Thursday,
U.S. Expects ‘Decisive Action’ On Karabakh From Armenia
• Harry Tamrazian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) meets with U.S. National Security
Adviser John Bolton in Yerevan, .
The United States hopes that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian will take “decisive
steps” to help resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after his likely victory
in Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections, President Donald Trump’s
national security adviser said on Thursday.
Visiting Yerevan as part of a regional tour, John Bolton also declared that
Washington is ready to sell weapons to Yerevan in order to reduce “excessive
foreign influence” on the South Caucasus state allied to Russia.
Bolton gave an exclusive interview to RFE/RL’s Armenian service after holding
talks with Pashinian. He said they discussed a “very wide range of subjects”
and the unresolved Karabakh conflict in particular.
“We wanted to be of whatever assistance we could be behind the scenes, as well
as one of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group, to see if we could help facilitate
a solution between Armenia and Azerbaijan that would be mutually agreeable to
both,” Bolton said. “And we recognized the obvious difficulties there. But we
just felt that the prime minister was in an excellent position here in Armenia
and would be after the elections to show leadership on that.”
Bolton emphasized this point at a separate news conference held in the U.S.
Embassy in Yerevan. He noted that Pashinian is widely expected to win the snap
parliamentary elections expected in December.
“It is a fact that if the predictions come true he will have a very strong
mandate, and that is the most opportune moment to take strong action in a
number of different respects. And if, as I appreciated what I learned in the
meetings here today, … the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh is the primary
issue on the Armenian political agenda, there is no better time to try and take
decisive action than right after that election,” said the top aide to Trump.
An Armenian government statement on Pashinian’s meeting with Bolton said both
men stressed the importance of “consistent” efforts to find a peaceful solution
to the Karabakh dispute. They also agreed on the need for creating “the right
atmosphere for the negotiation process,” the statement added without
elaborating.
Bolton arrived in Yerevan from Baku where he discussed the conflict with
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday. He said in the Azerbaijani
capital that Washington will continue to support a peaceful Karabakh settlement.
Armenia - U.S. national-security adviser John Bolton (right) speaks with
RFE/RL's Harry Tamrazian in Yerevan on October 25.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Bolton said that a Karabakh peace would
greatly help Armenia’s struggling economy as it would lead to open borders with
Azerbaijan and Turkey. It is also “the surest way to reduce an excessive
outside influence in Armenia,” he said in a clear reference to Russia,
Armenia’s main political and military ally.
Commenting on potential security alternatives for Armenia, Bolton, who met
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier this week, spoke of possible
U.S. arms sales to Yerevan.
“We have restrictions Congress has imposed on the United States in terms of
[weapons] sales to Azerbaijan and Armenia because of the conflict, but there
are exceptions to that,” Bolton explained.
“As I said to the prime minister, if it’s a question of buying Russian military
equipment versus buying U.S. military equipment, we’d prefer the latter,” he
said. “We think our equipment is better than the Russians’ anyway.
“So we want to look at that. And I think it increases Armenia’s options when
it’s not entirely dependent on one major power.”
Relations with Iran, a key neighbor of Armenia, were also on the agenda of
Bolton’s talks with Pashinian. The U.S. national security adviser said he told
Pashinian that the Trump administration will enforce U.S. sanctions against
Tehran “very vigorously” and that that the Armenian-Iranian border is “going to
be a significant issue.”
“Obviously, we don’t want to cause damage to our friends in the process,” he
said. “So I think conversation between the government of Armenia and the United
States is going to be very important.”
Bolton has strongly supported Trump’s controversial decision to pull out of an
international deal on Iran’s nuclear program and to re-impose the economic
sanctions on the Islamic Republic earlier this year.
Like the other world powers that signed it -- France, Germany, Britain, Russia
and China -- Armenia continues to support the 2015 deal. Yerevan has made clear
that it will press ahead with joint economic projects with Tehran.
Bolton also noted that a large community of Armenian-American citizens in the
U.S. makes Armenia’s “prospects for closer economic cooperation" with the U.S.
private sector "very real" and "much better for the long term than
government-to-government assistance."
"I think this is a time to be optimistic that Armenia can emerge more on the
world stage," Bolton said, stressing that the Trump administration "considers
the South Caucasus a very important area strategically" and that improving
relations with Armenia is "a very high priority."
Armenian Tax Chief Denies ‘Systemic’ Corruption
Armenia - Davit Ananian, head of the State Revenue Committee, speaks to
reporters in Yerevan, .
Corruption among Armenian tax inspectors is not widespread anymore, the head of
the State Revenue Committee (SRC), Davit Ananian, insisted on Thursday
following the arrest of three such officials facing extortion charges.
Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) reported earlier in the day that
they stand accused of forcing, through “unfounded” claims, an entrepreneur to
pay them 1 million drams ($2,100) in bribes.
An SIS statement said police arrested the three SRC officials on Monday
immediately after one of them was caught red-handed accepting the kickback in
his office. All of them were subsequently charged with bribery and extortion
and remanded in pre-trial custody, said the statement.
The suspects hold senior positions in an SRC unit dealing with small
businesses. Investigators have publicized only their initials.
“We are waging a relentless fight against corruption,” Ananian said, commenting
on the arrests. “I continue to insist that there is no systemic corruption
[within the SRC,] but we do fight against sporadic [corruption] cases. We are
grateful for being helped in that endeavor.”
“I am sure that the bulk of the [SRC] staff works in line with the new
[political] realities,” he told reporters.
Corruption within the Armenian tax and customs services making up the SRC has
for decades been a serious problem. Ananian pledged to tackle it when Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian appointed him to run the government agency in May.
Bolton Warns Against Armenian Military Involvement In Syria
• Emil Danielyan
SYRIA -- A Russian soldier places the Russian national flag at the Abu Duhur
crossing on the eastern edge of Idlib province, September 25, 2018
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton warned Armenia against sending
combat troops to Syria to aid Syrian government forces or their allies when he
visited Yerevan on Thursday.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced the impending launch of a
Russian-Armenian “humanitarian mission” in Syria following his September 8
talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He declined to give any
details.
Deputy Defense Minister Gabriel Balayan clarified on September 11 that Yerevan
is planning to dispatch medics and demining experts primarily tasked with
helping civilians in the war-ravaged city of Aleppo. They are expected to be
from the Armenian military.
Balayan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the deployment will be carried out
“at the request of the Syrian government.” "We do not rule out cooperation with
Russia in some ways, but the group will operate exclusively under the flag of
the Republic of Armenia,” he said.
Bolton said he discussed the issue at a meeting earlier in the day with
Pashinian, which was also attended by Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan.
“The prime minister said this was not going to be military assistance, it would
be purely humanitarian,” he told a news conference. “I think that’s important.
It would be a mistake for anybody else to get involved militarily in the Syrian
conflict at the moment.”
“There are already … seven or eight different combatant sides. To get involved
with anyone of them for any other country would be a mistake,” he said.
Armenia - U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks at a news
conference in Yerevan, .
Bolton said he told the Armenian leaders that while providing “extensive
humanitarian assistance” to Syrians the United States has sought to “avoid
aiding terrorists on the one hand and the regime on the other.” Washington
believes that “any important long-term humanitarian assistance in
reconstruction should depend on progress toward a political resolution in
Syria,” he added.
Russia has been trying to legitimize its strong military presence in Syria,
criticized by the West, by getting other countries to also deploy military
personnel there. A top Russian military official said in August 2017 Armenia
and Serbia are ready to join a multinational “coalition” which Moscow hoped
would help its soldiers clear landmines.
The former Armenian government seemed reluctant to commit troops for such a
mission. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in September 2017, then President
Serzh Sarkisian said Armenian deployment in Syria requires a UN mandate.
An estimated 80,000 ethnic Armenians lived in Syria before the outbreak of the
bloody civil war there in 2011. Most of them have since fled the country.
Thousands of Syrian Armenians have taken refuge in Armenia.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” describes as “unprecedented” U.S. National Security Adviser John
Bolton’s visit to Armenia. The paper says Bolton “said interesting things” on
the Karabakh conflict after talks with Azerbaijan’s leaders held in Baku on
Wednesday. “Bolton said that he has not brought any new peace proposals,
thereby effectively dismissing pessimistic speculation in Armenia about the
U.S. putting forward a variant of the resolution of the Karabakh conflict which
it will first present to Russia and then impose on the conflicting parties,” it
says.
Lragir.am cites Bolton as saying in Baku that a Karabakh settlement is of
“strategic importance” to the United States. This statement is construed by the
online publication as a sign that Washington is “stepping up its policy
regarding security in the South Caucasus.” It too says that Bolton has not
brought new peace proposals to the region.
“Hayots Ashkhar” notes that the Armenian parliament on Wednesday did not
attempt to thwart Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s plans to hold parliamentary
elections in December when it agreed not to reelect him as prime minister. “As
they had promised beforehand, the deputies from the Tsarukian and
Dashnaktsutyun factions did not vote at all, while representatives of the Yelk
bloc and several defectors from the [former ruling] HHK … abstained, thereby
expressing their boundless loyalty to the omnipotent candidate for prime
minister,” writes the paper.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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