Friday,
President Hails ‘New Armenia’
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia - President Armen Sarkissian is interviewed by RFE/RL, Yerevan, 27
April 2018.
The dramatic anti-government protests that erupted in Yerevan two weeks ago
have transformed Armenia and should help it become a “real democratic state,”
President Armen Sarkissian said on Thursday.
“The way I think is that Armenia today is not even the same as the one that we
had a couple of months ago,” Sarkisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am) in an interview. “First of all, we are seeing a rising interest
in the global Armenian society, which includes not only the citizens of
Armenia, with the fate of our nation. That’s great. That means that at the end
of the day they are not indifferent, they care about the country.”
“I am happy that we have a society which is vibrant, which is young,” he said.
“Young not only in that young people are demonstrating but young because it’s a
young spirit of the nation.”
In a written address to the nation issued earlier in the day, Sarkissian spoke
of a “new Armenia” emerging as a result of the nationwide protests that have
led to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. He called on the
Armenian parliamentary forces to jointly end the continuing political crisis.
“After several days of demonstrations, now we are going towards a democratic
process, and the democratic process will lead us to the highest democratic
institution, which is the parliament of the Republic of Armenia,” the president
told RFE/RL’s Armenians service (Azatutyun.am).
ARMENIA -- Yerevan residents celebrate Armenian Prime Minister's Serzh
Sarkisian's resignation in Yerevan, April 23, 2018
“The outcome of this debate will be resolved at the parliament with the
election of the new prime minister,” he said. “And may be the parliament will
also vote for having new elections in the near future. Maybe they will also
vote to amend the Electoral Code or some of the laws.”
“If we will manage this properly, if all problems which were raised by the
demonstrations will be eventually resolved in accordance with the constitution
and inside the parliament, then we all will be proud that we are on the real
path to making Armenia a real democratic state,” he said.
Sarkissian also warned that Armenia “cannot afford” continued political
instability given the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and national
security challenges. “We must never forget that the state structures must
remain firm,” he said.
Sarkissian pledged to strive for a “new Armenia” able to meet challenges of the
modern world when he was sworn in as the country’s new and largely ceremonial
president on April 9.
The 64-year-old former scholar, who had lived in Britain for nearly three
decades, is the first Armenian president elected by the parliament, rather than
popular vote. His predecessors enjoyed sweeping powers under the previous,
presidential system of government.
Acting PM Refuses To Meet ‘Intransigent’ Pashinian
• Harry Tamrazian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetian holds a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, 26 April 2018.
Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetian again avoided meeting with Nikol
Pashinian on Friday, saying that the opposition leader is refusing to consider
any compromise agreements to resolve the grave political crisis in Armenia.
Pashinian proposed the meeting on Thursday after two weeks of massive
demonstrations in Yerevan and other parts of the country which have led to the
resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. He said the talks must focus
only on a full handover of power to his opposition movement and be held in the
presence of journalists.
“Negotiations where one party only dictates one agenda while the other cannot
come up with a different agenda cannot be considered negotiations,” said Aram
Araratian, Karapetian’s spokesman. “Besides, Karen Karapetian remains of the
opinion that [the demand for] holding negotiations in front of the press
suggests that the purpose of those negotiations is not to achieve any result.”
“That is why the acting prime minister regards as unpromising his participation
in ‘negotiations’ which stand no chance of finding solutions,” Araratian added
in a statement.
Karapetian already rejected these and other preconditions set by Pashinian when
he refused a planned meeting with the protest leader earlier this week.
Pashinian denounced Karapetian’s stance at a news conference held shortly after
Araratian’s statement. He claimed that the acting premier, who now seems to be
the new de facto leader of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), is
“not confident about his negotiating skills.”
The 42-year-old leader of the opposition Civil Contract party insisted that the
talks with the government must be televised. “It’s very important to be
transparent in these processes,” he said.
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian holds a news conference in Yerevan,
.
Pashinian warned that the Armenian parliament, in which the ruling HHK has a
clear majority, will deepen the crisis if it refuses to elect him interim prime
minister at an emergency session slated for May 1. The handover of power would
reflect “the will of the people,” he said.
