Thursday, January 18, 2017

Ex-PM Deemed Fit To Be Armenian President


 . Ruzanna Stepanian


Britain - Prince Charles and former Armenian Prime Minister Armen
Sarkissian (R) at a 2010 fundraising gala in London.

The ruling Republican Party (HHK) on Thursday pointedly declined to
deny reports that Armen Sarkissian, a former Armenian prime minister
who has lived in Britain for nearly three decades, will become
Armenia's next president.

The Armenian parliament controlled by the HHK will elect a president
of the republic in early March, one month before the current President
Serzh Sarkisian completes his second and final term. Armenia will also
switch to the parliamentary system of government in April, meaning
that the new president will have largely ceremonial powers.

Sarkisian said on Tuesday that the next head of state must be a
renowned but politically inexperienced person who has "broad
connections in both Armenia and the Diaspora." But he did not name
anyone.

Some Armenian newspapers claimed this week that Armen Sarkissian (no
relation), who is currently Armenia's ambassador in London, is the
outgoing president's preferred successor.

Commenting on those reports, the HHK's parliamentary leader, Vahram
Baghdasarian, said the prominent ambassador, who briefly served as
Armenia's prime minister in 1996-1997, meets the requirements
specified by Serzh Sarkisian.

"It is logical to discuss his candidacy because when you look at his
personality and the criteria [set by Serzh Sarkisian] you see
conformity there," Baghdasarian told RFE/RL's Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am). "And if that candidacy is nominated we will discuss
it."

Baghdasarian insisted that Armen Sarkissian's four-month tenure as
Armenian prime minister does not count as political experience and is
therefore not an obstacle to his potential presidency. "I don't think
we can find any well-known individuals who have never dealt with
politics at all," he said.

The HHK's governing board headed by President Sarkisian was due to
meet and discuss the matter later in the day.

A physicist and mathematician by education, Armen Sarkissian worked at
the Cambridge University when he was appointed as newly independent
Armenia's first ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1991. After
another ambassadorial stint cut short in 1999 by then President Robert
Kocharian, Sarkissian stayed in London and went on to work as a senior
advisor to major Western corporations such as BP, Alcatel and Bank of
America. He also founded and ran the Eurasia Center of a Cambridge
University business school from 2001-2011.

Sarkissian, 64, also established an apparently friendly rapport with
Britain's Prince Charles. The two men jointly raised funds for charity
projects in Scotland and Armenia. Sarkissian was instrumental in
Charles's May 2013 visit to Armenia. He was again appointed as
Armenian ambassador to the UK four months after that trip.



Government Plans Anti-Graft Measures In 2018


 . Sisak Gabrielian


Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian holds a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, 18Jan2018.

The Armenian government approved on Thursday more than 1.3 billion
drams ($2.8 million) in funding for a range of anti-corruption
measures which it said will be taken this year.

The government said it will concentrate on "neutralizing and/or
reducing corruption risks" in law enforcement, tax collection,
healthcare and education. At a weekly meeting chaired by Prime
Minister Karen Karapetian, it made corresponding changes in a
three-year plan of actions against various corrupt practices which was
adopted in 2015.

Speaking at the cabinet meeting, a senior official said the planned
measures will target 84 types of "corruption risks" but gave no
details. The government also did not immediately specify the sources
of funding for those measures.

It is understood to be planning to spend a large part of that money on
training courses for law-enforcement and tax officers and employees of
state medical and educational institutions.

Karapetian has repeatedly pledged to combat corruption since taking
office in September 2016. A new anti-graft state body is due to start
functioning this spring.

The Commission on Preventing Corruption is tasked with scrutinizing
income and asset declarations to be submitted by over 2,000 senior
state officials and investigating possible conflicts of interest among
them. Under a government bill passed by the Armenian parliament in
June 2017, the commission will be empowered to ask law-enforcement
bodies to prosecute officials suspected of graft.

Armenian civic organizations remain very skeptical about these
efforts. They say that the authorities still lack the political will
to tackle the problem in earnest.

Armenia ranked, together with Bolivia and Vietnam, 113th out of 176
countries evaluated in Transparency International's most recent
Corruption Perceptions Index released in January 2016.



Armenia, Azerbaijan `Agree' On Truce Monitoring In Karabakh


Poland - The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers and U.S.,
Russian and French mediators meet in Krakow,18Jan2018.

