Friday,
Official Says Soviet-Era Military Maps ‘Temporarily’ Used At
Armenian-Azerbaijani Border
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Deputy Prime Minister Tigan Avinian during a visit to Armenia’s southern Syunik
province, January 29, 2021
Armenia and Azerbaijan are not engaged in the formal delimitation of their
borders, while border guards are being temporarily deployed according to
1975-1976 military maps, Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian said.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday, Avinian said that a
process of border delimitation and demarcation would require at least the
establishment of bilateral relations between the two neighboring nations that
waged a war over Nagorno-Karabakh last fall.
“These are legal processes. As such we do not have legally fixed borders with
Azerbaijan. For such processes, I think, we first need to have bilateral
relations, because these processes presuppose the establishment of at least
bilateral relations,” he said, adding that border delimitation and demarcation
are a long process requiring much effort.
The need for specifying borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan arose after the
two countries signed a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement last November
putting an end to a six-week war in which more than 6,000 people were killed.
Under the terms of the document called a trilateral statement, a chunk of
Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani
administration after almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.
The agreement also led to the deployment of around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers
along frontline areas and a land corridor connecting the disputed territory with
Armenia.
As Armenians withdrew from several districts it created an additional border
between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The matter, in particular, concerns Armenia’s
southern Syunik province and eastern Gegharkunik province.
In the interview Avinian again insisted that Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed
no other document besides the November 9 ceasefire agreement and the trilateral
statement signed in Moscow on January 11 this year.
“In any case, I am not aware of any such document. As for the agreements on the
Goris-David Bek section [of the road in Syunik], these agreements are with the
Russian side, and Russian border guards are stationed there on the basis of
these agreements,” the deputy prime minister explained.
Addressing the issue of Armenian captives in Azerbaijan, the official expressed
confidence that Armenia will achieve results in getting them released by Baku.
“The Russian Federation unequivocally shares our approach that all prisoners of
war and detained persons must be returned… And I am definitely convinced that we
will achieve results. I also want to emphasize that international pressure on
Azerbaijan in this regard is growing and will continue to grow,” Avinian said.
Armenian Constitutional Court Rules In Favor Of Kocharian
Former President Robert Kocharian greets supporters during his trial in Yerevan,
May 15, 2019.
Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Friday ruled that a penal code article under
which ex-President Robert Kocharian is being prosecuted does not comply with two
articles of the country’s basic law and is, therefore, invalid.
The ruling published by Constitutional Court Chairman Arman Dilanian says that
Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code that concerns “overthrowing the
constitutional order” runs counter to articles 78 and 79 of Armenia’s
constitution that deal with the principles of proportionality and certainty in
relation to restrictions of basic rights and freedoms.
Judge Dilanian said that the decision of the Constitutional Court is final and
comes into effect upon its publication.
The constitutionality of the penal code article was contested by Kocharian, who
faces up to 15 years in prison under the charge, as well as David Grigorian, a
lower court judge who ordered the former president’s release from pretrial
detention in May 2019, at the same time suspending the case and applying to the
Constitutional Court regarding the matter.
Kocharian’s lawyer Aram Vardevanian told media after the publication of the
ruling that since it comes into effect immediately, it means that there is no
longer Article 300.1 in the Criminal Code of Armenia.
“[Judge] Anna Danibekian will terminate the criminal prosecution under Article
300.1. By virtue of the decision of the Constitutional Court, all the acts that
referred to Article 300.1 are no longer in force and are subject to review
starting from 2009,” Vardevanian said.
The prosecution did not comment on the Constitutional Court’s ruling immediately.
To the question of journalists whether Judge Danibekian, who presides over the
trial of Kocharian and others, can resist it, Vardevanian said: “There is no
case for resisting here. There is no Article 300.1 in the Criminal Code anymore.”
Kocharian, his former chief of staff Armen Gevorgian and two retired army
generals stand accused of “overthrowing the constitutional order” in the wake of
a disputed presidential election held in 2008.
In particular, the matter concerns the alleged use by the Kocharian government
of the army to quell street protests.
Kocharian and the three other defendants deny that the military was used in the
dispersal of opposition demonstrations in which 10 people were killed.
They all reject the accusations as politically motivated.
Kocharian’s lawyers also find that since the article was not in the criminal
code in 2008, it could not be applied retrospectively against their client.