“If a Republican is elected prime minister, this crisis will not be resolved
because we will continue our peaceful demonstrations and try to explain to the
HHK and Karen Karapetian … that they don’t understand the political situation
in Armenia,” said Pashinian. Accordingly, he urged supporters to “flood the
streets and squares” and also surround the parliament building in Yerevan on
May 1.
Pashinian also rejected the idea of a “neutral prime minister” who would govern
the country until the conduct of snap parliamentary elections. In that case, he
said, nobody would be able to prevent such a premier from doing “something bad.”
In a potentially significant development, Russian President Vladimir Putin on
Thursday phoned Karapetian and called for a settlement that would be based on
“the results of the legitimate parliamentary elections held in April 2017.” The
elections were won by the HHK.
Pashinian insisted that Putin’s comments did not amount to a show of support
for Karapetian. “As a country respecting international law, Russia is not
interfering in Armenia’s internal affairs,” he said. “This is a purely internal
Armenian affair.”
The opposition leader was due to hold a rally in Gyumri later in the day, and
proceed to Vanadzor on Saturday. He told supporters on Thursday to suspend
their “civil disobedience” actions in Yerevan for two days.
Also on Thursday, Pashinian met with President Armen Sarkissian and leaders of
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which pulled out of the
governing coalition following Serzh Sarkisian’s resignation. A Dashnaktsutyun
leader, Arsen Hambardzumian, described the meeting as “useful” but did not
elaborate.
Earlier, Pashinian also held talks Gagik Tsarukian, a millionaire businessman
leading the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), the second largest in the
parliament. He confirmed on Friday that neither Tsarukian nor the
Dashnaktsutyun leadership has so far promised to vote for his appointment as
prime minister.
“I hope that Dashnaktsutyun and Tsarukian’s bloc will clarify their positions
and announce who their deputies are going to vote for on May1,” he said.
Ruling Party Figure Sees No ‘Regime Change’ In Armenia
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian is greeted by supporters on his way
to Gyumri, .
The parliamentary faction of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) will
not vote to elect opposition leader Nikol Pashinian the country’s new prime
minister next week, a senior HHK lawmaker said on Friday.
Gevorg Kostanian, the chairman of the parliament committee on legal affairs,
insisted that Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s resignation on Monday did not
mark “regime change” in Armenia.
“In parliamentary republics regime change presupposes a change of the
parliamentary majority,” he told reporters. “A change of the prime minister or
other officials alone can never been deemed regime change.”
Asked whether HHK lawmakers will vote for Pashinian when the parliament picks
the new premier on May 1, Kostanian said: “I rule that out because I can’t
imagine such a possibility.” They will back “a candidate who will be chosen by
the HHK faction,” he said.
Another senior HHK lawmaker, Vahram Baghdasarian, reaffirmed his party’s
readiness to discuss “any issue” with Pashinian. “But we are not going to
succumb to ultimatums and coercion,” he stressed.
The remarks came as Pashinian continued to press the HHK majority in the
National Assembly and other parliamentary factions to install him as interim
prime minister and call fresh elections. Pashinian said earlier on Friday that
hundreds of thousands of people should take to the streets of Yerevan and
blockade the parliament building during the May 1 session.
“We are following the constitutional path, and if this is his constitutional
path, then let him do that,” commented Baghdasarian.
The HHK controls 58 seats in the 105-member parliament, compared with 9 seats
held by the opposition Yelk alliance.
Yelk has officially nominated Pashinian for prime minister. None of the other
parliamentary parties has officially endorsed the opposition leader. Those are
the Tsarukian Bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun).
Dashnaktsutyun, which pulled out of the government following Sarkisian’s
resignation, on Friday urged the parliamentary forces to “agree on a joint
candidate enjoying the trust of the people” by May 1. They would also determine
by consensus the composition of the new government and its policy program, it
said. The party did not say who that candidate might be.
EU Insists On ‘National Dialogue’ In Armenia
Belgium - EU flags in front of European Commission in Brussels.
The European Union called on Armenia’s government and leading political forces
on Friday to overcome the continuing political turmoil in the country through a
dialogue.
