Tuesday,
Armenian Oppositionist Sentenced To 10.5 Years In Prison
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Opposition leader Zhirayr Sefilian waves to supporters at the end of
his trial in Yerevan, .
Zhirayr Sefilian, a radical opposition figure, was sentenced to 10.5 years in
prison on Tuesday nearly two years after being arrested on charges of plotting
an armed revolt against the Armenian government.
A court in Yerevan also handed down prison sentences ranging from 2 to 5.5.
years to six other defendants who went on trial with Sefilian last May.
The shortest jail term was given to Hovannes Petrosian, the sole defendant who
has testified against Sefilian. Petrosian has said that the latter had told him
to prepare for the seizure for a television tower in Yerevan.
The prosecutors claim that Sefilian formed an armed group to attack this and
several other “strategic” facilities, including a military base just outside
the capital, with the aim of forcing the Armenian authorities to take “certain
actions.” They also say that he planned to organize “mass disturbances” in
Yerevan during the April 2015 commemorations of the centenary of the Armenian
genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
Sefilian and all other defendants except Petrosian have strongly denied these
accusations as politically motivated.
Speaking at the end of his trial, Sefilian called the criminal case against him
and the other men a “fairy tale.” The jailed leader of Founding Parliament, a
radical opposition movement, also accused the presiding judge, Tatevik
Grigorian, of resorting to “illegal actions” throughout the trial.
Sefilian has frequently and bitterly argued with Grigorian during court
hearings in the high-profile case. The Lebanese-born oppositionist has been
repeatedly banned from the courtroom as a result. The 30-year-old judge has
also sanctioned his and other defendants’ lawyers for contempt of court.
The lawyers, backed by some human rights activists, have decried what they call
serious violations of due process. They have insisted that the prosecution has
failed to substantiate its grave accusations. Grigorian claimed the opposite in
her ruling, however.
Armenia - Opposition leader Zhirayr Sefilian appeals to riot police as they
clash with protesters in Yerevan, 1Dec2015.
Sefilian, 51, was arrested in June 2016 less than a month before three dozen
members and supporters of Founding Parliament seized a police compound in
Yerevan’s Erebuni district to demand his release and President Serzh
Sarkisian’s resignation. The gunmen laid down their weapons after a two-week
standoff with security forces which left three police officers dead. They are
now standing three separate trials.
A well-known veteran of the 1991-1994 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Sefilian has
been a vocal critic of both the current and previous Armenian governments. In
2006, he was arrested shortly after setting up an anti-government union of
fellow war veterans. The authorities claimed that they planned to mount an
armed uprising against then President Robert Kocharian.
Sefilian was cleared of the coup charge during his subsequent trial. Still, he
spent 18 months in prison for allegedly illegal arms possession.
Sefilian was again detained along with his four associates in 2015, ahead of a
series of anti-government rallies planned by them in Yerevan. They were charged
with plotting street violence but were set free a month later.
Aliyev Insists On ‘Historic Azeri Lands’ In Armenia
Azerbaijan -- President Ilham Aliyev gives a speech in Baku during nationwide
Novruz festivities, 19Mar2018.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has stood by his claims that much of
modern-day Armenia lies in “historic Azerbaijani lands.”
“I have repeatedly said and want to say once again that the territory of
contemporary Armenia is historic Azerbaijani lands. There are numerous books
and maps confirming that,” Aliyev said on Monday at the start of official
celebrations of Nowruz, the ancient Persian New Year marked as a public holiday
in Azerbaijan.
“Let those who don’t know this know this,” he added, according to Azerbaijani
news agencies. “The Azerbaijani youth must know this first and foremost. Let it
know that most of modern-day Armenia is historic Azerbaijani lands. We will
never forget this.”
Aliyev has repeatedly made such statements in the last few years, most recently
on February 8. Speaking at a pre-election congress of his Yeni Azerbaycan
party, he pledged to “return Azerbaijanis” to Yerevan, Armenia’s southeastern
Syunik province and the area around Lake Sevan.
Armenia condemned that statement, with President Serzh Sarkisian saying it
shows that Baku is not committed to a compromise solution to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It was also criticized by the Russian Foreign
Ministry.
The U.S., Russian and French mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group urged
the parties to the Karabakh conflict to avoid “inflammatory statements” in a
joint statement issued on February 11. The statement failed to satisfy Yerevan.
Armenian officials called for an explicit international condemnation of
Aliyev’s claims.
“As expected, lack of proper international reaction to [the Azerbaijani
president’s] territorial claims towards Armenia inspired him to claim larger
territories,” Tigran Balayan, the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman, tweeted
on Monday, reacting to Aliyev’s latest declaration.
The Azerbaijani leader, who inherited power from his father Heydar Aliyev in
2003, is seeking a fourth term in office in a snap presidential election slated
for April 11.
Armenian Opposition Plans Protests Against Sarkisian’s ‘Power Grab’
• Astghik Bedevian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Hovannes Movsisian
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian speaks in the parliament, 16
February 2018.
Armenian opposition forces on Tuesday pledged to stage street protests in a bid
to scuttle President Serzh Sarkisian’s apparent plans to stay in power after
completing his second and final presidential term on April 9.
