU membership. "Aravot" suggests that most people who have emigrated from Armenia do not have accurate and objective information about the situation in their country of birth. "It's not that they are unable to get such information," editorializes the paper. "Thank God, information flows are abundant and diverse these days. It's just that they and perhaps also their relatives and friends in Armenia filter information and the picture becomes one-sided and not objective." Most emigres, it says, have a strong demand for only negative information about Armenia. (Tigran Avetisian) 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