Friday,
Turkey’s Erdogan Condemns ‘Coup Attempt’ In Armenia
• Lusine Musayelian
Turkey - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference
following a cabinet meeting in Ankara, December 14, 2020.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned on Friday what he described as
attempts to stage a military coup in Armenia.
“[Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinian is already in a situation where the people
could achieve his resignation. But if they are talking about a direct overthrow
of the government then our position is clear: we are against such steps,” he
said, according to the Anadolu news agency.
“Turkey opposes any coups, including in Armenia,” added Erdogan, who himself was
nearly overthrown by Turkish army units in 2016.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made similar comments on Thursday.
“It is unacceptable when the military demands the resignation of an elected
government,” he said. “So we condemn the coup attempt in Armenia.”
Erdogan and Cavusoglu clearly referred to an unprecedented statement by the
Armenian military’s top bass that accused Pashinian of misrule and demanded his
resignation. The statement also charged that Pashinian has put Armenia “on the
brink of collapse” after the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The prime minister rejected the demand as a coup attempt. By contrast, Armenian
opposition forces voiced support for the military.
Turkish leaders have rarely commented on domestic political developments in
Armenia in the past.
Ankara shut down the Turkish-Armenian border in 1993 and has refused to
establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan out of solidarity with Azerbaijan.
During the six-week Karabakh war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on
November 10, Ankara supported the Azerbaijani army with weapons and expert
advice. It also reportedly recruited thousands of Syrian mercenaries and sent
them to fight on the Azerbaijani side.
U.S. Warns Armenian Military Not To Meddle In Politics
• Heghine Buniatian
U.S. -- U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price speaks during a press briefing
at the State Department in Washington, February 8, 2021
The U.S. State Department has warned Armenia’s armed forces to stay out of
politics but stopped short of calling their demands for Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s resignation a coup attempt.
The department spokesman, Ned Price, said late on Thursday that the United
States is “very closely” monitoring political developments in Armenia.
“We urge all parties to exercise restraint and to avoid any escalatory or
violent actions,” Price told a daily news briefing in Washington. “We remind all
parties of the bedrock democratic principle that states’ armed forces should not
intervene in domestic politics.”
“The United States has been a steadfast supporter of the development of
democratic processes and institutions in Armenia. We continue to support
Armenia’s democracy and its sovereignty, and we urge its leaders to resolve
their differences peacefully while respecting the rule of law, Armenia’s
democracy, and its institutions,” he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan issued a similar statement earlier on Thursday amid
mounting political tensions in the country.
In an unprecedented statement, the Armenian military’s top brass demanded the
resignation of Pashinian and his government, accusing them of putting Armenia
“on the brink of destruction” after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinian
rejected the demand as an attempt to stage a military coup.
Price made clear that the military’s actions have so far not met Washington’s
definition of a coup d’etat.
“As you know, the Department of State has a process to determine whether a coup
has transpired … Of course, there has been no such determination in this case,”
he said.
Unlike Pashinian, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian did not describe the
military’s demands as a coup attempt. Also, Sarkissian was in no rush to sack
the chief of the army’s General Staff, Onik Gasparian, and planned on Friday to
meet the latter as part of his efforts to de-escalate the political situation.
Pro-Government Majority Blocks Parliament Debate On Political Crisis
• Naira Nalbandian
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Opposition leader Vazgen Manukian addresses supporters blocking a
street adjacent to the Armenian parliament building in Yerevan, February 26,
2021.
The leadership of Armenia’s parliament continued to block on Friday an emergency
debate on the deepening political crisis in the country demanded by opposition
lawmakers.
The parliamentary groups of the opposition Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and Bright
Armenia (LHK) parties collected enough signatures to force such a debate.
Under Armenian law, the session can go ahead after its agenda is approved by the
parliament’s leadership. Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan and other senior lawmakers
affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s My Step bloc twice declined to
show up for leadership meetings on the opposition initiative.
BHK and LHK representatives accused them of being unwilling to address the
political crisis aggravated by the Armenian military’s demands for the
government’s resignation.
Pashinian rejected the demands as a coup attempt as he rallied thousands of
supporters in Yerevan on Thursday.
