Monday, Government Voices Support For Cafe Dismantling Process Armenia -- Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian speaks to journalists, Yerevan, The political team running the current Armenian government has voiced its ‘unequivocal’ support for the process of dismantling illegally constructed cafes around the Opera House in Yerevan that was designed to remain as a green area, according to Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian. The dismantling of first two cafes in the area began last week amid protests from dozens of owners and employees of the commercial facilities. A number of activists also came to nearby Liberty Square to show their support for the decision of the Yerevan authorities and Mayor Hayk Marutian. Marutian, who represents the ruling Civil Contract party of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and whose team polled more than 80 percent of the vote in last year’s municipal elections, stated last week that the green zone around the Opera House, one of the landmark buildings in central Yerevan, should not be overburdened with commercial property. He insisted that a vast majority of Yerevan residents support the decision that was part of his team’s election platform. Avinian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday that the Yerevan authorities enjoy the backing of the central government in this matter. “This is a common decision of our political team. And I think that the public response is also very adequate and I’m sure that such a policy should be continued by the municipality because it concerns the very center of Yerevan, the capital of the Republic of Armenia,” the vice-premier said. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service late last week Pashinian’s spokesperson Vladimir Karapetian also said that the prime minister had voiced his “support and solidarity” to Mayor Marutian in this matter. Armenian Radical Party Seeks Karabakh’s ‘Incorporation’ Into Armenia • Ruzanna Stepanian Armenia - A press conference of 'Sasna Tsrer' party members, An extra-parliamentary party espousing radical views has announced the start of a process “to incorporate Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia as a province,” one of its leader said on Monday. Varuzhan Avetisian, a founding member of Sasna Tsrer, a party formed on the basis of an armed group that carried out an attack on a police compound in Yerevan in 2016, said at a press conference that this process starts now “because there was a need to have a political and organizational unit in Artsakh [ed: Nagorno-Karabakh] first.” “Now there is such a unit in the form of the Sasna Tsrer of Artsakh party that was recently registered in Artsakh and its main task is to ensure this process,” said Avetisian. To the question of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service as to whether people in Nagorno-Karabakh that once voted for an independent status would want their incorporation into Armenia as a province, Zhirayr Sefilian, a leading member of the party, said: “We are convinced that an absolute majority shares this idea, and I am convinced that this process that we start is to everyone’s liking. There are numerous legal ways in the process. It can be through referendums, it can also be done through the National Assembly’s ratification or through national elections,” said Sefilian, citing ‘dangers of geopolitical developments’ and possible Russian influence over Nagorno-Karabakh. Avetisian was one of 31 members of an armed group that stormed a police compound in Yerevan in July 2016, demanding that then President Serzh Sarkisian free Sefilian, who was arrested a month before the deadly attack. The Sasna Tsrer group also demanded Sarkisian’s resignation and a tougher stance in negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Together with other members of the group Avetisian surrendered after a 15-day standoff with security forces and spent over two years in prison. Most of the Sasna Tsrer members, including Avetisian, were released from prison pending investigation after last year’s change of government. Sasna Tsrer’s latest initiative comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity around the Nagorno-Karabakh issue ahead of a possible first-ever formal meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev mediated through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group. Since a 1994 ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh that put an end to large-scale Armenian-Azerbaijani hostilities official Yerevan has publicly opposed the idea of formal recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh or its incorporation into Armenia and the status of the disputed territory has been a matter of internationally mediated negotiations. Azerbaijan has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the talks if Armenia either recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence or recognizes it as its part. Last week, Pashinian co-chaired a joint session of the Security Councils of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Stepanakert during which he reiterated that Armenia will seek Nagorno-Karabakh’s becoming a full party to the talks currently conducted between Yerevan and Baku. Leaders in Azerbaijan have rejected the idea of changing the format of negotiations. Lawmaker: Government Awaits Audit Results For Decision On Mining Project • Nane Sahakian Armenia - Gold mining facilities constructed