Wednesday, .S. Intelligence Chief Warns Of `Large-Scale' Fighting In Karabakh U.S. -- National Intelligence Director Dan Coats speaks to reporters after a swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 16, 2017 The unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could escalate into "large-scale" fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, the U.S. director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, warned late on Tuesday. "Tension over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh could devolve into a large-scale military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which could draw in Russia to support its regional ally," Coats said at the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's annual hearing on "Worldwide Threats." "Both sides' reluctance to compromise, mounting domestic pressures, Azerbaijan's steady military modernization, and Armenia's acquisition of new Russian equipment sustain the risk of large-scale hostilities in 2018," he added. Russian military assistance to Armenia stems from a defense alliance between the two countries. At the same Russia has been Azerbaijan's leading supplier of weapons. Moscow and Baku signed arms deals worth at least $4 billion in 2009-2011. Armenian officials say those deals contributed to four-day hostilities around Karabakh that broke out in April 2016 and left at least 180 soldiers from both sides dead. It was the worst fighting in the conflict zone since a Russian-brokered truce stopped a full-scale Armenian-Azerbaijani war in 1994. Together with France, the United States and Russia have long been spearheading international efforts to end the Karabakh dispute. Diplomats from the three world powers called on the conflicting sides on Sunday to take "additional steps" to reduce tensions on the frontlines. In a joint statement issued after their latest tour of the region, the mediators also said Yerevan and Baku have expressed readiness to continue "intensive" peace talks in the months ahead. The Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents pledged to intensify the peace process when they met in Geneva in October. Coats mentioned Karabakh in the context of Russia's efforts to maintain a strong influence on other ex-Soviet states. "The Kremlin will seek to maintain and, where possible, expand its influence throughout the former Soviet countries that it asserts are in its self-described sphere of influence," said the U.S. intelligence chief. Armenian President-In-Waiting Admits Public Skepticism . Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - Presidential candidate Armen Sarkissian holds a copy of a once popular video game during a visit to the Yerevan headquarters of Synopsis Armenia company, . Armen Sarkissian, the man widely expected to become Armenia's next president in April, acknowledged on Wednesday that many citizens are skeptical about his ability to achieve positive change in the country. "There are different expectations," he said of his ongoing meetings with Armenian politicians, business leaders, intellectuals as well as ordinary Armenians. "A large part of the public has an inertia thinking that that the president is someone who has a top-down vertical power and can answer all questions. There is also the other extreme, with people saying that the presidential powers are so modest that the president cannot do anything." "Part [of the public] says change is necessary and it will be good if you can change something within the bounds of your powers," Sarkissian told reporters. "But there is also a large segment that doesn't believe in change, regardless of who the president of the republic will be. And for me this is the most unfortunate phenomenon because change can occur only if the society or citizens feel like [real] citizens." "I do understand the reasons for that," he said. "But I don't think that is enough of a reason for people to think that nothing can be done." "The biggest challenge in our country is to ensure that people again have hopes and faith," added the former scholar who had briefly served as Armenia's prime minister and is currently its ambassador to Britain. He made clear that he believes economic and other improvements in the country can only be achieved "step by step." Armenia - Presidential candidate Armen Sarkissian (R) meets with IT executives at the Yerevan headquarters of Synopsis Armenia company, 14 February 2018. Sarkissian was offered by the outgoing President Serzh Sarkisian (no relation) last month to become the next head of state to be elected by the Armenian parliament on March 2. The former premier, who has lived in Britain for nearly three decades, said he will decide whether to accept the offer after holding consultations. With Armenia switching to a parliamentary system of government, the next president of the republic will have few executive powers. Sarkissian has downplayed this fact in his public statements. Sarkisian said on Wednesday that he will meet with the outgoing president and announce his decision "in the coming days." The presidential candidate made the comments during a visit to the Armenian subsidiary of the U.S. company Synopsis, one of the world's leading microchip designers which employs hundreds of engineers in Armenia. Speaking to young Synopsis Armenia staff, he confirmed reports that he was one of the authors of Tetris, a world-famous video game designed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. He presented them with a copy of Wordtris, a Tetris offshoot released in 1992. A physicist and mathematician by education, Sarkissian worked at the Cambridge University before being first appointed as ambassador in London in 1991. Police Urged To Investigate Yerevan Council Brawl . Anush Muradian Armenia - Yerkir Tsirani party leader Zaruhi Postanjian argues with police officers moments after a violent incident at Yerevan's municipal council, 13 Februay 2018. The Armenian police have received differing complaints about a bitter altercation between opposition and pro-government members of Yerevan's municipal council which turned violent on Tuesday. The incident occurred during a regular session of the council chaired by Mayor Taron Markarian. Two female councilors affiliated with the opposition Yerkir Tsirani party were confronted by their pro-government colleagues when they tried to give Markarian glass containers filled with sewage collected from a damaged sewer pipe in the city's Nubarashen district. They called the