Monday,
Armenian Presidential Frontrunner Endorsed By Tsarukian
. Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - President Serzh Sarkisan and Gagik Tsarukian attend an
awards ceremony for Armenian athletes near Yerevan, 27Dec2017
Businessman Gagik Tsarukian and his political alliance have thrown
their weight behind the man nominated by President Serzh Sarkisian's
Republican Party (HHK) for the post of Armenia's president.
With the Tsarukian Bloc controlling the second largest faction in the
Armenian parliament, the decision means that the presidential
candidate, Armen Sarkissian, will almost certainly be elected head of
state in the first round of voting slated for March 2.
Under the Armenian constitution, Sarkissian needs to be backed by at
least 79 members of the 105-seat National Assembly in order to win
outright. The HHK and the Tsarukian Bloc hold 65 and 31 parliament
seats respectively.
The bloc, which is officially in opposition to the government,
announced the endorsement of Sarkissian's candidacy after a weekend
meeting of its parliamentary faction chaired by Tsarukian.
In his televised remarks made at the meeting, Tsarukian praised the
former Armenian prime minister, saying that the latter has pledged to
help create many jobs and attract "big investments" to Armenia. "He is
now saying what we all say, desire and aim for," added the tycoon.
As part of his consultations held with various Armenian political
groups in recent weeks, Sarkissian has met separately with Tsarukian
and senior lawmakers from his bloc.
Sarkissian's endorsement by Tsarukian also means that he we will be
running for president unopposed. The opposition Yelk alliance moved in
December to nominate its own presidential candidate, Artak
Zeynalian. It asked the Tsarukian Bloc to support Zeynalian's
candidacy.
The recently amended constitution stipulates that a presidential
hopeful has to be backed by at least 27 lawmakers to have their name
included on the ballot. Yelk holds only 9 parliament seats.
The next president of the republic will be sworn in on April 9. With
Armenia switching to a parliamentary system of government, he will
have largely ceremonial powers.
Opposition Party Seeking `United Front' Against Sarkisian's Continued
Rule
. Sisak Gabrielian
Armenia - Opposition leader Raffi Hovhannisian, speaks in Yerevan,
22Sep2017
Raffi Hovannisian's Zharangutyun party said on Monday that it hopes to
form a coalition of opposition forces that would try to prevent
President Serzh Sarkisian from extending his decade-long rule.
Zharangutyun's new chairman, Armen Martirosian, told RFE/RL's Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) that it is discussing with various groups and
individuals the possibility of forming a "united front" against
Sarkisian's perceived plans to become prime minister. "Such
discussions have already started and they started some time ago," he
said.
Martirosian said Sarkisian's presidency has been a failure and he must
not be allowed to hold on to power after completing his final term on
April 9. "I think that the fight must be not so much against Serzh
Sarkisian as for reforms, for radical changes in the country," he
said.
Martirosian added that Zharangutyun is specifically ready to team up
with extraparliamentary opposition forces, including former President
Levon Ter-Petrosian's Armenian National Congress (HAK).
The HAK's deputy chairman, Levon Zurabian, reacted cautiously to the
idea. "Let's talk, let's discuss, let's see whether that is possible,
whether the current state of public consciousness is enough for
organizing such an outburst," he said.
Zurabian indicated last week that the HAK will not join forces with
another opposition group, the Yelk alliance. He said Yelk leaders,
notably Nikol Pashinian, themselves made things easier for Sarkisian
when they refused to campaign against his controversial constitutional
changes in 2015.
Neither Zharangutyun nor the HAK is represented in the current
Armenian parliament elected last April. Zharangutyun contested the
last general elections in an alliance with former Defense Minister
Seyran Ohanian and former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. According
to the official election results, their ORO alliance got only 2
percent of the vote.
An HAK-led electoral bloc fared even worse. By contrast, Yelk won 9
seats in the 105-member parliament.
Pashinian warned earlier this month that the outgoing president could
heighten political tensions in Armenia if he becomes prime
minister. Still, Yelk has yet to clarify whether it will stage street
protests to try to scuttle Sarkisian's continued rule.
Martirosian took over as Zharangutyun chairman on Saturday following
the resignation of Hovannisian, the party's founder and longtime
leader. He insisted that Hovannisian will not retire from politics and
will remain a member of the party's governing board.
Activists See Environmental Reasons For Armenian Mine Shutdown
. Anush Muradian
Armenia -- A public discussion in Yerevan: `Insulating mining
industry: Who will prevent the disaster of Teghut and rehabilitate the
destructed nature?'. 26Feb., 2018
Production operations at a large copper mine in northern Armenia were
halted last month because of its faulty waste disposal facilities,
environment protection activists claimed on Monday.