by Lydian International company at Amulsar deposit, 18 May 2018 The Armenian government is awaiting the results of an independent international environmental audit for its decision on the future of an effectively halted mining project amid a warning from the United States-based company about a possible litigation, a lawmaker representing the ruling alliance said on Monday. Subsidiaries of the Lydian International company, which has exclusive rights to develop the Amulsar gold deposit in southeastern Armenia, last week threatened to sue the Armenian government over ongoing blockades of road access to the mining site, while still hoping for an out-of-court settlement of the dispute. The company has been unable to proceed with its work since June 23 as a group of residents of nearby communities protesting against gold mining operations blocked all roads leading to the site. More than 1,400 people working for the project, many of them also local residents, have therefore been unable to go to work, while the company has said it has suffered millions of dollars in losses. Lydian announced on its official website on March 11 that its subsidiaries – Lydian U.K. Corporation Limited and Lydian Canada Ventures Corporation – have formally notified the Armenian government of “the existence of disputes” with it under relevant agreements on the promotion and protection of investments that Armenian authorities signed with the governments of the UK and Canada back in the 1990s. According to the announcement, in accordance with the agreements Lydian UK may submit the dispute to international arbitration three months after such formal notification and Lydian Canada can do so after six months. “In the meantime, the Government of Armenia has an opportunity to continue amicable discussions with Lydian with a view to the prompt settlement of the disputes,” the company said. “Whether or not Lydian UK or Lydian Canada will initiate arbitration proceedings will depend on the conduct of the Government of Armenia, and there can be no assurance that Lydian UK or Lydian Canada will initiate any arbitration claim or application to any international arbitration court or of the outcome of any such claim or application. The Company does not intend to make any further public comments relating to these matters unless required by law.” Still last summer the Armenian government revealed plans for an international audit of Lydian’s Amulsar project to assess its environmental impact and determine whether it poses any risks to the nearby resort town of Jermuk and Armenia’s water resources in general. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stressed then that the government’s decisions on Amulsar must be based on “facts rather than emotions.” At the same time, he unsuccessfully tried to persuade local residents and environmental activists to stop blockading the mining site. Hayk Gevorkian, a member of the pro-Pashinian My Step faction in parliament and member of the parliamentary committee on economic affairs, said that work related to an independent audit began recently. He repeated that the government’s further steps will depend on the outcome of this environmental examination. According to the lawmaker, the audit that costs Armenia more than $390,000 is being conducted by an “internationally certified, reliable company” and the government will not do anything until it gets the results of the audit. “Before this audit there were two diametrically different examinations. According to one of them, the operation of Amulsar is absolutely safe, and according to the other, it poses danger. That’s why in order to get the final answer to that question the government has agreed to take a rather costly step to have a totally independent examination,” Gevorkian said, adding that the first results of the hydrological examination will become available as early as the beginning of June. The lawmaker said that if the examination establishes that the operation of the mine damages the environment, the government will ensure conditions for the construction to be resumed. “If the litigation goes the way that Armenia will have to pay to the investor, it will be several hundred million dollars, which will prove quite a heavy burden for Armenia. But if the audit concludes that it is dangerous, then the matter will concern public health, which is more important, so everything will depend on the results of the audit,” Gevorkian said. Still in July, the United States government expressed hope that the Amulsar deposit’s environmental audit will be conducted objectively and “in strict accordance with the law.” Richard Mills, the then U.S. ambassador to Armenia, said that potential American investors have been closely monitoring, among other things, the Armenian government’s treatment of the U.S.