Tuesday,
Karabakh Leaders Call For Kocharian’s Release
• Naira Nalbandian
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Karabakh President Bako Saakian (R) and Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian meet in Stepanakert, November 4, 2018.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s current and former leaders called on Armenian
law-enforcement authorities on Tuesday to release former President Robert
Kocharian from custody pending the outcome of his upcoming trial.
In a joint letter to Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian, Karabakh
President Bako Sahakian and his predecessor Arkadi Ghukasian said Kocharian
should be able to attend Thursday’s official celebrations of Karabakh’s main
public holiday. They cited his and other former Karabakh leaders’ “huge
contributions” to the Armenian victory in the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan.
Kocharian ran the Armenian-populated territory during and after the war before
becoming Armenia’s president in 1998. His successor and another native of
Karabakh, Serzh Sarkisian, will also participate in the official ceremonies in
Stepanakert and Shushi, as will Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Sahakian and Ghukasian also expressed readiness to offer “any public guarantee”
that would enable Kocharian to remain free at least until a court verdict on
corruption and coup charges leveled against him. They said his release would
send a “signal of solidarity and unity” to Armenians as well as Azerbaijan.
Nagorno Karabakh -- Robert Kocharian (left), Bako Sahakian (second from left)
and Arkadi Ghukasian (right) attend an official ceremony in Stepanakert, 9 May,
2015.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General responded to the letter later in the
day. In a statement, it said that it is no longer in a position to free
Kocharian because the high-profile investigation has already been completed and
its findings sent to a court in Yerevan.
Law-enforcement authorities have until now opposed the ex-president’s release
from pre-trial detention, saying that he could obstruct justice if set free.
They ignored a similar appeal made by Karabakh’s three main parliamentary
parties shortly after Kocharian was again arrested in December.
Kocharian and three retired Armenian army generals will go on trial soon on
charges of “overthrowing the constitutional order” in the wake of a disputed
presidential election held in February 2008. The Special Investigative Service
(SIS) says that they illegally used the armed forces against opposition
supporters who demonstrated against alleged electoral fraud.
Eight protesters and two police servicemen were killed in street clashes that
broke out late on March 1, 2008. Kocharian declared a state of emergency in the
Armenian capital on that night. He completed his second presidential term and
handed over power to Sarkisian in April 2008.
All four indicted men deny the charges. Kocharian, who was also charged with
bribery in March, has accused Pashinian of waging a political “vendetta”
against him.
Pashinian was one of the main opposition speakers during the February-March
2008 protests. He has denied any political motives behind the coup charges that
were brought against Kocharian shortly after he came to power in May 2018.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Supporters of Armenia's arrested former President Robert
Kocharian demosntrate in Stepanakert, December 22, 2018.
A senior aide to Sahakian, Davit Babayan, insisted that the letter to the chief
Armenian prosecutor will not cause renewed friction between the Karabakh
president and Pashinian.
“This move is not directed at Nikol Pashinian and there are no personal motives
behind it,” Babayan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “Bako Sahakian has a good
relationship with Nikol Pashinian.”
Pashinian’s publicly lambasted Karabakh leaders in November during Armenia’s
parliamentary election campaign. One of the premier’s political allies, Sasun
Mikaelian, declared at a campaign rally that last spring’s protest movement
that brought Pashinian to power was more important than the Armenian victory in
the Karabakh war.
Mikaelian’s remark was condemned by Armenian opposition politicians as well as
senior officials in Stepanakert, including the spokesmen for Sahakian and
General Levon Mnatsakanian, the then commander of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed
army.
Pashinian accused the Karabakh leadership of misinterpreting Mikaelian’s
statement and “meddling” in the Armenian parliamentary race. Mnatsakanian was
sacked in December.
Parliament Majority Won’t Investigate Tsarukian For Now
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of the ruling My Step bloc,
at a news conference in Yerevan, May 6, 2019.
The pro-government majority in the Armenian parliament said on Tuesday it will
avoid for now launching an inquiry that could lead to Prosperous Armenia Party
(BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian’s expulsion from the National Assembly.
