Saturday, Armenia, Russia Plan Joint Humanitarian Program In Syria • Aza Babayan Russia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with Russian-Armenian businessmen in Moscow, 8 Sep, 2018 Armenia and Russia will soon implement a joint humanitarian program in Syria, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on September 8. Talking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), the head of the Armenian government stressed that the program will be a completely humanitarian one and will not contain any military component. Pashinian gave no details of the program. The Armenian prime minister also said that during his talks with the Russian leader they did not address Azerbaijan’s possible accession to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), an issue that became a topic for discussions in Armenia in the wake of a relevant statement by a pro-government Azerbaijani lawmaker. Ali Huseynli said in late August that Baku should “seriously consider” applying for membership in the CSTO, saying that would increase chances of a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement favorable to his country. He also said that the CSTO gives its member states major military and economic benefits. If official Baku wishes to do so, “it will be clear what Armenia’s position will be,” said Pashinian. Late last month acting Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalian said that “if Azerbaijan moves to become a member of the CSTO Armenia will use its veto power [to block its entry].” As for military-technical cooperation with Russia, the Armenian prime minister said that “relevant departments will talk about concrete programs.” Pashinian described the state of Armenian-Russian relations as “brilliant” after his meeting with Putin. “There are no problems in our relations in any direction,” he said in a Facebook post shortly after the end of the talks. The Armenian prime minister repeated that statement at a meeting with dozens of ethnic Armenian businessmen in Moscow during which he urged them to make investments in Armenia. Ex-Armenian PM Charged With Abuse of Power, Illegal Enterprise • Karine Simonian Former Prime Minister of Armenia Hovik Abrahamian Former Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian has been charged with “exceeding official authorities” and “Illegally participating in entrepreneurial activity” as part of a criminal probe into a claim by an entrepreneur that his business was snatched from him a decade ago. The Special Investigation Service told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Saturday that Abrahamian was not taken into custody after pledging not to leave the country pending investigation. The Investigation Committee of Armenia earlier said that Abrahamian is suspected of abusing his powers in 2008 by allegedly forcing a businessman to give up a majority stake in a mining company that later went to other people, including the former prime minister’s brother Henrikh Abrahamian. Witnesses in the case, according to the report, among the people involved in the alleged abuse also named former police chief and current lawmaker Alik Sargsian, who is linked with the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia. Today’s official information makes no mention of Abrahamian’s connection to the 2008 post-election events. On August 9, law-enforcement authorities launched a probe into Abrahamian’s possible involvement in the breakup of opposition protests staged in Yerevan following a disputed presidential election a decade ago. The National Security Service then arrested Abrahamian’s brother Henrik after raiding a former industrial plant effectively owned by Hovik Abrahamian. It claimed to have found a weapons cache there and said the arsenal would be verified on its possible use against opposition protesters on March 1-2, 2008. In a separate statement, the security agency said it arrested Henrik Abrahamian and the property’s formal owner, Ambik Gevorgian, on suspicion of illegal arms possession. In a Facebook post on September 8 the former prime minister denounced his prosecution describing it as a manhunt. Abrahamian said that no illegal items were found by law-enforcement bodies during searches at the legal address where he is registered and in the home where he actually lives. He claimed he did not have anything to do with the property where security officials found the weapons. “First, they publicly tried to connect that place with me and then the weapons found there with the March 1-2, 2008 events. It is clear that I was the target of this series of distortions,” he claimed. Abrahamian linked the charges brought against him with his September 4 interview to a local news website in which, he said, he criticized the actions of the authorities. “Immediately after that they pressed ungrounded charges against me… with the purpose of silencing any dissidence,” he claimed. “The manhunt and pressure on free speech and dissidence that are being carried out by the Armenian authorities will not lead to any good place,” Abrahamian warned. Abrahamian’s case is the latest in a series of prosecutions against former government officials launched by Armenian law-enforcement authorities in the wake of the April-May change of power in the South Caucasus country. Nikol Pashinian, who came to power as prime minister in the wake of large-scale anti-government protests led by him, has vowed to stamp out corruption, monopolies and to deal with other crimes that he believes have not been detected under the previous governments. As part of a reopened criminal probe into 2008 post-election violence that left 10 people dead Armenia’s then president Robert Kocharian and several other former officials have already been charged with “overthrowing the constitutional order.” Several members of the extended family of Serzh Sarkisian, who succeeded Kocharian in 2008 but was forced by the Pashinian-led movement to resign earlier this year, are also under investigation in connection with different crimes, including an attempted murder and illegal enrichment. Abrahamian, 60, held high-ranking state posts and developed extensive business interests during Kocharian’s and Sarkisian’s tenures. He managed Sarkisian’s 2008 and 2013 presidential election campaigns before being appointed as Armenia’s prime minister in April 2014. Abrahamian, who also served as Armenia’s parliament speaker in 2008-2011 and 2012-2014, fell out with Sarkisian a few months after being sacked by the latter as head of the government in September 2016. He left Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia in January 2017 and has kept a low profile since then. Two Armenian Children Go Into Hiding To Avoid Deportation From Netherlands NETHERLANDS -- Two Armenian teens, Howick (right), 13, and Lili, 12, pose in The Hague, August 13, 2018 (RFE/RL) - Two