An alliance of more than a dozen opposition parties, including the BHK, staged
rival demonstrations to voice support for the military.
Supporters of the Homeland Salvation Movement alliance blocked on Thursday a
major street adjacent to the parliament compound and remained camped there on
Friday. Riot police did not attempt to unblock Marshal Bagramian Avenue.
Leaders of the alliance said they will continue nonstop protests until Pashinian
agrees to step down and hand over power to an interim government. One of them,
Vazgen Manukian, urged Armenia’s police, National Security Service and other
state bodies to “join the army and issue similar statements.”
Manukian addressed protesters before they again marched through the city center
to reiterate the opposition demands.
The protesters also urged President Armen Sarkissian to reject Pashinian’s
motion to fire Armenia’s top army general, Onik Gasparian.
Armenia - President Armen Sarkissian meets with leaders of the opposition
Homeland Salvation Movement, .
Later in the day, Sarkissian held separate meetings with Mirzoyan and
parliamentary leaders of My Step, the LHK and the BHK as well as other
opposition figures. The presidential press office said they discussed ways of
“easing the tensions and peacefully resolving the situation.” It gave no details.
As well as ruling out his resignation, Pashinian on Thursday offered to start
“political consultations” with the opposition to end the crisis sparked by
Armenia’s defeat in the autumn war with Azerbaijan. But he sent conflicting
signals about his readiness to hold snap parliamentary elections.
A senior BHK lawmaker, Arman Abovian, said his party has received no negotiation
offers from Pashinian and is skeptical about the success of such talks. Still,
he did not exclude the possibility of discussing “technical” details of
elections with the authorities.
For his part, LHK leader Edmon Marukian indicated that while his party, which is
not part of the Homeland Salvation Movement, also wants Pashinian to step down,
it would not boycott a snap vote organized by the current government.
Russia Denies Pashinian’s Iskander Missile Claim
RUSSIA -- Iskander missile system is displayed at the "Army 2017" International
Military-Technical Forum outside Moscow, August 23, 2017
Russia has officially denied Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s claim that the
Armenian army’s most advanced Russian-made missiles seriously malfunctioned
during the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Earlier this week, Pashinian responded to former President Serzh Sarkisian’s
claim that the army failed to adequately use its Iskander missiles against
advancing Azerbaijani troops because of wrong government orders.
Pashinian said they were fired but “did not explode or exploded by 10 percent.”
He also suggested that the sophisticated missile system might be outdated.
Pashinian’s remarks provoked a storm of criticism from Russian pro-government
lawmakers and pundits. They accused him of incompetence and deceit.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that it was “bewildered and
surprised” by the remarks. The chief ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said
Moscow has “objective and credible” evidence that the Armenian army did not fire
any Iskander missiles during the six-week hostilities stopped by a
Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.
“The entire stockpile of the missiles remains in arms depots of Armenia’s Armed
Forces,” Konashenkov said in televised remarks.
“In all likelihood, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian was misled, as a
result of which he used inaccurate information,” added the official. He insisted
that the Iskander is the best weapon of its kind in the world.
RUSSIA -- Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov attends a
bbriefing in Moscow, August 30, 2017
With a firing range of up to 500 kilometers, the Iskander is known for its
precision and ability to overcome modern missile defense shields. Russia
supplied such systems to Armenia in 2015.
On Wednesday, several Armenia media outlets quoted the first deputy chief of the
Armenian army’s General Staff, Tiran Khachatrian, as also refuting Pashinian’s
claim. Khachatrian was sacked later on Wednesday.
In a statement issued the following morning, the army’s top brass strongly
condemned the sacking, accused Pashinian’s government of incompetence and
misrule and demanded its resignation. The prime minister responded by accusing
the military of attempting to stage a coup d’etat and moving to fire the chief
of the General Staff, Onik Gasparian.
Armenian opposition groups campaigning for Pashinian’s resignation voiced strong
support for the military.
Later on Thursday, Pashinian phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss
the deepening political crisis in Armenia.
Armenian Human Rights Activists Say Attack On RFE/RL Crew Results From Impunity
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia-Lawyers and human rights activists Zhanna Aleksanian and Nina
Karapetiants, 24Feb2021
One of the reasons for the attack against the crew of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
(Azatutyun) was that no one gets to be held accountable for obstructing the work
of journalists and using violence against them, human rights activists and
representatives of media organizations say.