A small and reputedly pro-government party demanded last week a criminal
investigation into Tsarukian’s entrepreneurial activities, saying that they may
have violated the Armenian constitution which bans lawmakers from doing
business. Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian swiftly responded by instructing the
Special Investigative Service (SIS) to look into the issue.
The party also urged parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan to set up an ad hoc
ethics commission that would also scrutinize Tsarukian’s activities and
consider asking the Constitutional Court to strip him of his parliament seat.
Under Armenian law, such a commission can be formed by the parliamentary
faction of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc, which has a
two-thirds majority in the parliament. The faction leader, Lilit Makunts, said
that it will not trigger a parliamentary inquiry at least until the release of
the SIS’s findings.
“At the moment it is important and interesting for us to wait for the
conclusion of law-enforcement bodies,” Makunts told reporters.
A spokeswoman for the SIS, Marina Ohanjanian, said the law-enforcement agency
will decide by May 13 whether to launch criminal proceedings against the leader
of Armenia’s largest parliamentary opposition force.
Tsarukian, who is also one of the country’s richest men, maintains that he
fully complies with the constitutional requirement. He says that he owns but
does not manage dozens of businesses.
Accordingly, the tycoon made clear on Tuesday that he will not resign from the
parliament. “I will give up my mandate only when I see a country of my dreams,
when the plight of the people improves, when they repay their debts, when they
become prosperous and when the country develops,” he said.
Tsarukian’s parliament seat was called into question amid mounting tensions
between his party and Pashinian’s bloc. The BHK leader strongly criticized the
government’s economic policies in early April. His associates did not deny last
week media reports saying that all 25 other lawmakers representing the BHK will
quit the parliament if their leader dose lose his seat.
Armenian Opposition Adamant In Rejecting New Government Structure
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia -- The Armenian government's main meeting room at the prime minister's
office in Yerevan, February 21, 2019.
Armenia’s two main opposition parties continued to denounce the government on
Tuesday for reducing the number of its ministries from 17 to 12 and refusing to
limit Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s powers.
The Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Bright Armenia (LHK) parties reaffirmed their
strong opposition to a government bill setting a new structure of Pashinian’s
cabinet as the National Assembly debated it in the second reading.
The bill passed in the first reading last month calls for abolishing the post
of first deputy prime minister, meaning that Pashinian would have only two
deputies. Also, the Armenian ministries of education, culture, and sports and
youth affairs would be turned into a single agency. A similar merger of the
ministries of energy and local government would lead to the creation of a new
Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures. The Diaspora
Ministry is due to be scrapped altogether.
“This model of super ministries will definitely not work,” said Naira
Zohrabian, a senior BHK lawmaker. “If you merged the ministry of culture with
tourism … I would see logic there. But there is no logic in this synthesis of
science, education, sports, youth affairs and culture.”
Zohrabian also claimed that Pashinian’s political team lacks competent and
skilled individuals capable of running the “monster agencies” that will be set
up soon.
“We believe that this structure will have very bad consequences,” agreed BHK
leader Edmon Marukian.
Marukian again singled out Pashinian’s refusal to turn Armenia’s police and
National Security Service (NSS) into ministries subordinate to the cabinet,
rather than only the prime minister.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian made sure that the police, the NSS as well as
the State Revenue Committee will be directly accountable to the prime minister
when he turned Armenia into a parliamentary republic. Sarkisian planned to stay
in power as prime minister after serving out his second presidential term in
April 2018.
Pashinian, Edmon Marukian and other leaders of the now defunct Yelk opposition
alliance accused him of introducing a “super prime-ministerial” system of
government with the aim of maintaining a tight grip on power. Pashinian has
been reluctant to change that system since he came to power in May 2018.
“Why aren’t you fulfilling Nikol Pashinian’s promises?” Marukian asked
parliament deputies from the ruling My Step bloc. “He had said that the NSS and
the police must become ministries.”
