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    Categories: 2018

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 11/27/2018

                                        Tuesday, 

Pashinian Warns Radical Group

        • Nane Sahakian

Armenia - Leaders of the Sasna Tsrer party start their election campaign in 
Yerevan, .

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has issued a stern warning to a newly formed 
nationalist party whose members stormed a police base in Yerevan more than two 
years ago.

Pashinian said on Monday that the Sasna Tsrer party and its supporters will 
“feel the taste of asphalt” if they attempt to destabilize the political 
situation in Armenia before or after the December 9 parliamentary elections.

Sasna Tsrer is a rebranded version of Founding Parliament, a radical movement 
that challenged the former Armenian government. It is one of 11 political 
forces running in the elections.

Sasna Tsrer’s list of election candidates is topped by Varuzhan Avetisian, the 
leader of an armed group that seized the police base in Yerevan’s Erebuni 
district in July 2016. The three dozen gunmen demanded that then President 
Serzh Sarkisian free Founding Parliament’s jailed leader, Zhirayr Sefilian, and 
step down.

They laid down their weapons after a two-week standoff with security forces 
which left three police officers dead.


Armenia - Gunmen occupy a police station in Yerevan, 23July2016.
Despite standing trial on serious charges, Avetisian and the vast majority of 
the other arrested gunmen were set free shortly after Pashinian came to power 
in May in a wave of anti-Sarkisian protests.

Sefilian was also released from prison following the “velvet revolution.” The 
Lebanese-born activist, who received Armenian citizenship only this month, is 
not eligible to run for the parliament. But he is participating in the election 
campaign of his and his allies’ party strongly opposed to any Armenian 
concessions to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Avetisian has stated during the campaign that the National Assembly to be 
elected on December 9 will have to be dissolved within two years because 
Armenia is now in a post-revolutionary “transitional period.”

Pashinian, whose My Step alliance is expected to win the upcoming polls, 
reacted furiously those statements when he campaigned in Armenia’s northwestern 
Shirak province on Monday.

“Have you have decided that you have a right to determine the length of the 
parliament’s and sometimes even people’s life?” he appealed to the Sasna Tsrer 
leadership during a campaign rally. “I’m telling you: make no mistake, this is 
not Serzh Sarkisian’s weak and spineless government.”

“Let nobody interpret our smiles and courtesy as weakness. There have been 
several such cases, and those who thought so felt the taste of asphalt,” 
Pashinian said, alluding to high-profile detentions of some members of 
Sarkisian’s entourage and their bodyguards.

The prime minister added that the new parliament will fully serve its five-year 
term set by the Armenian constitution.


Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with relatives of police 
officers killed in a 2016 standoff with opposition gunmen, 28 June 2018.
Sasna Tsrer condemned the premier’s remarks in a statement issued on Tuesday. 
“Pashinian made unfounded statements, using threats and phrases having an 
offensive subtext,” it said.

Avetisian defended his statements. He said they do not mean that Sasna Tsrer is 
now demanding the holding of fresh elections by 2020.

“It is first and foremost a prediction,” Avetisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
service. “Many other politicians and political forces have made the same 
forecast.”

The 2016 attack on the Yerevan police base was condemned by the United States 
and the European Union. “We abhor the actions of Sasna Tsrer and others who use 
violence or who threaten to harm others to serve their political agenda,” 
Richard Mills, the former U.S. ambassador to Armenia, said in March 2018.




Pashinian Toughens Rhetoric Against Armenia’s Former Ruling Party

        • Karine Simonian

Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at an election campaign rally 
in Maralik, .

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pledged to “grab by the throat,” “throw to the 
ground” and jail loyalists of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia 
(HHK) who would try to pressure voters ahead of next month’s parliamentary 
elections.

Pashinian stepped up his verbal attacks on the party led by his predecessor 
Serzh Sarkisian as he toured the northern Lori province on the second day of 
campaigning for the December 9 polls.

“Where are the Republican village mayors who bully their villagers in 
connection with the elections or anything else?” he said at a campaign rally 
held in the town of Spitak. “I say to those village mayors: be aware that I 
personally will visit you, grab you by the throat and throw you out of your 
offices.”

“Are there people in this country who dare to bully citizens? I will force all 
of you to lie on the ground. Who are they? Which Republicans? Which oligarchs? 
Which burly men? I will force all of you to lie on the ground and you won’t get 
off the ground for years.”

Pashinian went on to order the Armenian police to deal with HHK-linked 
“criminal elements” in a similar fashion. “Who do you think you are?” he said, 
appealing to those elements. “Tell me your names. You must not come out of your 
holes. You must not walk in the country’s streets. Your place is in prison and 
you all -- criminals, plunderers and scoundrels -- will end up in prison.”

