Friday, Lawmaker Denounced For Leaving Tsarukian’s Party • Anush Mkrtchian Armenia -- Parliament deputy Sergey Bagratian speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, January 26, 2020. Senior representatives of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) condemned a fellow parliamentarian on Friday for leaving the country’s largest parliamentary opposition force led by businessman Gagik Tsarukian. The lawmaker, Sergey Bagratian, formally notified parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan about his decision to quit the BHK in a letter revealed on July 23. He gave no reason for the move. BHK representatives were careful not to comment on it until now, saying that Bagratian has not answered their phone calls or communicated with them otherwise for more than a month. Bagratian broke his silence on Friday with a Facebook post saying that he has had unspecified “significant differences” with the BHK leadership “for quite a while.” “I have repeatedly presented my objections to key [BHK] statements,” he claimed. Senior members of Tsarukian’s party were quick to hit back at him. Arman Abovian, the number two figure in the BHK’s parliamentary group, insisted that Bagratian has never openly disagreed with the party’s decisions. Abovian urged him to resign from the Armenian parliament altogether. Tsarukian’s spokeswoman, Iveta Tonoyan, strongly condemned Bagratian’s statement, saying that the 57-year-old is “trampling moral principles underfoot” for the sake of preserving his parliament seat. Tonoyan also added her voiced to media speculation that Bagratian defected from the BHK to avoid prosecution on charges of financial abuses allegedly committed in Armenia’s southeastern Vayots Dzor when it was governed by him from 2010-2012. She claimed that Tsarukian has repeatedly urged Bagratian to compensate the state for the “damage” caused by him but that he has refused to do that. Tonoyan did not give further details. Bagratian denied these allegations when he spoke with RFE/RL’s Armenian service by phone. He insisted that he has only been questioned by law-enforcement officials as a witness in a criminal case opened recently. Armenia -- Gagik Tsarukian and other deputies from his Prosperous Armenia Party attend a parliament session in Yerevan, July 9, 2019. Bagratian stopped making public statements shortly after the parliament allowed law-enforcement authorities on June 15 to arrest and prosecute Tsarukian on vote buying charges which the BHK leader rejects as politically motivated. The BHK claims that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian ordered the National Security Service (NSS) to “fabricate” the charges in response to Tsarukian’s June 5 calls for the Armenian government’s resignation. It also says that the NSS and police have rounded up scores of BHK activists in a bid to ratchet up the pressure on Tsarukian. Pashinian and his allies deny a politically motivated crackdown on the party. Bagratian’s exit reduced to 24 the number of parliament seats held by the BHK. The party continues to have the second largest group in the 132-member National Assembly controlled by Pashinian’s My Step bloc. Former Armenian Security Chief Claims Political Persecution • Anush Mkrtchian Armenia -- Former National Security Service Director Artur Vanetsian speaks to journalists outside the NSS headquarters in Yerevan, . Artur Vanetsian, the former National Security Service (NSS) director leading an opposition party, accused the Armenian authorities of trying to “silence” him after being questioned on Friday in an investigation launched by the NSS. Vanetsian was summoned to the NSS to explain a personnel decision which he made while running Armenia’s most powerful security agency in 2018. An NSS spokesman, Artur Gevorgian, said he is suspected of hiring a retired 51-year-old officer and giving him a senior NSS position in breach of an Armenian law. He said the law stipulates that only individuals aged 50 or younger can be appointed to such posts. Vanetsian’s decision may have therefore amounted to an abuse of power, Gevorgian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. Vanetsian flatly denied breaking the law when he spoke to journalists after spending about 30 minutes inside the NSS headquarters in Yerevan. He said he refused to give his former subordinates any explanations. “It’s yet another fabricated and politically motivated case,” claimed Vanetsian. “For the past eight months the authorities have doing everything to prosecute me with the aim of stopping my political activities.” “They probably have trouble reading and understanding the law,” he said. “I mean not NSS investigators but Armenia’s political leadership and the current NSS director.” Vanetsian’s lawyer, Lusine Sahakian, insisted, for her part, that even if the alleged violation occurred it did not constitute a criminal offense. Vanetsian was appointed as head of the NSS following the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” and quickly became an influential member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s entourage. He resigned last September after falling out with Pashinian for still unclear reasons. The 40-year-old has since repeatedly accused Pashinian of incompetence and misrule, prompting angry responses from Pashinian and his political allies. Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government parliamentarian and Pashinian’s brother-in-law, denied any political persecution of Vanetsian. “Our public knows who and how has been subjected to political persecution in the past,” he said. Vanetsian called for the prime minister’s resignation shortly before setting up an opposition party, called Hayrenik (Fatherland), in February. In late June, Hayrenik and two other opposition parties, Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Dashnaktsutyun, pledged to work together in challenging the government and “restoring the constitutional order.” The move followed criminal charges brought against BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian. The latter rejects them as politically motivated. Vanetsian predicted on Friday that “very active political processes,” possibly including anti-government protests, will unfold in Armenia soon. “The authorities have failed in all spheres,” he charged. “We are facing a health crisis, an economic crisis and other problems. Instead of getting things done and solving the problems, the authorities are busy trying to silence their political opponents.” “After the coronavirus recedes and the state of emergency is lifted, we will see what kind of protests there will be, who will take part in them and how they will be led,” countered Hakobian. Armenian Defense Chief Visits Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh -- Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan (R) visits a Karabakh Armenian military base, . Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan dismissed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest warnings to Armenia as he visited Nagorno-Karabakh and inspected military facilities there on Friday. According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, during the two-day visit Tonoyan toured military bases of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed Defense Army and paid “special attention” to new weapons delivered to it recently. A ministry statement said Tonoyan also discussed with the Defense Army commander, Major-General Jalal Harutiunian, and other local officers “current and possible regional developments.” The visit came two weeks after unusually heavy fighting that broke out at a section of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan located hundreds of kilometers west of the Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” around Karabakh. The situation along the Karabakh frontlines has remained relatively calm in recent weeks. Aliyev on Thursday again claimed that his troops deal a “crushing blow” to the Armenians during the border clashes which left at least 12 Azerbaijani servicemen, including a general, and five Armenian soldiers dead. “The Armenian armed forces must leave our lands before it’s too late,” he said. Tonoyan scoffed at this warning in video remarks circulated by his press office. “As defense minister, I would just like to understand ‘before it’s too late’ means when,” he said. Tonoyan also shrugged off Azerbaijani military officials’ fresh statements to the effect that they are ready to carry out Aliyev’s order to restart war at any moment. “First of all, it’s not that we don’t wait for such orders,” he said. “Secondly, the hostilities in Tavush [province bordering Azerbaijan] were vivid proof of the fact that although the enemy intensively used state-of-the-art equipment it did not achieve success and suffered many losses instead.” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has also repeatedly said that Baku cannot force the Armenian side to make unilateral concessions with threats to resolve the Karabakh conflict by force. Armenia -- Armenian soldiers deploy a Tochka-U ballistic missile system, July 31, 2020. Earlier on Friday, the Defense Ministry in Yerevan announced that frontline and other units of the Armenian army have been put on high alert as part of a “sudden check” of their combat readiness ordered by the chief of the army’s General Staff, Lieutenant-General Onik Gasparian. The ministry released several photographs of ballistic missile and long-range artillery systems deployed in various locations. The check came amid joint Azerbaijani-Turkish military exercises which began in various parts of Azerbaijan on Wednesday. The Armenian military said earlier this week that it will be closely monitoring the exercises widely linked to the recent hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Turkey has blamed Armenia for the fighting and vowed boost military aid to Azerbaijan. Yerevan has responded by accusing the Turkish government of trying to destabilize the region. Aliyev reportedly thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Ankara’s “resolute support” to Baku during a phone conversation on Friday. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.