RFE/RL Armenian Report – 12/16/2020

                                        Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Armenian Opposition Calls For General Strike
December 16, 2020
        • Robert Zargarian

Armenia -- Opposition supporters demonstrate outside the main government 
building in Yerevan to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's resignation, 
December 12, 2020.

Armenian opposition groups campaigning for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s 
resignation called for a general strike on December 22 during continuing 
anti-government protests in Yerevan on Wednesday.
“A nationwide strike and a boycott of university classes in Armenia is declared 
starting from 12 a.m. on Tuesday,” said Ishkhan Saghatelian, one of the leaders 
of a coalition of 16 opposition parties that launched the protests following 
Armenia’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan.

“The whole country must be paralyzed so that this scarecrow resigns as soon as 
possible,” Saghatelian told opposition supporters that again marched through the 
city center.

He said that Tuesday will be “the most decisive day” of the opposition push to 
oust Pashinian and install an interim government tasked with holding fresh 
parliamentary elections within a year.

The opposition forces hold Pashinian responsible for the Armenian side’s defeat 
in the war and say he is not capable of confronting new security challenges 
facing Armenia. Their demands for his resignation and the formation of an 
interim government have been backed by President Armen Sarkissian, the Armenian 
Apostolic Church and prominent public figures in Armenia and its worldwide 
Diaspora.

Pashinian again rejected these demands when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service on Wednesday. He reiterated that he still has a popular mandate to 
govern the country and that the opposition wants to “wrest power from the 
people.”



Court Revokes Arrest Warrant For Ex-President’s Son-In-Law
December 16, 2020

Armenia - Former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minasian.

Armenia’s Court of Appeals again overturned on Wednesday a lower court’s 
decision to allow investigators to arrest Mikael Minasian, former President 
Serzh Sarkisian’s fugitive son-in-law prosecuted on corruption charges denied by 
him.

The State Revenue Committee (SRC) moved to arrest Minasian in April after 
charging him with illegal enrichment, false asset disclosure and money 
laundering. A Yerevan court of first instance allowed the arrest in May. The 
decision was overturned on appeal a month later, however.

The SRC responded by broadening the criminal charges leveled against Minasian. 
It said that he had also failed to declare his “de facto” ownership from 
2012-2018 of a 49 percent stake in Armenia’s largest food-exporting company.

A court judge approved the arrest warrant on September 22. According to one of 
Minasian’s lawyers, Mihran Poghosian, the Court of Appeals annulled that 
decision as well.

The lawyers maintain that their client is a victim of “political persecution” 
overseen by the Armenian government.

Minasian enjoyed considerable political and economic influence in Armenia when 
it was ruled by Sarkisian from 2008-2018. He is also thought to have developed 
extensive business interests in various sectors of the Armenian economy.

A vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Minasian left Armenia shortly 
after he was dismissed as ambassador to the Vatican in late 2018. According to 
some media reports, the 42-year-old currently lives in Russia.



Baku Accused Of Continuing ‘Provocations’ In Karabakh
December 16, 2020
        • Nane Sahakian

NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- An Azeri military truck drives drives along a street in 
Hadrut town, November 25, 2020

Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian-backed leadership accused Azerbaijan on Wednesday of 
continuing to violate a Russian-brokered ceasefire after dozens of Armenian 
soldiers were taken prisoner in Karabakh’s southwest.

Azerbaijani forces seized over the weekend the last two Armenian-controlled 
villages in the Hadrut district occupied by them during the recent war. Russian 
peacekeepers rushed to the mountainous area and reportedly stopped the fighting 
on Sunday.

Azerbaijani social media users posted late on Tuesday videos of Armenian 
soldiers captured by Azerbaijani army units apparently deployed in the area. 
Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army reported the following morning that it has lost 
communication with some of its troops stationed near Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd, 
the two occupied Hadrut villages.

“Unfortunately, several dozen of our servicemen were taken prisoner in the 
Khtsaberd direction and our defense ministry is now clarifying all circumstances 
of the incident,” the Karabakh president, Ara Harutiunian, said in a televised 
speech aired in the afternoon.

Harutiunian said that the Armenian side is already taking measures to ensure 
their “quick and safe return to the homeland.”

According to Artak Beglarian, Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, about 60 
Armenian soldiers went missing in the Hadrut area.

“All relevant bodies of Artsakh and Armenia must take immediate steps to 
repatriate the POWs as soon as possible,” Beglarian wrote on Facebook

The Armenian Foreign Ministry has condemned the Azerbaijani attack on the two 
villages as a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement that stopped the 
war on November 10.

Baku denied violating the ceasefire on Sunday. It said that the Azerbaijani army 
launched a “counterterrorist operation” after one of its soldiers was killed 
last week.

Harutiunian also accused Baku of resorting to armed “provocations” around three 
Armenian-populated villages located southwest of the Karabakh town of Shushi 
(Shusha), which was also captured by Azerbaijani forces during the war. 
According to local officials, Azerbaijani troops advanced towards the villages 
of Mets Shen, Hin Shen and Yeghtsahogh in recent days, forcing most of their 
residents to flee their homes.

“Karabakh army soldiers and Russian peacekeepers thwarted various provocations 
by Azerbaijani soldiers and last night drove them out of the vicinity of Hin 
Shen,” said the Karabakh leader.



Pashinian Coy About Snap Elections
December 16, 2020
        • Artak Hambardzumian

Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is interviewed by RFERL, Yerevan, 
December 16, 2020

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday that he cannot single-handedly 
call fresh parliamentary elections in Armenia following the recent war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Pashinian also said that he is 
not primarily to blame for the Armenian side’s defeat in the six-week war 
stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.

The defeat sparked ongoing opposition protests and calls for his resignation and 
the formation of an interim government that would hold snap elections within a 
year. The prime minister has rejected those demands.

“The question is not whether or not the prime minister must resign,” Pashinian 
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “The question is who decides who must be 
Armenia’s prime minister. The people must decide.”

“Pre-term elections cannot be held only by my will and decision. There has to be 
an agreement on that,” he added without elaborating.

Some representatives of Pashinian’s My Step bloc have indicated that the 
authorities are ready to discuss the possibility of such polls with the Armenian 
opposition. Most opposition groups want the ruling political team to hand over 
power to a transitional government.

A coalition of more than a dozen opposition parties plans to continue its street 
protests in Yerevan in a bid to force Pashinian to resign. It holds him 
responsible for Azerbaijan’s victory and says he is not capable of confronting 
new security challenges facing Armenia and Karabakh.

“I consider myself the number one person responsible [for the defeat] but I 
don’t consider myself the number one guilty person,” Pashinian said in this 
regard.

The embattled premier also dismissed critics’ claims that he precipitated the 
six-week war with a reckless policy on the Karabakh conflict.

“The only way to avoid the war was to give up [a peace deal on] Karabakh’s 
future status,” he said. “The situation reached a point where the war was 
inevitable. We analyzed [the situation] and found that it is possible not to be 
defeated, and if is possible not to be defeated we must not surrender.”


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