Kocharian was first arrested and indicted in July 2018, two months after the
“Velvet Revolution” that brought current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to power.
Since then Kocharian was twice freed and twice rearrested before the Court of
Appeals in June 2020 overturned a lower court judge’s decision to deny him bail
and ordered him freed.
Eventually, Kocharian was freed after paying a record $4.1 million bail set by
Armenia’s Court of Appeals.
In addition to charges related to the 2008 post-election crackdown Kocharian is
also accused of receiving a $3 million bribe from an Armenian entrepreneur when
he served as president in 1998-2008.
Ex-Police Chiefs Jailed For Murder Of Turkish-Armenian Journalist
Hrant Dink was a vocal proponent of better ties between Turkey and Armenia, but
had been convicted for writing about the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks during World War I.
(RFE/RL) An Istanbul court has handed life sentences to two former Turkish
police commanders and two top ex-security officers over the killing of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink 14 years ago.
Dink was gunned down in broad daylight on January 19, 2007, outside the Istanbul
offices of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, where he was the
editor. He was 53.
Dink had been an arduous proponent of reconciliation between Armenians and Turks
and was repeatedly prosecuted for insulting “Turkishness” over his comments on
Armenian identity and the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
After his killing, tens of thousands of people gathered in central Istanbul to
mourn.
Seventy-six suspects were facing charges including failing to uncover the plot
to kill Dink.
Istanbul’s main court on March 26 sentenced the city’s former police
intelligence chief, Ramazan Akyurek, and his former deputy, Ali Fuat Yilmazer,
to life in prison for “premeditated murder,” Agos reported.
Former top Interior Ministry officers Yavuz Karakaya and Muharrem Demirkale were
also sentenced to life in prison.
In 2012, ultranationalist sympathizer Ogun Samast, who was 17 at the time of the
killing, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for Dink’s killing.
Ali Oz, a former Interior Ministry commander of the Black Sea region of Trabzon
where Samast came from, was sentenced to 28 years in prison on March 26.
Charges against another top Istanbul police chief were dropped due to the
statute of limitation.
However, Dink’s supporters and human rights activists say the most senior police
officials have gone unpunished and want the investigation and trials to continue.
“Some of those responsible for this assassination, including the sponsors, have
still not been prosecuted,” said Erol Onderoglu, the representative in Turkey
for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who has closely followed the trial.
“This partial justice rendered after 14 years leaves a bitter taste and should
not mark the end of the search for the truth.”
The accused in the protracted trial included U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah
Gulen, whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for orchestrating a
coup attempt in 2016. Gulen has lived in the United States since 1999 and denies
any involvement in the failed coup.
The Istanbul court on March 26 ruled that Dink’s murder was committed “in line
with the objectives of Feto” -- an acronym Ankara uses for Gulen’s banned
movement, Turkey’s NTV reported.
Turkey claims Gulen’s network had widely infiltrated the country’s police and
other state institutions over decades.
The court did not rule on the case of Gulen and 12 other fugitives and instead
separated their cases.
During and immediately after World War I, as many as 1.5 million Armenians were
killed or deported from Anatolia. Many historians, Armenia, and more than 30
countries consider the killings to be genocide.
As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey objects to the use of the
word genocide.
Ankara says that about 500,000 Armenians died as a result of civil strife,
disease, and starvation rather than a planned Ottoman government effort to
annihilate them. Turkey also asserts that hundreds of thousands of Muslims died
in Anatolia at the time due to combat, starvation, cold, and disease.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa
Sarkisian Confirms Meeting Of Former Armenian, Karabakh Leaders
Former Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian (archive photo)
The office of Armenia’s former President Serzh Sarkisian has confirmed that a
meeting of former presidents of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh took place on March
25.
“The priorities stemming from issues of vital importance to Artsakh [the
Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh] and Armenia made it imperative to hold
regular discussions in that format during the last Artsakh war and in the
post-war period,” Sarkisian’s office said.
Earlier on Friday, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s spokesperson Arman
Musinyan also confirmed that former presidents of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh –
Levon Ter-Petrosian, Robert Kocharian, Serzh Sargsian, Arkady Ghukasian and Bako
Sahakian – met yesterday “to discuss the post-war situation in Artsakh and a
number of issues concerning possible further developments.”
The report about the meeting of former Armenian and Karabakh leaders comes amid
an announced meeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with his Armenian
counterpart Ara Ayvazian that is due to take place on April 2.