Pashinian did not name any village chiefs or other individuals allegedly trying 
to earn the HHK voters with illicit methods. Sarkisian’s party, which was 
forced out of power more than six months ago, has been the main target of his 
harsh verbal attacks on his critics launched on the campaign trail.

The HHK condemned Pashinian’s “hate speech” and “threats against elected 
officials” in a statement released by its campaign headquarters later on 
Tuesday.

“Such behavior is unprecedented for our political culture, especially on the 
part of … the prime minister bearing responsible for our security and 
well-being,” said the statement.

The HHK urged Armenia’s Central Election Commission, human rights ombudsman and 
foreign election observers to pay “attention” to Pashinian’s pre-election 
rhetoric.

The HHK won the last parliamentary elections held in April 2017. But it is now 
fighting to remain represented in the National Assembly.

Pashinian reacted furiously after HHK figures and other critics condemned one 
of his close associates, Sasun Mikaelian, for saying on Monday that the success 
of this spring’s “velvet revolution” was more important than the Armenian 
victory in the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. He accused his political 
opponents of deliberately misinterpreting Mikaelian’s statement which he 
portrayed as a slip of the tongue.




Tsarukian Starts Election Campaign

        • Gayane Saribekian

Armenia - Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian addresses an election 
campaign rally in Abovian, .

Businessman Gagik Tsarukian put the emphasis on his and Prosperous Armenia 
(BHK) party’s economic programs when he launched its parliamentary election 
campaign on Tuesday.

Tsarukian rallied supporters in Abovian, a town about 20 kilometers north of 
Yerevan where he has held sway for more than two decades.

“You know that my words always lead to action and that I turn everything I say 
into reality,” he told the crowd.

“I didn’t graduate from Harvard but I have a lot of experience,” the former 
arm-wrestler said, touting his achievements in business.

The BHK, Tsarukian went on, will exempt small businesses from taxes, cut 
interest rates and help create many jobs if it returns to government as a 
result of the December 9 general elections. He did not specify his party’s 
electoral goals and expectations.

The BHK has finished second in all parliamentary elections held in Armenia 
since 2007. It was part of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s coalition 
government from 2008-2012.

Tsarukian’s party reached a similar power-sharing agreement with Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian after he came to power in May this year. Pashinian fired his 
BHK-affiliated ministers in October, accusing Tsarukian of collaborating with 
Sarkisian’ Republican Party of Armenia.

The tycoon has since avoided public criticism of the new government. Speaking 
at the Abovian rally, he echoed Pashinian’s calls for an “economic revolution” 
in the country.

But he also said: “My dear people, I have trouble talking to anyone these days. 
People are angry, upset and disappointed. But I must tell you, my dears, that 
you all expect things to get better. And they will get better for sure.”

Participants of the rally held pictures of Tsarukian and his chief bodyguard 
Eduard Babayan, who is running for the parliament on the BHK ticket in a local 
constituency.

Babayan was arrested in July on charges of beating up a man. He strongly denied 
the charges and was freed from custody on bail in August.




Press Review



“Zhoghovurd” says the December 9 elections will mark the final chapter of 
Armenia’s “velvet revolution.” “After a more than 20-year break Armenia’s 
citizens have formed a government safe in the knowledge that there will be no 
fraud and their votes will not be stolen in the upcoming elections,” writes the 
paper. “Accordingly, the legitimacy of the government will be restored.” It 
notes that all election contenders agree that the victory of Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian’s My Step alliance is a forgone conclusion.

“Aravot” says that the election campaign is shaping up as a multi-partisan 
bashing of former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia 
(HHK). “Most of what is being said about the former authorities is true but 
talking only about them for more than two weeks means that neither the 
participants of the election campaign nor, so to speak, the spectators care 
about party platforms and ideas,” editorializes the paper. It says that in 
these circumstances the election contenders do not have to “understand the real 
needs of ordinary people.” “But starting from December 10 it will be 
increasingly harder [for the authorities] to say that the ‘former criminal 
regime’ hampers the resolution of one or another problem,” it adds.

“Zhamanak” reacts to HHK claims that Pashinian should brace for a “big 
surprise” on election night. “The HHK is probably saying that it will win more 
votes than expected,” writes the paper. “At the moment few believe that the HHK 
will manage to clear the [5 percent] vote threshold or at least finish third in 
the elections.” The paper says that the HHK’s continued presence in the 
National Assembly would not be good for the country.

(Lilit Harutiunian)

 
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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