Monday,
Dashnaks Free To Quit Government, Says Pashinian
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits Tavush province, 10 August 2018.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) is free to decide
whether to remain part of Armenia’s current government after criticizing former
President Robert Kocharian’s arrest, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said over
the weekend.
Dashnaktsutyun said late last month that coup charges levelled against
Kocharian “can be interpreted as political persecution.” Accordingly, three of
its parliament deputies joined last week more than 40 other lawmakers in
signing a joint petition calling for his release. The move was endorsed by the
party’s leadership.
Commenting on the Dashnaktsutyun criticism, Pashinian said: “I want to make
clear that there is no [governing] coalition in Armenia. That’s a
misunderstanding.”
“We tried to form a government of national accord,” he told reporters during a
weekend trip to the northern Tavush province. “Whoever feels that they are
outside that government … we are not holding anyone captive.”
“I don’t think more needs to be said. I have answered your question,” added the
premier. He declined to specify whether he himself thinks Dashnaktsutyun should
quit his government.
The party has so far given no indications that it would like to give up its two
ministerial posts in Pashinian’s government. The cabinet was formed in May
following Pashinian-led mass protests that forced the country’s longtime
leader, Serzh Sarkisian, to step down.
Dashnaktsutyun cut similar power-sharing deals with Sarkisian in 2008 and 2016.
It was also allied to Kocharian during his 1998-2008 rule.
Armenia -- Hrant Markarian, a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
party.
On Saturday, one of Dashnaktsutyun’s top leaders, Hrant Markarian, condemned as
“mental terror” angry reactions to his party’s support for Kocharian emanating
from Pashinian’s supporters.
“We want this movement for new Armenia to succeed and we don’t want them to
make mistakes,” Markarian told reporters in Yerevan. “And because we don’t want
them to make mistakes we express our views.”
“Do we want Nikol Pashinian to succeed or not?” he went on. “If not, let’s
leave him alone. Sooner or later he would hit a wall. But if we want [him to
succeed] we need to tell what he needs to avoid, which path he should not
follow and on which issues we have concerns. This is how we can be partners,
not by being silent or coming to terms.”
Markarian insisted that the Dashnaktsutyun leadership still has a “friendly
approach” towards Pashinian. But he also warned: “We will not let anyone engage
in mental terror because terror is terror, whether you shoot people or obstruct
their thoughts.”
Russian, Kazakh Leaders Discuss CSTO Leadership
• Aza Babayan
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Kazakhstan's President
Nursultan Nazarbayev speak during a Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting
in Sochi, Russia, May 14, 2018.
The presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan spoke on Sunday about who should run
the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) following criminal charges
brought by Armenian authorities against the Russian-led bloc’s current
secretary general, Yuri Khachaturov.
Khachaturov, who is Armenia’s former top army general, is facing coup charges
stemming from the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. Russia has strongly
criticized an Armenian law-enforcement agency’s decision late last month to
prosecute him. Following the criticism he was allowed to return to Moscow and
continue to perform his CSTO duties for the time being.
Moscow has also scoffed at Yerevan’s efforts to replace Khachaturov by another
Armenian secretary general. It has said that Yerevan must formally “recall”
Khachaturov before asking the other CSTO states to pick his replacement.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian telephoned Kazakhstan’s President
Nursultan Nazarbayev on August 7 to discuss the issue. Pashinian also had a
phone conversation with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on July 28.
Nazarbayev singled out “the issue of CSTO secretary general” in his opening
remarks at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin held in the Kazakh
city of Aktau. He said it “has become a problem.”
Putin likewise noted that they will discuss “issues of problematic character,”
including the selection of the next CSTO secretary general. Neither leader made
public statements to that effect after the talks.
The CSTO member states agreed in 2015 that their representatives will take
turns to run the organization on a rotating basis. They appointed Khachaturov
as secretary general in April 2017 after almost two years of delay reportedly
resulting from Kazakhstan’s and Belarus’s reluctance to have an Armenian hold
the position because of their warm ties with Azerbaijan. The two nations
dropped their objections under pressure from Russia, according to Russian media
reports.
Former Armenian President Freed By Court (UPDATED)
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian gives an interview to Yerkir Media
TV, Yerevan, 26 July 2018.
Former President Robert Kocharian was released from custody on Monday
immediately after Armenia’s Court of Appeals ruled that he cannot be prosecuted
for the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan.
A panel of three senior judges overturned a lower court’s decision to allow
law-enforcement authorities to arrest Kocharian on coup charges. His defense
lawyers appealed against the July 27 decision, saying that the charges are
baseless and that their client enjoys legal immunity from prosecution.
One of the lawyers, Ruben Sahakian, said that the Court of Appeals based its
decision to free Kocharian on Article 140 of the Armenian constitution. The
article says: “During the term of his or her powers and thereafter, the
President of the Republic may not be prosecuted and subjected to liability for
actions deriving from his or her status.”
