Tuesday, Sarkisian Marks 30th Anniversary Of `Armenian Revival' In Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh - A public celebration in Stepanakert of the 30th anniversary of a popular movement for Karabakh's unification with Armenia, 13 February 2018. President Serzh Sarkisian celebrated on Tuesday the 30th anniversary of the start of a popular movement for Nagorno-Karabakh's unification with Armenia, saying that it marked "the revival of the Armenian people." "Monte [Melkonian] (an American-born Armenian military commander killed in action in 1993) was right to say that if we lost Artsakh (Karabakh) we would turn the final page of Armenian history," Sarkisian said in a written address to the nation. "February 20, 1988 was a moment of unity, determination and national revival of the Armenian people." On that day the legislative assembly of Karabakh, then an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, voted for the mostly Armenian-populated territory's unification with Armenia. The decision came amid large demonstrations taking place in Stepanakert which swiftly triggered huge rallies in Yerevan. With both the Soviet and Azerbaijani authorities rejected those demands, there were counterdemonstrations and anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan later in 1988.The bitter conflict escalated into an all-out war in Karabakh as the Soviet Union fell apart at the end of 1991. Around 7,000 Armenian fighters and over 1,260 civilians, most of them Karabakh residents, died during the war stopped by a Russian-brokered truce in May 1994. Azerbaijan publicized in 2014 an incomplete official list of over 11,500 Azerbaijani combat deaths. Its late President Heydar Aliyev had spoken of some 21,000 Azerbaijani war casualties, including civilians. The warring sides have suffered hundreds of more casualties in ceasefire violations since 1994. Nagorno-Karabakh - Karabakh Armenian troops are pictured outside an Armenian church in Shushi after capturing the town from Azerbaijani forces on 9 May 1992. The nearly three years of fierce fighting left the Karabakh Armenians in control of almost the whole of Karabakh. They also fully or partly occupied seven Azerbaijani districts surrounding the disputed enclave. International efforts to settle the conflict have still not yielded a breakthrough. Sarkisian claimed that the Karabakh Armenians would have faced "physical extermination" had they not taken up arms and won the war. "Now, three decades on, we can confidently assert that the Karabakh movement saved hundreds of thousands of lives," he said in his statement. Karabakh's population is still facing the same security threats as in 1988, the Armenian president added in a clear reference to Azerbaijani leaders' regular threats to reconquer the territory. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev again condemned "Armenian occupation" of Karabakh when he met with a European Union envoy on Monday. He said Yerevan's "hypocritical and unconstructive position" is the main obstacle to the conflict's resolution. Sarkisian insisted earlier in this month, however, Baku's "maximalist" demands are to blame for the lack of serious progress in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. Born and raised in Stepanakert, Sarkisian was an active member of the 1988 movement. He commanded Karabakh Armenian forces in 1991-1992 and went on to become Armenia's defense minister and hold other high-level positions in Yerevan. The movement's 30th anniversary was marked in Stepanakert earlier this week with official ceremonies attended by thousands of people. Armenian Minister Denies `Constitutional Crisis' # Nane Sahakian Armenia - Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian holds a news conference in Yerevan, . Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian on Tuesday brushed aside claims by some lawyers and opposition politicians that the upcoming election by the Armenian parliament of the country's next president is unconstitutional. Armenia's constitution controversially amended in 2015 stipulates that the president of the republic shall no longer be elected by popular vote because of the country's transition to a parliamentary system of government. The National Assembly is expected to choose President Serzh Sarkisian's successor on March 2, just over one month before the end of his final term in office. Citing provisional clauses of the amended constitution, some Armenian lawyers critical of the government say that the new constitutional provisions calling for the parliament vote are supposed to take effect only when the next president is sworn in for a seven-year term. The president must therefore be again directly elected by voters, they say. One of those lawyers, Vahe Grigorian, has accused the authorities of "usurping the people's power." Another attorney, Gevorg Gyozalian, alleged on Monday a "constitutional crisis" in the country. Aram Manukian, a deputy chairman of the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), echoed those claims. "It's so simple and obvious that you don't have to be a lawyer to understand it," he said. But Vartan Poghosian, another legal expert who was personally involved in the constitutional reform, pointed to Article 7 of the amended constitution which has already come into force. He argued that it overturned a previous constitutional provision mandating the president's election by popular vote. In a newspaper interview, Poghosian also cited another provisional clause which says that lawmakers can pick the next head of state no sooner than 40 days before the end of Sarkisian's decade-long presidency. Harutiunian made similar arguments at a news conference in Yerevan. "Things are very clear and any talk of constitutional crisis is just wide off the mark," he said. "Please take a more simple look at the matter and don't be fooled by tricky and complicated legal definitions," added the minister. President Sarkisian and is Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) have nominated Armen Sarkissian, a former prime minister who has lived in Britain for nearly 30 years, for the largely ceremonial post of president. Sarkissian formally accepted the nomination late last week. Armenia, Russia Hail Soaring Bilateral Trade Armenia - Prime Minister Karen Karapetian (R) meets with Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov in Yerevan, . Prime Minister Karen Karapetian and a visiting Russian government member praised on Tuesday a further sizable increase in Russian-Armenian trade which reached a new high last year, according to official statistics. Armenian government data show bilateral trade rising by just over 26 percent to $1.7 billion in 2017 on the back of an almost 45 percent surge in Armenian exports to Russia. The latter thus remained the South Caucasus state's leading trading partner. Karapetian cited these figures at the start of a regular session in Yerevan of a Russian-Armenian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. He chaired