Tuesday, January 30, 2017 Italian Police Try To Arrest Armenian Opposition Leader . Hovannes Movsisian Italy - Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinian is surrounded by police officers in his hotel room in Rome,30Jan2018. Police in Italy reportedly attempted to detain on Tuesday a prominent Armenian opposition leader, Nikol Pashinian, on an apparently outdated international arrest warrant. "A short while ago the Italian police besieged my hotel room in Rome," Pashinian wrote on his Facebook page. "They came to arrest me." "It turns out that the Armenian authorities have been hunting for me through Interpol. They've been hunting since 2008 but still can't find me," he added with sarcasm. Pashinian, who was in Rome on a private trip, also posted a photograph of himself surrounded by four armed policemen inside his hotel room. They looked on as the 42-year-old member of Armenia's parliament seemingly searched for some information on his notebook computer. He was most probably not taken into custody after all. According to an Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman, the Italian police assured Armenia's embassy in Rome later in the day that they no longer have any issues with Pashinian. Embassy officials are now trying to contact the outspoken oppositionist, said the official. Pashinian is one of the top leaders of the opposition Yelk alliance. The pro-Western alliance holds 9 seats in Armenia's 105-member parliament. Armenia - Nikol Pashinian and other members of the opposition Yelk alliance campaign in downtown Yerevan, 8Mar2017. Pashinian was among several dozen opposition figures who went into hiding in March 2008 during the Armenian authorities' post-election crackdown on former President Levon Ter-Petrosian's opposition movement.The deadly crackdown was criticized by the Council of Europe and other international human rights organizations. Pashinian surrendered to law-enforcement authorities in July 2009. He was subsequently tried and sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of inciting "mass disturbances" in Yerevan which he denied as politically motivated. He was set free in May 2011 under a general amnesty. Reacting to the Rome incident, the Armenian police insisted that they withdrew their international arrest warrant for Pashinian three weeks after his surrender. A police statement said Interpol's Secretariat General in Lyon, France was promptly informed about that before sending similar notifications to the international police organization's member states. In separate comments to RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), the Armenian police spokesman, Ashot Aharonian, suggested that Italian law-enforcement authorities failed to update their most wanted list based on Interpol records. "The Interpol database should have been updated," said Edmon Marukian, another leader of Yelk. "Namely, information [regarding Pashinian] should have long been removed from it. Pashinian has visited the United States, Great Britain and many other European countries. This is the first time that he is having such problems." Ex-PM Seen Likely To Become Armenian President . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Former Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian meets with members of the National Academy of Sciences in Yerevan, . A senior representative of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) expressed confidence on Tuesday that Armen Sarkissian, a former Armenian prime minister currently serving as ambassador to Britain, will agree to become the country's next president. Sarkissian met with parliament deputies representing the HHK late on Monday at the start of political consultations which he has said will help him decide whether to accept the HHK nomination for the presidency. "I gathered from yesterday's meeting that it reinforced his [inclination to make a] positive decision," said Vahram Baghdasarian, the parliamentary leader of the party headed by the outgoing President Serzh Sarkisian. "I am convinced that Armen Sarkissian will opt for that decision," Baghdasarian told reporters. Later on Monday the 64-year-old ambassador also met with the leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), the HHK's junior coalition partner. One of them, Armen Rustamian, said afterwards that Dashnaktsutyun will endorse Sarkissian "in all likelihood" if he decides to run for president. Sarkissian again declined to shed light on his plans when he briefly spoke to journalists before meeting with senior members of Armenia's National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday. "Yesterday's meetings were very productive and interesting," the Armenpress news agency quoted him as saying. He did not elaborate. The next Armenian president will be elected by the parliament, rather than popular vote, one month before Serzh Sarkisian completes his second and final presidential term on April 9. Armenia will switch to a parliamentary system of government right after that, meaning that the new head of state will have largely ceremonial powers. The HHK controls the majority of seats in the National Assembly. Production Halted At Armenian Copper Mine . Karine Simonian Armenia - Open-pit mining at Teghut copper deposit, 20Dec2014. Amid continuing criticism from environmentalists, a leading Armenian mining company has suspended production operations at a massive copper deposit in the country's northern Lori province, citing the need to repair its waste disposal facilities. The company, Vallex Group, confirmed on Tuesday that some of its 1,215 employees working at the Teghut deposit were sent on indefinite leave on January 12. A Vallex spokeswoman said more of them will be told on Wednesday not to report for work until further notice. She gave no numbers. In a separate written statement to RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), Vallex attributed the measure to the need to conduct "planned prophylactic repairs." It said it will specifically bring "technological parameters" of industrial waste flowing into a tailings dump near the mine into conformity with "new standards" for environment protection. In recent