“We are satisfied with the court’s decision,” Sahakian told reporters outside
the court building in Yerevan.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) condemned the ruling as illegal, saying
that the Court of Appeals “overstepped the bounds of its authority.” “We hope
that the Office of the Prosecutor-General will appeal to the [higher] Court of
Cassation,” an SIS spokesperson told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Armenia - A man walks past burned cars on a street in Yerevan where security
forces clashed with opposition protesters, 2 March 2008.
The prosecutors refused to order Kocharian’s release on August 8, the day
before the Court of Appeals opened hearings on Kocharian’s appeal. The
63-year-old ex-president testified at the two-day hearings held behind the
closed doors.
Kocharian stands accused of illegally using the armed forces against opposition
protesters who demanded a rerun of a disputed presidential election held in
February 2008. Eight protesters and two police personnel were killed when
security forces broke up those demonstrations on March 1-2, 2018.
Kocharian denied the accusations as a politically motivated “vendetta” in
televised remarks aired on July 26. His ensuing arrest was condemned by the
Republican Party (HHK) of Serzh Sarkisian, who succeeded him as Armenia’s
president in April 2008.
By contrast, Kocharian’s arrest was hailed as a triumph of justice by political
allies of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian, the main opposition candidate in the 2008 ballot.
Pashinian played a key role in Ter-Petrosian’s 2007-2008 opposition movement.
During Sarkisian’s rule he spent nearly two years in prison for organizing
“mass disturbances” on March 1-2, 2008. Pashinian appointed a new head of the
SIS and ordered a fresh probe of the 2008 bloodshed shortly after coming to
power in May this year.
Armenia - Armenian army soldiers are deployed on a street in Yerevan where
security forces clashed with opposition protesters, 2 March 2008.
The SIS also brought last month the same coup charges against former Defense
Minister Mikael Harutiunian and former Deputy Defense Minister Yuri
Khachaturov. Its case against them and Kocharian is based on a secret directive
which Harutiunian issued to the Armenian military on February 23, 2008.
SIS investigators say that the still unpublicized order led to the army’s
illegal involvement in post-election political processes in the country. In
their words, military personnel may have been involved in the use of lethal
force against protesters that barricaded themselves in the center of Yerevan.
Kocharian insisted on July 26 that army units were simply put on high alert to
prevent military personnel from heeding Ter-Petrosian’s calls for the military
to join his movement. Hayk Alumian, another lawyer for Kocharian, likewise said
on August 6 that two deputy defense ministers were openly supporting
Ter-Petrosian in February 2008. They both were sacked in April 2008.
Russian, Armenian Defense Chiefs Meet In Moscow
Russia - Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu (L) meets with his Armenian
counterpart Davit Tonoyan in Moscow, 11 August 2018.
Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan has met with his Russian counterpart Sergey
Shoygu in Moscow to discuss Russian-Armenian military ties and the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, Tonoyan and Shoygu discussed
“current issues and upcoming tasks” in bilateral defense cooperation. They
“attached importance to consistent implementation of agreements based on mutual
trust and joint strategic interests,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Speaking about military-technical cooperation, the Armenian and Russian
defense ministers stressed the importance of timely realization of ongoing
programs in this area,” it added in an apparent reference to Russian arms
supplies to Armenia.
Last October, Russia provided Armenia with a fresh $100 million loan for buying
more Russian weapons at discounted prices. The Russian “Kommersant” daily
claimed on August 2 that the planned delivery of those weapons is now “in
serious doubt.” The paper pointed to a rare diplomatic spat between Moscow and
Yerevan sparked by criminal charges brought in Armenia against the secretary
general of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, Yuri
Khachaturov.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin denied the “Kommersant” report
when he visited Armenia on August 3. “Everything is on track,” Fomin told
reporters.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service in Moscow on Friday, Tonoyan expressed
confidence that all Russian-Armenian defense agreements will be “mutually
realized.” “At least, we are getting no indications to the contrary,” he said.
In its official press release on Shoygu’s talks with Tonoyan, Russia’s Defense
Ministry only cited the Armenian minister’s comments on the annual
International Army Games organized by the Russian military. Tonoyan attended,
together with Shoygu and other foreign dignitaries, the closing ceremony of the
latest games held near Moscow.
According to his press office, Tonoyan also briefed Shoygu on the current
situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and, in particular, Armenia’s
border with Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave.Yerevan has reported increased
tension at some sections of that border where Azerbaijani troops have moved
their positions closer to Armenian army posts in May.
The Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, on Monday accused
the Azerbaijani side of resorting to more “provocations” there. “The Armenian
armed forces yesterday responded with fire to Azerbaijani provocations in the
Nakhichevan direction,” he wrote on Facebook. “As a result, we do not exclude
Azerbaijani combat casualties.”
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that one of its soldiers serving in
Nakhichevan was shot and wounded by Armenian forces on Sunday. It accused
Yerevan of continuing to “systematically escalate the situation in the
Nakhichevan direction.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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