foul-smelling substance a "gift" from Nubarashen residents. The two sides scuffled and shouted insults at each other. Yerkir Tsirani's Marina Khachatrian, slapped a male councilor representing the ruling Republican Party (HHK) after being jostled by him. The latter slapped her in response. Khachatrian and two other Yerkir Tsirani members, including the party leader Zaruhi Postanjian, were then physically forced to leave the council auditorium. Postanjian sent a "crime report" to the police later on Tuesday. The police also received a separate complaint from an unnamed official from the municipal administration. Armenia - Pro-government members of Yerevan's municipal council wrest sewage containers from Yerkir Tsirani party's Marina Khachatrian, 13 February 2018. A national police spokesman told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Wednesday that the police department of Yerevan's central administrative district is "preparing materials" to decide whether to launch an official criminal investigation. No formal criminal case has been opened yet, said the official. "I think that law-enforcement bodies are failing to perform their duties," said Postanjian. The outspoken opposition politician insisted that the incident constituted a violent assault on herself and her two associates that tried to approach the mayor. For her part, Khachatrian said that she slapped the HHK's Edmond Kirakosian because he groped her during the fracas. Neither Kirakosian nor another HHK councilor, who pulled her hair, could be reached for comment. Markarian and his aides blamed Yerkir Tsirani for the unprecedented violence. A statement released by the Mayor's Office accused the opposition party of trying to discredit the municipal assembly with actions "not befitting sane persons." Postanjian also said on Wednesday that Markarian has brought more police officers into the municipality building and banned a Yerkir Tsirani car from using an adjacent parking lot. "We consider this to be a continuation of yesterday's violence," she charged. Israeli Parliament Rejects Armenian Genocide Bill . Artyom Chernamorian Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), delivers his speech next to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (R), at the opening of the winter session of the Knesset (Parliament) in Jerusalem, Israel, 23 October 2017. Israel's parliament voted down on Wednesday an opposition motion to officially recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. The Knesset rejected the bill introduced by Yair Lapid, the leader of the Yesh Atid party, by 41 votes to 28 after a first-ever debate on the sensitive issue held on the Israeli parliament floor. The bill describes the World War One-era extermination of some 1.5 million Armenians as genocide and calls for its official remembrance in Israel. Lapid made a case for the passage of the measure in a 3-minute speech that preceded the vote. He said an official Israeli recognition of the genocide is "a matter of conscience for Jews and non-Jews." Also, he said, the mass killings and deportations of Armenians inspired Adolf Hitler to mastermind the Jewish Holocaust. However, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely voiced the Israeli government's opposition to the measure during the heated discussion. She cited the "complexity" of the issue and its "diplomatic repercussions." Successive Israeli governments have opposed Armenian genocide recognition lest it antagonize Turkey, a former security partner of Israel. Some Israeli politicians have openly challenged this policy in recent years. The Knesset speaker, Yuli Edelstein, called the Armenian massacres a genocide and urged the Jewish state to recognize it in 2015. The Knesset debate on the genocide issue coincided with a visit to Israel by a delegation of Armenian parliamentarians. The five lawmakers representing various Armenian political groups were offered to attend the debate but declined to do that. Press Review "Zhoghovurd" condemns pro-government male members of Yerevan's municipal council for assaulting their female colleagues from the opposition Yerkir Tsirani party during Tuesday's session of the legislature. The paper says Mayor Taron Markarian criticized not this violence but his loyalists' failure to act more quickly against the three Yerkir Tsirani councilors that tried to "present" him with sewage collected from a damaged sewer pipe in the capital. "The behavior of HHK-affiliated female members of the council was the most disgusting," it says. "In their interviews, they justified the beatings of their female colleagues." "Aravot" says, by contrast, that both sides are to blame for the embarrassing incident. The paper says the Yerkir Tsirani councilors were well aware what kind of a reaction their actions would provoke from thuggish HHK members. "These Republican members of the council don't know and will not know any other way of making a point and proving their arguments except throwing punches," editorializes the paper. In that sense, it says tartly, Zaruhi Postanjian and the two other members of Yerkir Tsirani made a correct political "calculation." "Had there been no violence we would have been able to soberly discuss what Yerkir Tsirani councilor Marina Khachatrian did," writes "Hraparak." "We might have criticized or mocked that action and reminded the opposition that the [Yerevan] Council of Elders is not a circus and that they can't solve issues by spraying it with foul smell. Nothing kept councilors from raising the problem and achieving its solution. After all, the problem of cleaning up sewage in Nubarashen [district] is not about ousting the Republicans from power." The paper suggests that Yerkir Tsirani deliberately provoked the incident to gain "the status of victims." At the same time it strongly disapproves of the HHK councilors' violent reaction. "Haykakan Zhamanak" looks into a more than 7 percent rise in the amount of various taxes collected by the Armenian authorities last year. "This is certainly not a bad indicator, especially given that this increase in tax revenue was not accompanied by a harassment of businesses. At least there have been no reports of such systematic abuses. However, when we examine tax collection from separate taxpayers the picture is not that rosy." While acknowledging a "certain" shrinkage of the informal sector of the Armenian economy, the paper sees no "qualitative" economic growth in Armenia. (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