Maria Zakharova, an official representative of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, said that Lavrov will also meet with Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister
Jeyhun Bayramov.
Issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh and the South Caucasus region are expected to
feature prominently at the meetings.
Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian had a telephone conversation
with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
The Armenian premier’s press office, in particular, said that “the two leaders
addressed the process of the implementation of the provisions of the trilateral
statement of November 9, 2020.”
Russia brokered a truce agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan last November,
putting an end to six weeks of hostilities in and around Nagorno-Karabakh in
which more than 6,000 people were killed.
Under the terms of the document called a trilateral statement, a chunk of
Nagorno-Karabakh and all seven districts around it were placed under Azerbaijani
administration after almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.
The agreement also led to the deployment of around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers
along frontline areas and a land corridor connecting the disputed territory with
Armenia.
Judge In Fired Army Chief’s Case Turns To Supreme Justice Council
Colonel-General Onik Gasparian (archive photo)
A judge examining the case a fired army chief has turned to the Supreme Justice
Council (SJC), an independent body monitoring Armenian courts, reportedly
expressing his concern about possible pressure.
SJC Chairman Ruben Vardazarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday that
judge Mher Petrosian submitted his application on March 25 evening.
Petrosian, an administrative court judge, is examining a claim filed by
Colonel-General Onik Gasparian, who was dismissed from the post of Chief of the
General Staff of Armenia’s Armed Forces earlier this month.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian asked the president to sign his draft decree on
Gasparian’s dismissal after the chief of the Armed Forces’ General Staff and
four dozen other generals and high-ranking officers called for his resignation
over mishandling last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
President Armen Sarkissian twice refused to sign the draft decree, but did not
refer it to the Constitutional Court in due time either, thus paving the way for
Gasparian’s dismissal “by virtue of law,” a legal term used when decrees come
into effect due to procedures rather than an official’s signature or an official
body’s ratification.
Gasparian filed a lawsuit with an administrative court against the prime
minister and the president. On March 17, the court ruled that Gasparian shall
continue to be in his official capacity until his case is heard and a decision
on it is made.
On Thursday, however, it became known that citing incorrect grounds, the
administrative court did not accept the lawsuit of Gasparian regarding his
dismissal. Gasparian’s lawyer said the decision will be appealed at the Civil
Court of Appeal.
Vardazarian said that Petrosian expressed concern about possible pressure that
could be put on him, but did not refer to any specific case. The SJC head
declined to give details, but said that the SJC did not see “any grounds or real
threats to be concerned about.”
Some recent media reports suggested that National Security Service (NSS)
officers tried to enter the office of the judge after his decision was
published. They quoted the judge as saying that the NSS stopped its actions only
after he contacted the SJC.
Later, the SJC said that it forwarded a copy of Judge Petrosian’s letter to the
Prosecutor-General’s Office.
On March 18, the office of Armenia’s prime minister insisted that Gasparian was
no longer performing his duties as chief of the Armed Forces’ General Staff as
he had been dismissed from the post “by virtue of law.”
“The constitution does not provide for the possibility of revising an act that
entered into force by virtue of this constitutional norm,” it said.
Four days later, on March 22, Prime Minister Pashinian said that
Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian became the new chief of the General Staff of
the Armenian Armed Forces “by virtue of law” despite the fact that the president
twice refused to sign his appointment.
President Sarkissian did not refer Pashinian’s draft decree on Davtian’s
appointment to the Constitutional Court.
Armenia, Pan-Armenian Charity To Fund Housing Construction In Nagorno-Karabakh
A joint meeting of the Security Councils of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,
Yerevan,
Authorities in Yerevan have announced that a total of 110 billion drams (nearly
$210 million) in government and charity money will be spent on housing
construction and infrastructure projects in war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh.
The announcement was made during a joint meeting of the Security Councils of
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in Yerevan on Friday.
The meeting was chaired by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and
Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutiunian.
According to the office of the Armenian prime minister, Pashinian informed the
participants of the meeting about “productive discussion” with ethnic Armenian
officials from Nagorno-Karabakh that took place in Yerevan on March 25 and as a
result of which it was proposed to implement housing and infrastructure
construction programs in Nagorno-Karabakh at the expense of both government
money and the funds donated by Armenians from around the world to the
pan-Armenian Hayastan charity.