it together with Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. Sokolov also noted the record-high amount of Russian-Armenian trade recorded in 2017. "We are happy that the volume of shipments of Armenian products to the Russian is rapidly growing," he said in his opening remarks publicized by Karapetian's press office. Russian-Armenian trade plummeted in 2015 following a sharp depreciation of the Russian ruble which hit Armenian exporters hard. But with the Russian currency subsequently rallying against the U.S. dollar and the euro, Armenian exports to Russia soared by 51.5 percent in 2016. Sokolov said that Armenia's membership in the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is a key reason for the sharp gains recorded in 2016 and 2017. Tariff-free access to the markets in Russia and other ex-Soviet states making up the trade bloc is also making Armenia more attractive to foreign investors, he said. Karapetian stressed in that regard that Armenia also enjoys preferential trade regimes with the European Union and the United States and that Russian investors should capitalize on that. He also called for Russian investments in a free economic zone which was set up on the Armenian-Iranian border in December. "We are ready to create comfortable conditions for Russian capital in Armenia," added the prime minister. Karapetian visited Moscow as recently as on February 16-17. The Armenian government said ahead of his visit said he will meet with "Armenian and Russian business circles" to discuss with them "ongoing and prospective projects." The government has issued no further statements on the trip. The Armenian premier has been strongly backed by Russia's wealthiest ethnic Armenian businessman, Samvel Karapetian (no relation), ever since he took office in September 2016. The billionaire tycoon has pledged to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Armenia's energy sector. Incidentally, energy was on the agenda of Tuesday's meeting of the Russian-Armenian commission.A government statement said the panel discussed ways of "expanding cooperation" in this and other economic sectors. Ter-Petrosian Aide Slams Other Oppositionists # Narine Ghalechian Armenia - Levon Zurabian, deputy chairman of the opposition Armenian National Congress, 23Jan2017. A senior representative of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian's party indicated on Tuesday that it will not join forces with another opposition group, the Yelk alliance, in trying to prevent President Serzh Sarkisian from extending his decade-long rule. Levon Zurabian, the deputy chairman of the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), said Yelk leaders, notably Nikol Pashinian, themselves made it easier for Sarkisian to hold on to power when they declined to campaign against his controversial constitutional changes in 2015. Under those changes enacted in a disputed referendum, Armenia will be transformed soon into a parliamentary republic governed by a powerful prime minister. Sarkisian is widely expected to take up that post after completing his final presidential term on April 9. Pashinian and his allies have said that they will strive to prevent such a scenario. Pashinian warned earlier this month that the outgoing president could heighten political tensions in Armenia if he becomes prime minister. Zurabian scoffed at such statements when he spoke to RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "When we were telling the people in 2015 that this is a plan to usurp power, that these constitutional changes are only aimed at extending Serzh Sarkisian's dictatorial rule # we were alone," he said. "The Armenian National Congress single-handedly conducted the No campaign, whereas the people who are now saying `join us' or something called that a `false agenda.' Furthermore, they were telling people that the opposition is fooling them and that they should not join it." "How can we trust the individuals who at the most critical moment did exactly what the authorities needed for extending their rule?" added Zurabian. Yelk has yet to clarify whether it will stage street protests to try to scuttle Sarkisian's continued rule. Another leader of the bloc, Aram Sarkisian, said last week that there are disagreements within Yelk on this score. Pashinian played a prominent role in Ter-Petrosian's broad-based opposition movement that nearly brought the ex-president back to power in a disputed presidential election held in February 2008. He spent about two years in prison on dubious charges stemming from the March 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. Pashinian subsequently fell out with Ter-Petrosian and set up his own political party, Civil Contract. It is one of the three opposition parties which formed Yelk in late 2016. Press Review Armenia -- Newspapers for press review illustration, Yerevan, 12Jul2016 "Zhoghovurd" condemns Yerevan's municipal administration for restricting journalists' access to its premises following last week's violent dispute between pro-government and opposition members of the city council. "The Yerevan municipality is being increasingly turned into a penitentiary institution," writes the paper. It accuses Mayor Taron Markarian of "fighting against journalists instead of reining in his Republican [party] gang." "Zhamanak" scoffs at President Serzh Sarkisian's claim, made at an international security conference in Munich, that there is popular consensus in Armenia regarding his administration's foreign policy and, in particular, its efforts to combine membership in a Russian-led bloc with closer ties with the European Union. The paper recalls the collapse in 2013 of Armenia's Association Agreement with the EU, calling it a "shameful" end to Yerevan's European integration drive. It also complains that no Armenian opposition force has since come up with a viable pro-Western alternative to Sarkisian's foreign policy. It says domestic opposition forces have thus helped Sarkisian advance the official line that there is simply no alternative to that policy. "Aravot" carries an editorial on the 30th anniversary of the start of a popular movement for Nagorno-Karabakh's unification with Armenia. The paper says that the movement allowed Armenians to "overcome ethnic complexes" of victimhood that had taken shape over the centuries. "The generation that was at the heart of the movement consisted of grandparents of not only those who were slaughtered in 1915 but also those who won in 1945," it says. "People who received quality education and lived in relative prosperity for several decades. The main ideology of the movement was formulated by Rafael Ishkhanian's article that made a case against [Armenians' reliance on] a third force. The message was totally clear: we must believe in ourselves and avoid the trap of traditional orientations. What we have managed to create and gain in the last 30 years is the result of our adherence to that line." (Siranuysh Gevorgyan) 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