Monday,
Ruling Parties ‘Untroubled’ By Opposition Protests
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Civic activists protest against President Serzh Sarkisian's continued
rule outside the ruling Republican Party's headquarters in Yerevan, 24 March
2018.
The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and its junior coalition partner,
Dashnaktsutyun, said on Monday that they are not worried about opposition plans
to stage street demonstrations against President Serzh Sarkisian’s apparent
plans to extend his rule.
Sarkisian is widely expected to become prime minister and thus remain Armenia’s
most powerful man after serving out his final presidential term on April 9.
Various opposition groups, notably Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, have
pledged to rally supporters next month in a bid to scuttle his perceived plans.
Pashinian indicated last week that the focal point of his and his allies’
campaign will be the period between April 9 and April 17, the anticipated date
of the new prime minister’s election by the Armenian parliament. He claimed
that Sarkisian will be particularly vulnerable to popular pressure during that
time because he will have no formal control over the government, the military
and security agencies.
“I don’t take that seriously,” Vahram Baghdasarian, the leader of the HHK’s
parliamentary faction, said, commenting on Pashinian’s statement. “Power is not
a box which they can pick up. You need grounds to take power.”
“We have had many cases where the president of the republic was abroad or on
vacation,” Baghdasarian told reporters. “He was substituted for during those
times.”
Dashnaktsutyun’s Aghvan Vartanian also dismissed Pashinian’s plans. “During
that period [from April 9-17] power won’t be lying on the street,” he said.
“Every state body will be performing their functions.”
Pashinian’s Civil Contract is one of the three opposition parties making up the
Yelk alliance which finished third in last year’s parliamentary elections.
While also opposing Sarkisian’s continued rule, the two other Yelk parties have
refused to back his plans. They say that anti-Sarkisian protests are unlikely
to attract big crowds.
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 pulled a small crowd for
its most recent rally held in Yerevan on Friday. It hopes to team up with Civil
Contract.
“I can understand when extraparliamentary forces try to use the street,” said
the HHK’s Baghdasarian. “It’s just a bit unclear to me why there are
parliamentary forces willing to leave the parliament and opt for street
protests.”
“I think that there are no grounds [for doing that,] but as I said, it’s up to
a political force to choose its method of political struggle,” added the
pro-government lawmaker.
Russian Official Plays Up Fresh Arms Supplies To Armenia
• Artak Hambardzumian
Armenia - Konstantin Zatulin, deputy chairman of a Russian State Duma
committee, speaks to reporters in Yerevan, .
Russia has supplied Armenia with more weapons and other military equipment in
response to the April 2016 fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, a senior Russian
lawmaker said during a visit to Yerevan on Monday.
“We do realize that after the 2016 escalation, which was initiated by one of
the parties, Armenian public opinion showed serious discontent with Russia
regarding arms supplies to Azerbaijan on the part of Russia,” Konstantin
Zatulin told reporters. “We very much regret that Azerbaijan found no use for
them other than violating the ceasefire agreement on the [Karabakh] Line of
Contact reached in 1994 with our help.”
“We have drawn conclusions regarding the breach of the military balance in the
region and provided Armenia with state-of-the-art defense equipment which we
had a chance to see at the [September 2016] military parade organized on the
occasion of [Armenia’s] Republic Day,” said the deputy chairman of a Russian
State Duma committee on relations with former Soviet republics.
Despite its military alliance with Armenia, Russia signed an estimated $5
billion worth of defense contracts with Azerbaijan in 2009-2011. Many in
Armenia feel that the resulting deliveries of hundreds of Russian tanks,
artillery systems and combat helicopters to Baku encouraged the latter to
launch the April 2016 offensive in Karabakh.
The four-day hostilities, which Moscow helped to halt, left at least 180
soldiers from both warring sides dead.It was the worst escalation of the
Karabakh conflict since 1994.
Visiting Yerevan earlier this month, another senior Russian lawmaker,
Konstantin Kosachev, indicated that Moscow will scale down its future arms
dealings with Baku. “Of course, we are reacting to what occurred in April
2016,” said Kosachev, who chairs the foreign relations committee of the
Federation Council, the Russian upper house of parliament.
Armenia - The Armenian military demonstrates Iskander missile systems during a
parade in Yerevan, 21Sep2016.
The fresh Russian arms supplies to Armenia mentioned by Zatulin stem, in part,
from a $200 million Russian loan allocated in June 2015. The Armenian military
has used that money for buying, among other things, Smerch multiple-launch
rocket system, thermobaric and anti-tank rocket systems and shoulder-fired
surface-to-air missiles.