months, environment protection groups have repeatedly reported toxic leaks from the dump contaminating a nearby river. They have accused Vallex of operating in utter disregard of environmental standards. The Vallex statement dismissed those reports as "lies," denying any problems at the waste dump. It also said that the suspension of mining and ore enrichment at Teghut will last for "two months or longer." Some of the workers sent home said the company management gave them no dates for the resumption of production operations. They were worried that they will not be properly compensated for the hiatus. Some also feared that the mine will be closed altogether and they will lose their jobs. The Teghut operator sought to allay those fears, saying that it is actually planning to significantly increase copper ore extraction. Armenia - A newly constructed ore-processing plant at the Teghut copper mine, 20Dec2014. These plans met with strong resistance from some residents of two villages close to the mining site during a mandatory public discussion organized by Vallex in August. Those villagers said that higher pollution levels have already had negative effects on their fruit orchards. One local farmer, Levon Alikhanian, has been locked in a court battle with Vallex for nearly ten years. "We are going to collect signatures and send them to the prime minister so that they revoke [the company's mining] license," he said. "That company got the license by fooling the government." Vallex has also faced strong opposition from the Yerevan-based environmentalists. They argue, among other things, that open-pit mining at Teghut will lead to the destruction of hundreds of hectares of rich forest. The Liechtenstein-registered company pledged to plant a new and bigger forest in adjacent areas before launching mining operations there in 2014. It also promised to create 1,300 new jobs, build new schools and upgrade other infrastructure in the villages. Vallex, which also owns a copper smelter in the nearby town of Alaverdi and metal mines in Nagorno-Karabakh, defended its track record in a 5-page report released last week. It said its combined operating revenue rose by about 32 percent to $358 million last year thanks to increased international prices of copper and other non-ferrous metals. The Teghut mine generated over 42 percent of that revenue. The company employing about 3,500 people in Armenia and Karabakh also claimed to have paid $52 million in various taxes, up from $41 million in 2016. Armenian Presidential Palace To Be Turned Into PM's Office . Sisak Gabrielian Armenia -- The presidential palace in Yerevan. Armenia's next prime minister, who will take office in April, will be based in a building in Yerevan that has housed President Serzh Sarkisian and his staff for the past decade, under a newly publicized government bill. The draft amendments to an Armenian law on "social guarantees" for the country's top state officials will be construed by some observers as a further indication that Sarkisian is planning to become prime minister after serving out his final presidential term on April 9. The outgoing president has still not clarified his political plans. In line with controversial constitutional changes enacted by Sarkisian in 2015, Armenia will become a parliamentary republic after the end of his presidency. This means that it is the prime minister who will be the country's most powerful official. By contrast, the next president of the republic will have very few executive powers. Under the amendments drafted by the Justice Ministry, he and his staff will move into a new presidential palace in downtown Yerevan that has until now served as a venue for government receptions and intergovernmental meetings. According to Armenian newspaper reports, the Soviet-era building is currently undergoing hasty repairs. The existing presidential palace was also occupied by former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Levon Ter-Petrosian. The bill stipulates that it will become the prime minister's headquarters. The latter will be allowed to have up to 600 staffers. Armenian prime ministers have until now been based in another building located in Yerevan's central Republic Square. That building has also been the venue for weekly cabinet meetings. It is far more accessible for street protesters than the current presidential palace. Under another bill awaiting government approval, Armenia will have one first deputy prime minister and two deputy prime ministers starting from April. The current premier, Karen Karapetian, has only one deputy. There is mounting media speculation that Karapetian will be appointed first deputy prime minister. He has not commented on those rumors so far. Press Review "Zhamanak" considers former Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian's election as Armenia's next president to be a forgone conclusion. The paper says that as president Sarkissian will derive his clout not so much from that position as his "capital and international connections." It says that those connections will help him somewhat make up for a lack of executive powers to be vested in the presidency. "Inviting an official from abroad seems to be becoming a nice tradition in our country," writes "Hraparak." "Less than two years after inviting a prime minister from Russia we are inviting a president of Armenia from Great Britain. In essence, both men [Karen Karapetian an Armen Sarkissian] are carriers of the culture and the environment of the foreign countries where they have lived." The paper is skeptical about either man's readiness or ability to "change anything and improve life" in Armenia. "Aravot" comments on a government bill which would expand a legal ban on smoking in public places and drastically toughen financial penalties for people violating it. The paper voices support for the proposed measures but say the authorities have yet to come up with workable mechanisms for enforcing them. It also says that heavier fines are not necessarily the right way to curb smoking. It argues that existing, much smaller fines have never been enforced by relevant authorities. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org