On February 23, a group of people participating in an opposition Homeland
Salvation Movement march demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian attacked RFE/RL Armenian Service journalist Artak Khulian and
cameraman Karen Chilingarian, kicking them and using abusive language against
them.
In recent months RFE/RL’s Armenian Service has periodically become the target of
attacks during opposition rallies, and on the night of the riots on November 10
that followed the signing of a Russian-brokered trilateral statement putting an
end to six weeks of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, several dozen people,
including members of the nationalist ARF Dashnaktsutyun party, attacked the
office of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in Yerevan.
Earlier on February 23, a cameraman of Sputnik Armenia was injured during a
police operation. Other media have also been attacked during this period.
Human rights activist Nina Karapetiants believes the attacks may have more
serious consequences. “This is very alarming. This violence may lead to much
more serious consequences,” she said.
Karapetiants said she does not understand the logic of the attack on the RFE/RL
Armenian Service crew, as the journalists were covering the opposition protest
live, therefore, the purpose of the actions remained unclear to her.
“Citizens mostly do not have enough information to come to such a conclusion
[for attacking]. The [hate speech] generation that comes from the podium, from
the so-called opposition, the rhetoric, the attitude, including a personified
attitude towards individuals, structures, news sites, could not but lead to
this. But there is another aspect to this. Authorities also allow such
unacceptable aggressive manifestations towards journalists of websites, even if
many do not like them [journalists, websites] and even if for many they are
unacceptable,” Karapetiants said.
Zhanna Aleksanian, the head of the Journalists for Human Rights NGO, reminded
that in 2016 during the seizure of a police compound in Yerevan by a fringe
opposition group, the police used force against journalists, as a result of
which many were injured; a criminal case was opened then, but after the 2018
'velvet revolution' the case was closed. Aleksanian said that if the current
government treats such cases so easily, why, in this case, all this should not
continue.
“It is accepted in Armenia: violence is not punishable, and this government
treats it with ease. Now every day we hear calls for violence, we hear about
cases of violence. And it is clear that journalists and human rights activists
also become targets, and there is no reaction from the authorities,” Aleksanian
said.
Aleksanian said she believes that if those who attacked the office of RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service on November 10 had been punished, the February 23 incident
would not have happened. “In general, the prosecutor’s office has its own,
personal approaches when it comes to opening a case, this is an arbitrary
approach… This is the reason why this violence continues,” the human rights
activist said.
Head of the Freedom of Information Center Shushan Doydoyan also stressed that no
one in Armenia has ever been duly brought to account for violence against
journalists.
“For 10 years we were proudly saying that it is good that journalists are no
longer harassed in the streets and that disputes have moved to courts where
disgruntled citizens can sue journalists and try to solve their problems with
media or journalists using the legal mechanism. Now, unfortunately, it seems
that everything is moving back to the streets again, which can have a very
negative impact on the status of press freedom in Armenia as a whole,” Doydoyan
said.
Doydoyan also considers the accusations of politicians against journalists to be
problematic, for example, the allegations that journalists are bribe-takers and
write articles only by order.
Responding to a question about violence against RFE/RL’s Armenian Service,
Vazgen Manukian, a candidate for prime minister from the opposition Homeland
Salvation Movement, said on February 24 that he is against violence against
journalists, but stressed that he does not believe that the attack against
RFE/RL’s crew was for no reason.
“I do not accept any violence against a journalist, regardless of whether I like
this journalist or the company or not,” said Manukian.
The attack on the RFE/RL Armenian Service crew was also condemned by a dozen
journalistic organizations in Armenia. They demanded that the police exclude any
obstruction to the work of journalists, and demanded that political groups
organizing protests send a clear message to their supporters and followers about
the inadmissibility of aggression and intolerance towards the media.
The attack against RFE/RL’s Armenian Service was also condemned by the
Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, which called for a
transparent and independent investigation of the case.
The Office of Armenia’s Prosecutor-General told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that
it was probing the February 23 attack on the RFE/RL Armenian Service reporter
and cameraman.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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