At its September 2016 parade in Yerevan, the military also demonstrated
medium-range Buk air-defense systems and, more importantly, Iskander tactical
missiles. Armenia most probably received the precision-guided missiles shortly
before or after the four-day war in Karabakh.
In October 2017, the Armenian government announced that Moscow will provide it
with a further $100 million loan that will be spent on the purchase of more
Russian weapons at internal Russian prices set well below international
market-based levels. Deputy Defense Minister Artak Zakarian said in December
that the Armenian side has already finalized three defense contracts with
Russian arms manufacturers as part of the loan agreement.
Zatulin, who is known for his pro-Armenian views on the Karabakh conflict, on
Monday also denounced Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s recent pledge to
“return Azerbaijanis” to Yerevan and other parts of Armenia which he called
“historic Azerbaijani lands.” “It’s just not clear how anyone can take such a
statement seriously,” added the veteran lawmaker.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also criticized Aliyev’s remarks last month.
Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani leader repeated his claims last week.
Former German Envoy Again Visits Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh - Hans-Jochen Schmidt (R), a former German ambassador to
Armenia, meets with Masis Mayilian, the Karabakh foreign minister, in
Stepanakert, .
Germany’s former ambassador to Armenia, Hans-Jochen Schmidt, met with senior
officials in Stepanakert on Monday during yet another private visit to
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Schmidt, who headed the German diplomatic mission in Yerevan from 2009-2012,
was reported to discuss with Arayik Harutiunian, Karabakh’s state minister
primarily responsible for economic policies, the socioeconomic situation in the
Armenian-populated territory.
A Karabakh government statement said Harutiunian briefed him on recent economic
developments and “a number of investment projects.”The retired German diplomat,
for his part, “presented details of his visit and forthcoming plans.”
The two men also spoke about “prospects for cooperation between Karabakh and
Germany in some sectors of the economy,” the statement added without
elaborating.
Schmidt also had a separate meeting with Masis Mayilian, the Karabakh foreign
minister. According to Mayilian’s press office, they discussed international
efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict and the unrecognized republic’s
contacts with the outside world.
Schmidt is known to have also visited Karabakh on at least two occasions in the
past, most recently in September 2016. Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president,
awarded him a “medal of gratitude” at the time. Schmidt reportedly called for
more political and people-to-people contacts between the European Union and
Karabakh.
“I always thought that it is impossible to be informed about Karabakh without
visiting it,” he told the local Artsakhpress news agency. In that regard, he
criticized Azerbaijan for blacklisting non-Armenian foreign dignitaries
travelling to the region.
Schmidt, 70, is one of the founding members of the German-Armenian Forum (DAG),
a group set up in Berlin in 2015 to “promote mutual understanding between
Germans and Armenians and safeguard the interests of Armenians living in
Germany.”
Press Review
(Saturday, March 24)
Interviewed by “Haykakan Zhamanak,” opposition leader Nikol Pashinian defends
his decision in 2015 not to campaign against President Serzh Sarkisian’s
controversial constitutional changes that eventually enabled the latter to
prolong his rule. Pashinian insists that now is a better time to fight against
Sarkisian’s continued rule. “We are capable of organizing a struggle and
creating a platform for the people and winning,” he says. “If there is an
expression of popular will, it will be easier to effect regime change under the
current constitution than the previous one. Why? Because Serzh Sarkisian will
not be president during the political processes envisioned by us.”
“Zhamanak” disagrees with Pashinian’s view that the period between the end of
Sarkisian’s presidential term on April 9 and his anticipated appointment as
prime minister on April 17 represents a unique opportunity for the Armenian
opposition to seize power. The paper believes that Pashinian and his Civil
Contract party cannot topple the ruling regime on their own. It says they are
extremely unlikely to cobble together a broad-based opposition coalition for
that purpose. Armenia needs a smooth and lawful transition of power, rather
than revolutionary upheavals, it says.
A German political analyst, Susan Stewart, tells “168 Zham” that she expects
only minor “technical” obstacles to the ratification of the European Union’s
Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Armenia. She also
notes that Russia did not react negatively, at least in public, to the signing
of the CEPA in November.
“Zhoghovurd” comments on serious problems with the implementation of an
ambitious government project to refurbish Armenia’s main highways stretching to
the Iranian and Georgian borders. “Right from the beginning it was evident that
this project is not cost-effective for Armenia,” writes the paper. “On the
contrary, it will mean a waste of financial resources, part of them loans.” It
accuses senior government officials of using the project to enrich themselves.
(Tatev Danielian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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