According to the report, the Armenian government suggested implementing the
projects through Hayastan, with 52 billion drams coming from government money
and 58 billion drams to be provided by the charity that raised the funds during
the latest fundraiser last fall.
“In other words, we will have a sum total of 110 billion drams, with which we
will implement housing and infrastructure construction programs. We have also
made several other decisions, by which we will implement not only the provision
of the roadmap that I published on November 18, 2020, that is, the restoration
of normal life in Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh], but also
development programs in Artsakh in order to have sufficient, high rates of
socio-economic development. I think that the decisions made yesterday can be a
very solid basis for ensuring these developments,” Pashinian said, adding that
today’s discussions would also focus on issues related to “the security
environment and strategic visions regarding the future.”
The need for large-scale housing construction in Nagorno-Karabakh arose after
last year’s six-week war with Azerbaijan in which tens of thousands of ethnic
Armenians were displaced from their homes. The armed conflict also resulted in
vast destruction in the region’s capital Stepanakert and other towns and
villages of the unrecognized republic that remained under Armenian control.
Under a Russia-brokered truce agreement, a chunk of Nagorno-Karabakh and all
seven districts around it were returned under Azerbaijan’s administration after
almost 30 years of control by ethnic Armenian forces.
The agreement also led to the deployment of around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers
along frontline areas and a land corridor connecting the disputed territory with
Armenia.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader Harutiunian said today that the
decision to allocate 110 billion drams for the restoration of housing and
infrastructure in the region will be of “key importance in solving humanitarian
issues and ensuring Artsakh’s further development.”
“We have already plans to build around 4,000 houses. In the coming months we are
going to develop projects for the construction of 2,000 more houses. In these
projects, we always take into account our current reality, at the same time
planning land allocations, providing further employment for residents, and
discussing modern models of cooperation,” the Nagorno-Karabakh leader concluded.
Azerbaijan regards Nagorno-Karabakh as its internationally recognized territory.
The ethnic Armenians who make up most of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population reject
Azerbaijani rule and had been governing their own affairs, with support from
Armenia, since Azerbaijan’s troops and Azeri civilians were pushed out of the
region and seven adjacent districts in a war that ended in a cease-fire in 1994.
Tsarukian Party To Take Part In Elections Separately
Gagik Tsarukian, the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (archive
photo).
The largest opposition party represented in the current Armenian parliament will
take part in the expected early parliamentary elections without forming any
alliances with other parties or groups, its representative said.
Naira Zohrabian, of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), which holds 23 mandates
in the 132-seat parliament, said during a news briefing on Friday that the BHK
will present a separate list of candidates for the elections expected to be
scheduled for June 20.
She said that BHK leader Gagik Tsarukian will top the party’s slate.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced early parliamentary elections
in Armenia after talks with Tsarukian on March 18.
The same day Edmon Marukian, the leader of the other opposition faction in
parliament, Bright Armenia, said he had a telephone conversation with Pashinian
and agreed to the date set for the elections.
The decision came amid street protests held by a coalition of 16 opposition
parties, including the BHK, demanding Pashinian’s resignation over the Armenian
defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh and the formation of
an interim government before snap elections could be held in a year’s time.
Pashinian has refused to hand over power to an interim government, indicating
that he will seek to reaffirm in snap elections that he and his political team
continue to enjoy popular support in Armenia.
In order to get the elections to be held on June 20 Pashinian will need to
resign at some point in late April and the parliament will need to twice fail to
elect a new prime minister within two weeks in order to be dissolved by virtue
of law.
Pashinian’s agreement with the opposition effectively means that neither the
BHK, nor Bright Armenia will field their candidates when the prime minister
resigns.
Speaking in parliament earlier this week, Pashinian said that his My Step
alliance wants to change the current electoral code before snap elections are
appointed.
According to the current election laws, candidates are elected to parliament
both on party lists and in individual races. The pro-Pashinian majority in
parliament suggests that the current mixed system be replaced with an
all-proportional ballot.
The BHK’s Zohrabian said today that their political party will participate in
the elections according to the electoral system that the parliament majority
adopts.
“As for the electoral system, it is the parliament majority that determines the
rules of the game here… For us it is much more important to have free and fair
elections in which no administrative resources will be used,” Zohrabian said.
Earlier, Bright Armenia also indicated that it will participate in the early
elections in any case. But its representatives have called on the parliament
majority not to change the electoral code before the elections.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.