Armenian children who were scheduled to be deported from the Netherlands have gone into hiding, a Dutch government spokesman said. Justice Ministry spokesman Maarten Molenbeek said on September 8 that the minors, who have only been identified as Lili and Howick, went missing from the foster home where they were staying during the night, hours after an Amsterdam court rejected their final bid to stop their deportation. The children, aged 12 and 13, came to the Netherlands with their mother in 2008. Their asylum claim was rejected by Dutch courts that ruled Armenia is a safe country. The children's mother, Armina Hambartsjumian, was deported to Armenia in 2017. The case has attracted mass public attention, with the children appearing on national television to plead their case. The children have never been to Armenia and do not speak Armenian. Their lawyers argued unsuccessfully that their mother was unable to care for them properly. Based on reporting by AFP and AP Putin, Pashinian Meet In Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Moscow, Russia, 8 Sept. 2018 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian praised the current level of relations between the two countries as they met for talks in Moscow on Saturday. The Kremlin said the negotiations between the two leaders focused on “key questions of developing allied Russian-Armenian relations as well as cooperation in Eurasian territory, in particular, within the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.” In his remarks before the meeting Putin said that relations between Moscow and Yerevan “develop steadily in all directions.” “This concerns the sphere of political relations, the military sphere, issues of security and economic cooperation,” the Russian leader said. Putin singled out Russian energy supplies to Armenia, stressing that Yerevan receives Russian natural gas “at the lowest prices Gazprom sells gas in the world – $150 per 1,000 cubic meters.” Pashinian, for his part, stressed the fact that he was having his third meeting with Putin within a space of just four months. “I think that such frequency emphasizes the special nature of relations between our countries, let me say also the special nature of our personal relations,” the Armenian leader said. “Despite certain pessimism that is present both in the Armenian and Russian press and in social media, I think that our relations develop in a fairly dynamic way, very naturally. And I think our top objective is to try to use the whole potential in developing our relations.” Still, Pashinian acknowledged the existence of ‘some questions’ that need to be discussed by the two countries. “God save us from a situation where we would have no questions in our relations, because that would mean we have no relations at all. I can say with certainty that we have no issues in our relations that can’t be solved, and today, of course, we are going to discuss a wide range of issues,” he said. “I am sure that these issues will be solved, and we will be guided by respect of interests in our allied relations, respect for the interests of our countries, respect for the sovereignty of our countries and the principle of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,” Pashinian underscored. After the end of his meeting with Putin Pashinian wrote in a Facebook post: “We’ve had a productive conversation as a result of which we can state that Armenian-Russian relations are brilliant. There are no problems in our relations in any direction.” The Armenian prime minister’s talks in Moscow come after a strong Russian reaction to Yerevan’s prosecution of a number of former government officials, including ex-President Robert Kocharian and ex-deputy Defense Minister Yuri Khachaturov, who currently chairs the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led defense pact of six former Soviet countries, including Armenia. Both Kocharian and Khachaturov are accused of breaching the constitutional order during a deadly postelection crackdown in 2008. After charging Khachaturov Armenia also initiated a procedure to recall him from the top CSTO post. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov twice publicly denounced the prosecutions of former officials in Yerevan, arguing that they ran counter to the new Armenian leadership’s earlier pledges not to “persecute its predecessors for political reasons.” And on August 31, the Kremlin reported a phone conversation between Putin and Kocharian during which the Russian leader congratulated the former Armenian president on his birthday – a rare event in state diplomacy that some analysts took as a sign of Moscow’s backing for Kocharian, who recently announced his return to active politics. In his public statements Pashinian downplayed the significance of political implications behind Putin’s congratulations to Kocharian. Press Review The editor of “Aravot” expects that two issues are going to feature prominently during the Moscow talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian – the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the relations between the two countries after the revolution in Armenia: “Russia should understand that it is pointless to talk about serious discussions [on Nagorno-Karabakh] until Pashinian gets a majority in parliament. As for the second issue, I think that the Armenian prime minister will speak from the positions of [Russian] non-interference in our internal affairs. This is, of course, a correct position. Furthermore, this is the only position that a leader enjoying the support of a majority of Armenians can have. But there are diplomatic subtleties that may have a great importance. For example, Armenia could have recalled Yuri Khachaturov from the post of secretary-general of the [Russian-dominated] Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and suggested another candidate before prosecuting the general. It seems to be a little thing, but not paying attention to such little things may prove damaging to the cause.” “Zoghovurd” presents opinions from an article from the EADaily (Eurasian News) website headlined “Three Friendly Pieces of Advice To Pashinian Ahead of His Visit to Russia.” The article suggests that Putin has chosen to bet on former Armenian President Robert Kocharian [to return to power] and refuses to see Pashinian as Armenia’s leader in the long run. “Tensions in [Yerevan’s] relations with Moscow are strictly counter-indicative,” the article says, noting that in Moscow “no one wants to tolerate the mistakes of the new Armenian government for a long time.” In this sense the publication advises that Pashinian be “careful in taking any step that immediately has to do with Russian interests, as well as Russian interests within the CSTO and the Eurasian Economic Union.” (Tatev Danielian) 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