Wednesday, Pashinian Sends Mixed Signals On Constitutional Changes • Emil Danielyan • Sargis Harutyunyan Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a parliament session chaired by speaker Ara Babloyan, 23 May 2018. Seemingly backtracking on a statement made last week, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday that he will not necessarily push for constitutional changes meant to facilitate the conduct of fresh parliamentary elections in Armenia. He also denied claims by the country’s former leadership that he is bullying the current Armenian parliament and seeking to control the judiciary and stifle dissent. Under Armenia’s constitution, snap general elections can be held only if the prime minister resigns and the National Assembly twice fails to elect his or her replacement. Former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) still has the largest faction in the parliament. Addressing tens of thousands of supporters rallying in Yerevan on Friday, Pashinian warned of the possibility of the HHK and other parliamentary forces installing another prime minister in case of his resignation. He said his political team will therefore draft constitutional amendments that would allow the parliament to dissolve itself. He told his supporters to be ready to force lawmakers to enact those amendments. The premier stated on Wednesday, however, that the constitutional changes are only “one of the scenarios” considered by his government. “What was said at [Yerevan’s Republic] square must be taken into consideration but it is not the only option,” he told reporters. “We will have discussions.” Pashinian’s earlier pledge to try to amend the constitution through popular pressure prompted serious concern from senior HHK figures and parliament speaker Ara Babloyan in particular. In an extraordinary video address to the nation, Babloyan accused Pashinian of subjecting the parliament to “pressure and coercion.” Babloyan also deplored Pashinian’s stern warnings to his political opponents and judges who he claimed are linked to Sarkisian’s political team. “Prime Minister Pashinian’s speech at the rally contained extremely dangerous messages to the constitutional order which simply run counter to Armenia’s international obligations to build a democratic and rule-of-law state,” said the speaker. Babloyan added that he is planning to discuss his “deep concerns” with Pashinian, President Armen Sarkissian as well as other Armenian officials and foreign diplomats based in Yerevan. Pashinian said that he is ready to meet with the speaker. “It is very important to us that our fellow citizens, including parliament deputies, correctly understand our political activities and have no unnecessary fears and concerns,” he said. The 43-year-old former journalist at the same time rejected the HHK criticism, saying that the former ruling party’s leadership still does not “understand the situation correctly.” “I am not exerting pressure on anyone,” he said. “I am just calling on everyone to reckon with the people’s opinion … They must not put the people in a situation that would force us to again carry out a revolution or the next phase of the revolution.” In that context, Pashinian claimed to be unfazed by the declared political comeback of Robert Kocharian, another former president who is now facing coup charges stemming from a 2008 crackdown on anti-government protesters in Yerevan. Kocharian is too unpopular to pose a serious threat to the current government, he said. Accordingly, Pashinian stood by his assertions that he is strongly backed by the overwhelming majority of Armenians. “I am not in power, the people are in power,” he said. Chinese School Inaugurated In Armenia Armenia - The newly constructed Chinese-Armenian Friendship School in Yerevan, . China has built a state-of-the-art school in Yerevan where hundreds of Armenian children will study the Chinese language in addition to subjects taught in secondary and high schools across Armenia. The Chinese-Armenian Friendship School was inaugurated on Wednesday at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Chinese Ambassador Tian Erlong. Officials said that the Chinese government has spent over $12 million on building and equipping the school located in Yerevan’s northern Kanaker suburb. It is designed for up to 405 students aged between 10 and 18 who will have intensive language courses taught by Chinese teachers. “Knowledge of Chinese opens up opportunities to access information about a huge layer of human history and civilization,” Pashinian said at the ceremony. “I hope that this school will become a channel through which Armenians will gain more in-depth knowledge of the enormous influence which China and Chinese civilization have had on the development of humankind.” The educational institution, Pashinian went on, is also opening a “new page” in Chinese-Armenian relations which should now grow closer. China and Armenia have “many common interests” and like “strategic thinking,” he said. Pashinian said that having many Chinese speakers is also an “economic necessity” for Armeniagiven a rising number of Chinese tourists visiting the country. Chinese investors are likewise showing a growing interest in the Armenian economy, he added. Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Chinese Ambassador Tian Erlong pose for a photograph with students of the Chinese-Armenian Friendship School in Yerevan, . According to official Armenian statistics, China has been Armenia’s second largest trading partner for the last several years. Chinese-Armenian trade soared by nearly 50 percent, to $342 million, in the first half of this year. Political relations between the two nations have been cordial ever since Armenia gained independence in 1991. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his then Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian reported “mutual understanding on issues relating to pivotal interests and concerns of the two countries” after holding talks in Beijing in 2015. Beijing further underscored its interest in the South Caucasus country last year when it started building a new and much bigger building for its embassy in Yerevan. The 40,000-square-meter embassy compound is due to be completed by the end of 2019. It will reportedly be the second largest Chinese diplomatic mission in the former Soviet Union. China has provided at least $37 million in economic assistance to Armenia since 2012. It has also donated hundreds of public buses and ambulance vehicles to Yerevan. “The Armenian people highly appreciate that assistance,” said Pashinian. Major Armenian Copper Mine Still In Limbo • Karine Simonian Armenia - Open-pit mining at Teghut copper deposit, 20Dec2014. Armenia’s second largest copper and molybdenum mine is facing an uncertain future eight months after being shut down because of environmental risks. Vallex Group, a private mining company, sent 1,200 or so employees working at the Teghut deposit on indefinite leave in early January, citing the need for “planned prophylactic repairs.” Vallex claimed that it needs time to commission feasibility studies on its plans to significantly boost production there. Environment protection activists said, however, that the shutdown is the result of growing toxic leaks from the mine contaminating a nearby river. For their part, government officials said that the company’s waste disposal facilities need major upgrades. In April, Vallex rehired around 300 of the laid-off employees to work at other metal mines belonging to it. The remaining 800 workers, most of them residents of nearby villages, are still jobless. One of them, Haykasar Marukian, said on Wednesday that the Vallex management has failed to make good on its promises. “We were told that the company is going to resume work, and so people took loans [from banks] to improve their living conditions,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “They now have trouble repaying those loans.” According to Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian, in order to restart mining operations at Teghut Vallex needs substantial investments to refurbish its tailings dump which poses a threat to the environment. The Liechtenstein-registered company is now trying to secure a fresh loan from the Russian bank VTB for that purpose, he said. “We [the government] will do everything so that those negotiations are completed and a solution is found very soon,” Avinian told reporters during a visit to the northern Lori province encompassing Teghut. “We have no solution at the moment,” he said. “Either Vallex will again exploit the Teghut mine or a new company will take over.” VTB had already provided the bulk of $380 million which Vallex claims to have spent on building mining and ore-processing facilities at Teghut. Environmentalists opposed open-pit mining there even before it began in 2014. They argued, among other things, that the multimillion-dollar project will lead to the destruction of hundreds of hectares of rich forest. Vallex pledged to plant a new and bigger forest in adjacent areas. It also promised to create 1,300 jobs, build new schools and upgrade other infrastructure in local communities. Press Review “Zhoghovurd” is encouraged by official statistics showing that the Armenian economy has continued to grow despite the recent political turmoil in the country. But the paper urges Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other government officials to be careful in touting the latest figures released by Armenia’s Statistical Committee. “The society has long lost faith in official statistics because of the former authorities,” it says. “And now a vast segment of the society is not inclined to believe these authorities’ figures either and has its own standards for gauging the government’s performance. Have their living standards improved? Have their incomes risen?” “Aravot” comments on Pashinian’s revelation that the brother of a former senior Armenian official not named by him holds $30 million in a single bank account in Armenia. “Having $30 million or even $30 billion in your bank account is not a crime in itself,” writes the paper. “It must be proved that the money was acquired illegally. If [Pashinian] referred to [Serzh Sarkisian’s brother] Aleksandr Sarkisian then nobody will doubt that he would not have accumulated such a huge sum had he not been the former president’s brother. But it’s one thing to suspect and another to investigate, indict, try and sentence.” “Hraparak” says lawyers and other pundits are now trying to make sense of Pashinian’s plans to create “bodies of transitional justice” in Armenia. The paper says that some of them have already spoken out against or in favor of the idea even though “nobody has any idea what exactly it involves.” “One does not need to have much legal and historical knowledge to realize that no matter how much we want it we cannot say that we are in the process of transition from one social order to another which necessitates transitional bodies.” “Haykakan Zhamanak” claims that the former ruling HHK and former President Robert Kocharian planned a coordinated “attack” on the new government ahead of a rally held by Pashinian on Friday. The paper linked to Pashinian says they hoped that the rally will not draw a huge crowd. “The August 17 rally completely precluded that scenario and a second pre-planned scenario was put in motion,” it says. “At the heart of that scenario was parliament speaker Ara Babloyan’s address. The most important part of that speech is that he is planning to discuss the existing situation with representatives of foreign diplomatic missions. In other words, Kocharian’s team is going to organize external pressures on the government. But this is a wrong calculation. No major foreign power will even try to blackmail the government enjoying an unprecedented level of popular support for the sake of preserving the freedom and assets of several persons.” (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org