Wednesday,
Putin’s Visit To Armenia ‘Not Cancelled’
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian (L) in the Kremlin, December 27, 2018.
Russia’s ambassador to Armenia effectively reaffirmed on Wednesday President
Vladimir Putin’s plans to visit Yerevan and attend a summit of the Eurasian
Economic Union (EEU) that will be held there next month.
Some Armenian pro-opposition media outlets and commentators have speculated
that Putin may cancel his first trip to Armenia since the 2018 “Velvet
Revolution” due to the Armenian authorities’ refusal to free Robert Kocharian,
his former Armenian counterpart facing corruption and coup charges. Putin again
heaped praise on Kocharian when he congratulated the latter on his 65th
birthday anniversary late last month.
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kopyrkin said Armenians “should” expect Putin to
visit their country next month. “Do you have different information?” he told
reporters. “I don’t.”
“We proceed from the fact that a session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic
Council (the EEU’s top decision-making body) will be held here,” said Kopyrkin.
“As Armenia’s deputy foreign minister said in the parliament yesterday, it was
the common decision of the heads of state. What questions can there be?”
“I receive information calling into question President Putin’s visit from
media. I cannot comment on those reports because I have no other information,”
added Kopyrkin.
Armenia- Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin, 11Jun2019
The Armenian Migration Service granted last week asylum to a Russian
anti-government activist who moved to Armenia in January after serving a
four-year prison sentence in Russia. The unprecedented move came almost one
month after the Russian authorities refused to extradite Mihran Poghosian, a
former senior Armenian official charged with corruption in Armenia.
Moscow also refused late last year to extradite Mikael Harutiunian, a former
Armenian defense minister wanted by the Armenian authorities on coup charges.
It argued that Harutiunian is a Russian citizen.
Kopyrkin denied any political motives behind the Russian moves. “Just because
someone is in Russia doesn’t mean that he has received political asylum,” he
said. “As regards Mihran Poghosian, according to my information, we are talking
about a legal process, about the provision of necessary documents [to the
Russian authorities.]”
Moscow is not sheltering the fugitive Armenians to send a message to Yerevan,
insisted the envoy. “Russia’s [sole] message to Armenia’s new authorities is
very clear: we are strategic partners, allies and brotherly countries and
peoples,” he said. “Russia’s position on this issue has not changed in any way.
To my knowledge, it corresponds to the Armenian leadership’s approach.”
Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian likewise denied any friction
between Moscow and Yerevan on September 6. “Interstate relations between Russia
and Armenia have quite strong foundations and we don’t have any differences
here,” he said.
Gyumri Residents Rattled By Earthquake
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia -- A street in Gyumri.
Residents of Gyumri ran into the streets and stayed there for hours after a
4.8-magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Armenia late on Tuesday.
According to the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations, the epicenter of
the earthquake was about 50 kilometers north of Gyumri, on the border with
Georgia. The tremors were felt not only in the surrounding Shirak province but
also other parts of Armenia, including Yerevan.
The ministry’s National Seismic Defense Service also registered two less
powerful quakes and more than 30 aftershocks overnight. No injuries or serious
damage were reported as a result.
In Ashotsk, a small town 25 kilometers from the epicenter, the tremors caused
plaster to partly come off the façade of a local school. Authorities there
cancelled school classes for two days because of that.
Karen Mkhitarian, head of the regional branch of National Seismic Defense
Service, said on Wednesday that the quake also led to an upsurge in phone calls
by local residents which overwhelmed wireless networks. “We did not manage to
quickly contact the ministry or our supervisors [in Yerevan,] because of that,”
Mkhitarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
In Gyumri, there was panic among residents of apartment blocks and, in
particular, Soviet-era buildings that were damaged by a 1988 earthquake which
killed 25,000 people and devastated much of the country’s second largest city.
Scores of them rushed out of their homes and spent hours in the streets,
fearing more powerful aftershocks.
“Everyone was on the street with their kids,” said one Gyumri resident.
Pashinian Argues Against ‘Illegal’ Mine Closure
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - The U.S.-based company Lydian International builds a gold mine at the
Amulsar deposit, 9Dec2017. (Photo by Lydian Armenia)
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday that he will not break laws to
prevent a British-American company, Lydian International, from mining gold at
the Amulsar deposit in southeastern Armenia.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament, Pashinian also complained that
environmental activists are excessively focused on the multimillion-dollar
Amulsar project and pay little attention to environmental risks posed by other,
functioning mines mostly built in Soviet times.
“If we are talking about an [environmental] disaster, then that disaster
happened a long time ago. We just don’t know or are not told about that so that
our spirits remain high,” he said with sarcasm.
On Monday Pashinian called on protesters to end their more than yearlong
blockage of all roads leading to Amulsar, saying that his government has no
“legal grounds” to pull the plug on Lydian’s project. He said the project’s
continued disruption would have severe consequences for Armenia’s economy and
even national security. He also argued that Lydian has given the Armenian
government more guarantees that mining operations at Amulsar would not
contaminate water, soil and air.
During the government’s question-and-answer session in the National Assembly an
independent parliamentarian strongly opposed to the project, Arman Babajanian,
challenged Pashinian to explain why his government is not unilaterally revoking
Lydian’s mining license issued by Armenia’s “former criminal regime” in 2016.