-based mining company. Lydian, which claims to have already invested more than $300 million in Amulsar, has not ruled out the possibility of international legal action against the Armenian state that had granted it exclusive rights to the gold deposit. Environment protection groups in Armenia have insisted that, if implemented, the Amulsar project will contaminate air, water and soil in the area where the country’s most popular spa resort is located. Lydian has maintained that it is using advanced technology to prevent any damage to the local ecosystem. The company is registered in a British tax haven but headquartered in the U.S. state of Colorado. Its shareholders include U.S., Canadian and European investment funds as well as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Armenian Newspaper Claims Pressure From Investigators • Naira Bulghadarian Knar Manukian, editor-in-chief of the Zhoghovurd daily. The chief editor of an Armenian daily newspaper claims the Special Investigation Service (SIS) is putting pressure on the media outlet after criminal proceedings have been launched over its publication of some data that the law-enforcement body says is confidential. The newspaper, Zhoghovurd, on March 16 published on its front page excerpts from the testimony of former president Serzh Sarkisian regarding the 2008 deadly post-election crackdown.Earlier, the newspaper published excerpts from interrogations of Constitutional Court member Felix Tokhian and former deputy defense minister Gagik Melkonian on the same case. After that, the SIS warned the newspaper that disclosure of data containing secrets of the preliminary investigation could lead to criminal liability. “This is obvious pressure on media. This warning is a threat aimed at forcing you to refrain from further activities,” said Zhoghovurd’s chief editor Knar Manukian. She insisted that the newspaper got hold of the materials still before the end of the preliminary investigations in regards to the cases against ex-president Robert Kocharian, ex-defense minister Seyran Ohanian, ex-deputy defense minister Yuri Khachaturov and ex-deputy prime minister and secretary of the Security Council Armen Gevorkian, but withheld their publication until the completion of the probe. Manukian said that Zhoghovurd will continue to publish pieces of testimony in connection with the “March 1, 2008” case, and even a court’s decision to disclose the source will not deter them. “They will not achieve any result. I assure you that no matter what the court’s decision is, I will go till the end. The SIS today seeks to identify the source by putting pressure on the media, but they will not achieve the result,” said Manukian, adding that, if necessary, her paper will publish also other pieces of testimony that it currently has. The SIS, meanwhile, says that the stage of preliminary investigation is not over yet as it ends with the indictment and until that the parties to the investigation are not allowed to publish confidential information related to the case, including by passing it to the media, which entails criminal liability. Press Review “Zhoghovurd” suggests that while the decision on dismantling cafes in the area around the Opera House in Yerevan was taken by the city’s authorities, “the entire government is responsible for it, since such steps are made based on political decisions.” “It is not a coincidence that protests against the dismantling of cafes resulted in some clashes and offensive language was used against the government,” the paper writes, acknowledging that the current government and mayor Hayk Marutian today enjoy “absolute legitimacy” as “all parties, even the ones that lost, recognized the results of the elections.” “Therefore, the government has a corresponding mandate to carry out reforms in a bold manner and even must do so with such a great vote of confidence.” “Hraparak” argues that while some poor people may welcome the dismantling of cafes owned by wealthy businessman or others may consider it right just to please the new government, it is yet insufficient to speak about justice: “One can speak about freeing the city [green areas from commercial property] when the hotel and mansions in the park at Monument, all structures built in Circular Park, ugly extensions of buildings in the city center, the cafes of [businessman] Samvel Aleksanian and other structures are dismantled.” On the same subject “Haykakan Zhamanak” writes: “Nevertheless, it is important to understand what positive and negative consequences these actions may have and why the authorities decided to take that step despite realizing what emotions and speculations it will cause. First, the negative is that like in the case with other protests there will always be some groups guided by the former government that will try to provoke clashes with police, chant “Nikol [Pashinian] go away” or “Robert [Kocharian] is president”, thus giving a political coloring to a purely legal process. Secondly, this process may have a negative effect in the short term in terms of falling tax revenues, etc. But still there will clearly be many more positive effects and the increase in the green area is not the most important of them. The most important positive effect will be that it will no longer occur to anyone that they can do business in Armenia in an illegal manner by using their links with the powers that be.” “168 Zham” criticizes the government for its economic policies. “The impression is that [Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinian’s government has no one who would think about the economy and everyone is busy trying to bring money to the budget, increasing the tax burden for that without thinking about possible consequences. And there is no doubt that these consequences will be painful. The changes in the tax code proposed by the government do not meet the interests of many economic agents. Consumers will also suffer the consequences as the tax burden will increase for them. And it is still a question what the government will get from all this,” the paper writes. (Artur Papian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org