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly agreed on
Thursday to expand an international mission monitoring the ceasefire
regime along the Nagorno-Karabakh "line of contact" and the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov held what the latter described
as a "positive" meeting in the Polish city of Krakow to try to build
on progress which they appeared to have made at their previous talks
held in Vienna in December.

The three-hour meeting began in the presence of the U.S., Russian and
French mediators leading the OSCE Minsk Group. The two ministers then
spoke in a tete-a-tete format.

A statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry said they discussed
"additional steps to ease tension in the conflict zone and
possibilities of intensifying the negotiation process."

"The sides agreed in principle to implement the decision to expand the
capacity of the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office," it added without elaborating.

The Azerbaijani side did not immediately confirm this. Mammadyarov
said only that the talks were "positive."

"The common approach is that most intensive, substantive and logical
negotiations must continue if we are to reach progress towards the
conflict's resolution and peace and stability in the region," the
Azerbaijani minister told the Trend news agency.

Mammadyarov also said that the three mediators presented the two sides
with "a number of creative ideas" on a Karabakh settlement. He did not
elaborate.

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijani agreed to the expansion of a
small OSCE team periodically monitoring ceasefire in the Karabakh
conflict zone when they met in Vienna in May 2016. The team led by
Andzrej Kasprzyk consists of a small number of officials who travel to
Karabakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border once or twice a month to
briefly monitor the parties' compliance with truce agreements reached
in 1994 and 1995.

Azerbaijan officially stated in March 2017 that it will not allow the
OSCE to deploy monitors on the Karabakh frontline "in the absence of
withdrawal of the Armenian troops from the occupied territories." Baku
has been just as reluctant to allow international investigations of
truce violations there, which were also agreed upon in May 2016.

Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev pledged to intensify the
protracted search for a Karabakh peace and bolster the ceasefire at
their most recent talks held in Geneva in October 2017.

Both Mammadyarov and the Armenian Foreign Ministry said after the
Krakow talks that the Minsk Group co-chairs will again tour the
conflict zone early next month. But it remained unclear whether the
two presidents could meet again before Sarkisian serves out his final
presidential term in early April.



Press Review



"Zhamanak" is pessimistic about the outcome of Thursday's meeting in
Krakow, Poland of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. The
paper says the only "rational expectation" from the talks is that they
will help to maintain the current relative calm on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani frontlines. This is what the U.S., Russian and
French mediators are trying to achieve, it says. "On the other hand,
the Russian foreign minister stated that the Karabakh conflict cannot
be resolved with a single document and requires a phased
approach. Azerbaijan welcomed that statement, while Armenia said
[Sergei] Lavrov meant a phased implementation of a package
settlement."

"Aravot" comments on the criteria for the choice of Armenia's next
president which were laid out by President Serzh Sarkisian earlier
this week. "Undoubtedly, the requirements listed by Serzh Sarkisian
are important: speaking foreign languages, having a good reputation in
Armenia and the Diaspora as well as international connections, being
non-partisan and impartial," editorializes the paper. "This is what
the president probably meant when he spoke of [the next president's]
non-involvement in politics." But, the paper says, the president's
"human qualities" are more important. The head of state must be an
"extremely honest" and "wise" person who will not lose touch with
ordinary people, it says.

"Hraparak" writes on growing reports that the National Assembly will
elect Armen Sarkissian, Armenia's ambassador to Britain, as the next
president of the republic. "He not only by and large meets the
requirements listed by Serzh Sarkisian the other day but has many
connections in the outside world and, according to some reports, has
already started using those connections for his needs," says the
paper. "Only one thing hampers his nomination. Under Article 124 of
the constitution, the president of the republic cannot engage in
entrepreneurial activity. But every politically conscious person in
Armenia knows that Armen Sarkissian is also a successful
businessman. But getting around the law and electing a president in an
unconstitutional way is not a new phenomenon for our country. They
will do that again."

"Zhoghovurd" says the authorities are now busy telling the people that
their quality of life has improved and citing various statistical data
and positive reports by foreign agencies for that purpose. "But
somehow reality is not changing regardless of their statements," the
paper says. "Citizens are witnessing a very different picture in their
day-to-day life."

(Tigran Avetisian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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