“We continue to believe that it is imperative that the current situation is
resolved swiftly and peacefully,” Maja Kocijancic, an EU foreign policy
spokesman, told RFE/RL in Brussels.
“In this context, a national dialogue involving all political stakeholders
remains crucial,” she said. “We support the consultations that are currently
led by President [Amen] Sarkissian.”
“And more broadly, the European Union is looking forward to continuing to take
forward the EU-Armenia agenda, which is based on the Comprehensive and Enhanced
Partnership Agreement,” added Kocijancic.
Kocijancic did not say whether the EU supports opposition leader Nikol
Pashinian’s demands for the Armenian parliament to appoint him as interim prime
minister and call snap general elections. Pashinian insists that this is the
only possible solution to the crisis.
The EU official similarly called for an “inclusive dialogue” in Armenia on
April 22, the day before massive street protests organized by Pashinian forced
Prime Minister Serzh Sarkissian to step down.
The United States has also repeatedly urged Armenian political factions to end
the two-week standoff through negotiations.
“We urge all sides to engage constructively in dialogue within the legal
framework of the Armenian constitution,” Harry Kamian, the acting head of the
U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said
on Thursday. “We look forward to working closely with the new government on our
many areas of shared interest.
Armenian Protest Leader Seeks To Reassure Russia
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian holds a rally in Gyumri, 27 April
2018.
In an apparent appeal to Russia, opposition leader Nikol Pashinian again said
on Friday that he will not pull Armenia out of Russian-led defense and trade
blocs if he succeeds in coming to power.
Pashinian denounced what he called false claims about the anti-Russian
character of his protest movement as he addressed thousands of people
demonstrating in Gyumri, the country’s second largest city home to a Russian
military base.
“I don’t even want to say that we are not enemies of Russia because it’s
obvious that we are not,” he said. “But even more so, we are not enemies of our
country who would put our country on imprudent and adventurist paths.”
“We have never said and are not saying that Armenia must leave the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO,” he said. “We guarantee that Armenia must
remain a member of the CSTO. Not because we love it or don’t but because that
stems from Armenia’s national interests.”
“We affirm that Armenia will continue to honor all of its international
obligations,” Pashinian went on. That includes its accession treaty with the
Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) signed in October 2014, he said.
Pashinian was one of seven members of Armenia’s parliament who voted against
the ratification of the treaty in December 2014. And as recently as last fall,
the Yelk alliance comprising his Civil Contract and two other opposition
parties demanded Armenia’s exit from the Russian-led union.
Armenia - Nikol Pashinian (L) and other deputies from the opposition Yelk
alliance attend a parliament session in Yerevan, 3Oct2017.
Pashinian said in October 2017 that EEU membership has dealt “very serious
blows” to his country’s sovereignty. Yerevan must sign instead an Association
Agreement with the European Union, he said.
The 42-year-old leader has repeatedly denied any “geopolitical” motives or
objectives of the nationwide anti-government protests launched by him earlier
this month. Earlier on Friday, he insisted that Russia is not supporting
Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetian in the standoff.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday phoned Karapetian and called for a
settlement of the Armenian crisis that would be based on “the results of the
legitimate parliamentary elections held in April 2017.” The elections were won
by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). Putin’s comments were
therefore construed by some observers as a show of support for Karapetian.
Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, on Friday urged “all interested
parties” to end the crisis by “consensus.” “In this regard, we are now waiting
for and monitoring the election of the [new Armenian] prime minister which will
take place in the parliament on May 1,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
Meanwhile, a high-level delegation of both houses of Russia’s parliament was
visiting Yerevan amid the lingering political tensions there. The delegation
reportedly included Leonid Kalashnikov, chairman of a State Duma committee on
“Eurasian integration,” and his first deputy, Konstantin Zatulin.
“We are familiarizing ourselves with the situation,” Zatulin told the Interfax
news agency. He said the Russian lawmakers have already met with the Armenian
parliament speaker, Ara Babloyan, and would also like to hold talks with
Pashinian.
The RIA Novosti news agency quoted a spokesman for Pashinian as saying that the
protest leader is “ready for such a meeting.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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