“My position on Amulsar and any other issues is that everything must be
according to the law,” replied the prime minister. “This is very important
because we are talking about [building] a rule-of-law state, and if in some
cases there are environmental, emotional and economic approaches to an issue I
believe that the right solution to those approaches must be a legal approach.”
“If we illegally shut down the [Amulsar] mine now, we will illegally shut down
a media outlet tomorrow, illegally shut down a factory the day after and so
on,” he said.
Pashinian also defended the government’s decision early this year to pay a
Lebanese consulting firm, ELARD, $400,000 to conduct an environmental audit of
the mining project.
ELARD submitted a written report to Armenia’s Investigative Committee a month
ago. According to the law-enforcement body, the report concluded that Lydian’s
operations would pose only “manageable” risks to the environment.
But at an August 24 video conference with Armenian officials moderated by
Pashinian, ELARD experts said they cannot definitively evaluate environmental
dangers of the project. They claimed that Lydian had submitted flawed and
incomplete information to regulatory authorities. The U.S.-based company
strongly denied that.
The several dozen protesters blocking Lydian’s access to the mine site were
quick to reject Pashinian’s appeal on Monday. The premier did not say on
Wednesday whether he will order police to forcibly unblock the Amulsar roads.
Before the road blockade Lydian was due to complete the construction of its
mining and smelting facilities in late 2018. It planned to produce 210,000
ounces of gold, worth over $315 million at current international prices, and
pay $50 million in taxes annually in addition to creating about 800 permanent
jobs.
U.S. Defense Official Visits Armenia
Armenia -- Laura Cooper (C), the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for
Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, meets with Armeinian Foreign Minister Zohrab
Mnatsakanian, Yerevan, .
A senior Pentagon official met with Armenia’s defense and foreign ministers
during a visit to Yerevan on Wednesday.
Official Armenian sources said Laura Cooper, the U.S. deputy assistant
secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, discussed with them ways
of boosting defense and security ties between the United States and Armenia.
A statement by the Armenian Defense Ministry said Cooper told Defense Minister
Davit Tonoyan that Washington is ready to continue working with Yerevan in
advancing their “numerous common interests.” Those include regional security,
the statement cited her as saying.
Both Tonoyan and Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian were reported to assure
Cooperate at their separate meetings that the Armenian government is committed
to closer military cooperation with the U.S. According to the Armenian Foreign
Ministry, Mnatsakanian said it also stands ready to “continue and expand its
contribution to international peacekeeping efforts and humanitarian operations.”
Armenia currently contributes roughly 160 troops to NATO-led missions in Kosovo
and Afghanistan. Cooper praised those deployments during her talks in Yerevan.
The U.S. official announced her plans to visit Armenia when she spoke at a
reception hosted by the Armenian Embassy in Washington in January. She said she
is intent on “learning first hand how we can deepen the defense and security
ties between our two countries.”
U.S. military assistance to Armenia has totaled about $50 million since 2002. A
large part of it has been provided to the Armenian army’s Peacekeeping Brigade
whose soldiers serve in Afghanistan, Kosovo as well as Lebanon and Mali.
Press Review
“Haykakan Zhamanak” rounds on Mikael Minasian, former President Serzh
Sarkisian’s once influential son-in-law who strongly criticized Armenia’s
current government in a video message circulated last week. “His main message
was that what happened in Armenia was not a revolution but a meaningless change
[of government,] that the new authorities are a continuation of the old ones
and have changed nothing, and that the country is headed to an inevitable
disaster,” writes the pro-government paper. By this logic, it says tartly,
Sarkisian’s regime was also steering Armenia to a disaster. “Mikael Minasian is
right on one issue: there can be no return to the old [times,]” concludes the
paper. “And this also applies to those whose main merit is, so to speak,
friendly ties with the past.”
“Aravot” hopes that there will be no pre-term general elections in Armenia.
“But if fresh elections are held after all, one of the two scenarios will
probably be at play,” writes the paper. “Either disagreements within the ruling
team will reach a point where the prime minister [Nikol Pashinian] will decide
to once again seek citizens’ vote of confidence or there will be another coup
by security agencies and the military behind which will be Robert Kocharian.
The latter scenario worked in 1998. The authorities must forestall this variant
in the most resolute way. Ordinary citizens must also say no to it.
Fortunately, the likelihood of that ‘no’ is now higher because by 1998 most
citizens already disliked, to put it mildly, the head of state [Levon
Ter-Petrosian.]” The paper says that Kocharian has again become a “political
factor” because of mistakes made by the current authorities. Still, it defends
the authorities, saying that they are up against a “group of people not
indifferent to blood.”
“Clearly, our law-enforcement system has problems with Russian law-enforcement
structures, and as a result of a lack of cooperation [between them] we have
privileged criminal suspects,” writes “Zhoghovurd.” The paper argues that
Russia has refused to extradite former Armenian Defense Minister Mikael
Harutiunian and the former head of Armenia’s Service for the Mandatory
Execution of Judicial Acts, Mihran Poghosian. It claims that Russian
law-enforcement officials could have acted differently had their Armenian
colleagues presented them with “irrefutable” evidence in support of the
accusations brought against Harutiunian and Poghosian.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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