My Step representatives say that such a change would only “politicize” the two
law-enforcement agencies. One of them, Gayane Abrahamian, claimed on Tuesday
that the heads of those agencies could “manipulate the political landscape” and
abuse their powers if they become government ministers. She argued that Serzh
Sarkisian rose to power after serving as minister of interior and national
security in the 1990s.
U.S., Armenia Hold ‘Strategic’ Talks
Armenia - Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian (R) and U.S. Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State George Kent are about to sign an agreement after the first
session of U.S.-Armenia Strategic Dialouge in Yerevan, May 7, 2019.
The United States promised $16 million in fresh assistance to Armenia on
Tuesday after senior officials from the two countries held talks in Yerevan
described by them as “strategic dialogue.”
The delegations led by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent and
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigor Hovannisian discussed a wide range of
issues and pledged to strive for closer bilateral ties.
“The conversation today started with talking about how Armenia can reform its
justice system and improve anti-corruption activity,” Kent told reporters. “By
the end we were talking about clean water, protecting the environmentally
endangered animals and different possibilities of energy generation.”
“I think it shows how many issues we talked about and the possibilities of the
U.S. and Armenia working together based on shared values and shared interests,”
he said at a joint news conference with Hovannisian.
Regional security was also on the agenda of what both sides described as the
first session of the “U.S.-Armenia strategic dialogue.”
“We had a long discussion about the security in the region, not just the
Caucasus but all around Armenia, and the implications when countries look to
destabilize, rather than to support security and peace,” Kent said in reference
to neighboring Iran, with which Armenia is maintaining a cordial rapport
despite the renewed U.S. sanctions against Tehran.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with a U.S. government
delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent (second from
right) , May 6, 2019.
Kent met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday. Pashinian was cited by
his press office as telling him that forging closer ties with the United States
is “of great importance to Armenia.”
Speaking in the Armenian parliament in March, Pashinian complained about
Washington’s “zero reaction” to democratic change in his country. He seemed
unhappy with the fact that there has been no significant increase in U.S.
economic assistance to Armenia since last year’s “velvet revolution” which
brought him to power.
The U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Lynne Tracy, countered last month that in 2018
Washington provided $26.7 million in assistance to Armenia in addition to an
ongoing $66 million aid program implemented by the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID).
A memorandum of understanding signed as a result of Tuesday’s talks calls for
further U.S. aid. In a statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said the U.S.
government will provide up to $16 million to support economic growth and good
governance in the South Caucasus nation. In addition, it said, the USAID will
allocate $6 million in support of the Armenian government’s “democratic reform
agenda.”
“The delegations reaffirmed the United States’ and Armenia’s mutual commitment
to deepening cooperation in all areas of bilateral relations,” added the
statement.
Press Review
Lragir.am comments on Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian’s
remark that “connections, trust and faith” are still necessary for doing
business in Armenia. The online publication says that while Tsarukian may be
right he is still not explaining why needs to hold a seat in the parliament. It
says he must explain “what he would lose by losing his seat.” “Do his foreign
partners trust and respect him because of his seat?” it asks. “If so, that
means Gagik Tsarukian also does not trust in change in Armenia and believes
that his parliament mandate is the guarantee of his immunity and security.”
“Zhamanak” reports that former President Serzh Sarkisian will attend Thursday’s
celebrations in Nagorno-Karabakh of the 27th anniversary of a key Armenian
military victory in the war with Azerbaijan. The paper says the very fact that
the trip was announced by Sarkisian’s office is interesting in itself. “It is
not Sarkisian’s first trip to Artsakh since his resignation,” it explains. “But
it is apparently the first time that his trip is announced beforehand.” Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian will also be taking part in those ceremonies.
“Pashinian and Sarkisian will again be in Artsakh at the same time,” writes the
paper. “Will they be attending the same official celebrations? If that happens,
it will herald the development of a new layer of revolution, so to speak, one
year after the velvet revolution.”
“168 Zham” expects Yerevan’s municipal council to hold heated debates on
Wednesday on Mayor Hayk Marutian’s controversial plans to double his and his
top aides’ salaries. The paper criticizes those plans, arguing that the minimum
monthly wage in Armenia is equivalent to just $113.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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