A private mining company, Vallex Group, sent the vast majority of its
1,200 employees working at the Teghut deposit on indefinite leave on
January 12, citing the need for "planned prophylactic repairs." Vallex
announced on February 2 that it will lay them off due to what it
expects to be a "prolonged stoppage" of mining and ore processing at
Teghut. It claimed that it needs time to commission feasibility
studies on its plans to significantly boost production there.
In the months leading up to the shutdown, Armenian environmentalists
repeatedly reported toxic leaks from Teghut's waste disposal reservoir
contaminating a nearby river. Vallex denied those reports.
Rafael Afrikian of the Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) said on Monday
that he and other members of the Yerevan-based civic group traveled to
Teghut shortly after the announcement of the mass layoffs. He said
they witnessed and documented evidence of Vallex of dumping industrial
waste into the Debed river through a pipe during the night hours.
Levon Galstian, who leads the non-governmental Armenian Ecological
Front, claimed that the pipe was secretly laid seven months ago in
breach of the Armenian government's environmental regulations. He
insisted that Vallex is not allowed to do that.
Artur Grigorian, another environmental activist, echoed the
allegations, saying that his Ecological Right group has decided to sue
Vallex.
Galstian also alleged that the Liechtenstein-registered company
temporarily shut down the mine to avoid a bigger environmental
disaster. "The company stopped operations because the tailings dump
could crumble at any moment," he told a joint news conference with the
other activists.
Vallex declined to immediately comment on these claims. A spokeswoman
said the company would only respond to written inquiries.
RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am)already sent such a request
for comment earlier this month. Responding to it, Vallex did not
clearly explain whether the Teghut shutdown had to do with its
tailings dump.
Armenia -- President Serzh Sarkisian visits the Teghut mine, 19 April,
2014.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Ministry for Environment Protection said it
cannot comment on the claims before inspecting the site. A ministry
spokesman acknowledged that no environmental inspections have been
conducted at Teghut ever since operations there began in late 2014.
Lena Nazarian, an opposition parliamentarian who also spoke at the
news conference, said that she was not allowed to enter the site when
she travelled to Teghut recently. "The lack of transparency in their
activities raises many suspicions," she said of Vallex.
It remains unclear when Vallex plans to reopen the mine. The Teghut
operator said on February 2 that it will keep a skeleton staff of
around 300 employees who will guard the site and look after its
industrial equipment. It also said that 200 other laid-off workers
will be transferred to other mining enterprises belonging to
Vallex. Those include a copper smelter in the nearby town of Alaverdi
and metal mines in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Teghut generated over 42 percent of Vallex's total operating revenue
which soared by about 32 percent to $358 million last year. The mining
group benefited from increased international prices of copper and
other non-ferrous metals.
Press Review
(Saturday, February 24)
"Haykakan Zhamanak" writes on the approaching anniversary of the March
2008 post-election violence in Yerevan which left ten people dead and
dozens of others injured. Nobody has since been prosecuted in
connection with those deaths. "When Armenia's leader shows an interest
in the condemnation of the [Armenian] genocide by other nations so
that more genocides are not committed is he also interested in
punishing those responsible for the March 1 [violence] on the same
grounds?" asks the paper. "There is no hope that the authorities will
try to solve the March 1 crime." It also sees no "public demand" for
solving the case.
"Zhamanak" says that Armen Sarkissian's "smooth" election by the
parliament as Armenia's new president is not a forgone conclusion. The
paper says that it is not clear what kind of "agreements" he and Gagik
Tsarukian reached at their recent unpublicized meeting.
"Without mutual concessions, for which the parties are not prepared
now, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be resolved," Konstantin
Zatulin, a Russian lawmaker and pundit, tells "168 Zham." "Both sides
need to make painful concessions. It has long been said that a
settlement will not be possible unless Armenia cedes some districts
and Azerbaijan recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh's independence. Karabakh
has exercised its right to self-determination and I'm not inclined to
think that Karabakh can ever be a part of Azerbaijan # So Azerbaijan
should drop that claim [to Karabakh.]" Zatulin also says that Russia
is now doing its best to prevent another escalation of the conflict
and sustain the military balance between the warring sides. He says
large-scale Russian arms supplies to Azerbaijan were a "mistake" which
Moscow corrected after the April 2016 fighting in Karabakh.
(Tatev Danielian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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