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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