Sarkisian made clear on Monday that he stands ready to become prime minister
later in April despite promising in 2014 to step aside in case of Armenia’s
transformation into a parliamentary republic. He cited the increased risk of
renewed fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and other security challenges facing the
country. Opposition leaders were quick to accuse him of reneging on his pledge.
“It was not a justification befitting a statesman. It smacked of petty fraud,”
said Ararat Mirzoyan, a senior member of Civil Contract, a major opposition
party represented in the Armenian parliament.
Top representatives of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) defended,
however, the outgoing president’s intention to extend his rule. Eduard
Sharmazanov, the chief HHK spokesman, claimed that political “realities” in the
country have changed in the past four years.
“[Sarkisian] is the kind of statesman who has always placed the interests of
the state above his personal ambitions,” claimed Sharmazanov.
Another senior HHK figure, Gagik Melikian, said Sarkisian had only promised
that he will “not aspire” to the post of prime minister in case of Armenia’s
transition to a parliamentary system of government. Melikian also insisted that
he is “irreplaceable” as the Armenian army’s commander-in-chief.
Mirzoyan dismissed these explanations as “utter nonsense.” Sarkisian’s
presidency has been a gross failure, he charged.
Civil Contract is one of the three opposition parties making up the Yelk
alliance, which finished third in last year’s parliamentary elections. It has
been pushing for street protests against Sarkisian’s continued rule. The two
other Yelk parties oppose such a campaign, saying that it is unlikely to
succeed.
The leaders of the three parties failed to bridge their differences at a
meeting on Monday, leading Civil Contract to declare that it will separately
launch a “political movement against Serzh Sarkisian’s third term in office.”
It pledged to publicize a plan of concrete actions on March 31.
Armenia - Leaders and supporters of the opposition Yelk alliance hold an
anti-government demonstration in Yerevan, 19Jan2018.
The Civil Contract leader, Nikol Pashinian, indicated on Tuesday that his party
is planning a series of demonstrations in Yerevan next month. Pashinian did not
deny that it will hold nonstop street protests immediately after Sarkisian
resigns as president on April 9. Armenia’s HHK-controlled parliament is
expected to vote for a new prime minister on April 17.
Also campaigning against Sarkisian’s “reproduction” is the For the Armenian
State coalition of more radical opposition groups and activists, including
Raffi Hovannisian’s Zharangutyun party. The grouping already rallied several
hundred supporters in Yerevan earlier this month. Its next rally is scheduled
for Friday.
Another anti-Sarkisian gathering will be held on Saturday by a group of
non-partisan activists highly critical of the Armenian government. “Our main
slogan will be ‘Reject Serzh,” one of them, Armen Grigorian, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Grigorian said he and his associates are ready
to join forces with the opposition forces.
Zharangutyun’s chairman, Armen Martirosian, said that such a consolidation is
critical for forcing Sarkisian out of power. “Or else, [the separate campaigns]
will facilitate the regime’s reproduction,” he said.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), Pashinian said his party
will be ready to team up with For the Armenian State only if the latter
officially renounces violent methods of political struggle. “We will not
respond to violence with violence,” he stressed.
Pashinian seemed to allude to the Zharangutyun-led grouping’s strong support
for opposition gunmen that seized a Yerevan police station in a July 2016
attack that left three police officers dead.
Meanwhile, another major opposition force, the Armenian National Congress (HAK)
led by former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, confirmed that it will steer clear
of anti-Sarkisian protests this time around. The HAK’s deputy chairman, Levon
Zurabian, said the Armenian opposition missed its chance when it failed to
scuttle Sarkisian’s 2015 constitutional reform and the HHK’s disputed victory
in the April 2017 elections.
Zurabian again hit out at Civil Contract, saying that Pashinian’s party refused
to join the HAK in campaigning against the controversial constitutional changes
that paved the way for Sarkisian’s continued rule. “At any rate, I wish the
fake opposition success in this struggle, even if I don’t believe in their
success,” he added.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” reports that thousands of Russian citizens living in Armenia voted
in Sunday’s Russian presidential election won by the incumbent President
Vladimir Putin. Many of them are ethnic Armenians. Citing official data, the
paper says that more than 16,000 people have renounced Armenian citizenship to
become Russian nationals in the last six years. It is alarmed by this figure,
accusing the Armenian authorities of “killing the civic consciousness” of their
countrymen.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports on the failure of the three opposition parties
making up the Yelk alliance to reach consensus on their joint actions against
President Serzh Sarkisian’s plans to extend his rule. The paper says that they
agreed on Monday to act separately for that purpose. “It is not hard to guess
what decisions the Yelk parties will make separately,” it says. “The supporters
of street protests will take to the streets and try to consolidate the public,
while the lovers of parliamentary struggle will deliver a couple of passionate
speeches.” The paper is highly skeptical about the idea of Yelk nominating its
own candidate for the post of prime minister and urging supporters to rally
outside the parliament building and demand that the National Assembly appoint
that candidate.
“Zhamanak” says that the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations
approved on Monday a draft law that would make it impossible for the next
president of the republic, Armen Sarkissian, to sign any international treaties
without the government’s consent. The paper describes the bill as “yet another
law nullifying the powers of the head of state.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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