Armenia Condemns Azeri ‘Trophy Park’
April 13, 2021
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - A session of the National Assembly, Yerevan,April 13, 2021
Armenia strongly condemned Azerbaijan on Tuesday for opening a special park in
Baku to display military equipment seized from Armenian troops during last
year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The “park of trophies” inaugurated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on
Monday features not only military hardware but also helmets of Armenian soldiers
killed in action and degrading wax mannequins of Armenian military personnel.
The public demonstration of these and other items is meant to underscore
Azerbaijan’s victory in the six-week war which Russia helped to stop on November
10.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry accused Baku of “dishonoring the memory of victims
of the war, missing persons and prisoners of war and violating the rights and
dignity of their families.”
“Azerbaijan is completely solidifying its position as a global center of
intolerance and xenophobia,” a ministry statement said, adding that the park
makes mockery of Aliyev’s calls for regional peace and stability.
Armenia’s human rights defender, Arman Tatoyan, decried the “clear manifestation
of fascism.” “This once again shows that we must not allow ourselves to be
numbed by Azerbaijan’s false pacifist programs,” he said.
The development also prompted uproar from senior members of the Armenian
parliament representing the ruling My Step bloc.
“We are dealing with a terrorist state,” one of them, Vladimir Karapetian,
declared on the parliament floor.
Opposition lawmakers seized upon the public display in Baku to again denounce
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s recent calls for a post-war normalization,
including through commercial projects, of Armenia’s relations with Azerbaijan
and Turkey.
Taron Simonian of the Bright Armenia Party said Yerevan should forget about
seeking “economic or other friendly relations with such a criminal regime.”
“I think we can end the discourse about whether Azerbaijan and Turkey are our
enemies. Yes, they are enemies, old enemies. Yes, they are barbarian states,”
said Arman Abovian, a deputy affiliated with another opposition party,
Prosperous Armenia.
Constitutional Court Refuses To Reinstate Opposition Lawmaker
April 13, 2021
Armenia - Naira Zohrabian, a senior member of the Prosperous Armenia Party,
holds a press conference, December 28, 2020
The Constitutional Court has refused to declare unconstitutional the recent
dismissal of the chairwoman of an Armenian parliament committee representing the
opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK).
The outspoken lawmaker, Naira Zohrabian, was replaced as head of the committee
on human rights in late December for what the parliament’s pro-government
majority described as offensive comments posted by her on Facebook.
In an apparent attack on hardcore supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian,
Zohrabian lambasted the “scum” which she said has taken over Armenia and is
responsible for its recent misfortunes. She said it must be disenfranchised and
even forcibly “educated” for the good of the country.
Deputies from Pashinian’s My Step bloc condemned Zohrabian, saying that she not
only insulted hundreds of thousands of Armenians but also called for them to be
stripped of their civil rights.
Zohrabian denied insulting anyone and claimed that My Step’s decision to strip
her of her parliamentary position is “political persecution” ordered Pashinian.
She went on to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The court ruled on Tuesday that her removal did not breach any constitutional
provisions guaranteeing political pluralism and freedom of expression. A
spokeswoman for the court, Yeva Tovmasian, said the ruling will be made public
later this week.
Zohrabian’s BHK has the second largest group in the current parliament. The
party led by businessman Gagik Tsarukian is part of an opposition alliance that
has blamed Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the recent war in Karabakh and
demanded his resignation.
Ex-President’s Nephew Arrested Again
April 13, 2021
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Narek Sarkisian is escorted by police officers at Yerevan airport
after being extradited from the Czech Republic, December 21, 2019.
A nephew of former President Serzh Sarkisian accused of illegal arms possession
and drug trafficking has been arrested again five months after being released on
bail.
Narek Sarkisian fled Armenia shortly before his family’s house in Yerevan was
searched by the National Security Service (NSS) in July 2018. The NSS claimed
that he asked one of his friends to hide his illegally owned guns, cocaine and
other drugs in a safer place.
Sarkisian reportedly produced a fake Guatemalan passport when Czech police
detained him in Prague in December 2018. He was extradited to Armenia and
immediately arrested a year later. The Armenian Court of Appeals agreed to grant
him bail last November.
Acting on an appeal lodged by prosecutors, the higher Court of Cassation
overturned the ruling and allowed investigators to send Sarkisian back to jail
late on Monday. It said that he spent more than a year on the run and could
again try to escape prosecution.
One of the suspect’s lawyers, Karen Mezhlumian, criticized the court’s decision
as unfair and biased on Tuesday.
Mezhlumian insisted that there are no grounds to hold his client in detention
because the latter has not gone into hiding or committed crimes and has attended
all sessions of his trial since being set free in November.
Narek Sarkisian has pleaded guilty to the accusations leveled against him.
Opposition Leader Rules Out Support For Pashinian’s Reelection
April 13, 2021
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with opposition leader Edmon
Marukian, December 29, 2020
Edmon Marukian, the leader of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK), on
Tuesday ruled out a power-sharing agreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
that would enable the latter to remain in power after snap general elections
expected in June.
Marukian said that the LHK, which is one of the two opposition parties
represented in Armenia’s current parliament, would also not join a coalition
government headed by former President Robert Kocharian, another major election
contender.
“During the election campaign we will be telling our people that we agreed to
these elections … not for the sake of Nikol Pashinian’s reelection,” he told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “What’s the point of holding the elections if he is
to get reelected?”
Asked whether his party could strike a post-election coalition deal with
Pashinian, Marukian said: “We rule out any coalition under the premiership of
Nikol Pashinian or Robert Kocharian.”
Marukian said that his party is open to other “compromise solutions” that would
not lead to Pashinian’s reelection as prime minister or Kocharian’s return to
power.
“We need to ensure that no political force has an outright majority in the new
parliament,” he stressed. “That’s the only way to ensure that nobody can be
single-handedly elected as prime minister.”
Pashinian has pledged to hold the elections in June to resolve a continuing
political crisis sparked by last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. He has
dismissed calls for his resignation made by virtually all opposition groups.
Kocharian said last week that he will lead an electoral alliance comprising at
least two opposition parties. The ex-president, who had ruled Armenia from
1998-2008, predicted earlier this year a “bipolar” parliamentary race, implying
that he will be Pashinian’s main challenger.
Marukian last week urged both Kocharian and Pashinian to drop out of the
unfolding race. He said Armenia needs to follow a “third path” represented by
his party.
Canada Bans Drone Technology Sales To Turkey Over Karabakh War
April 13, 2021
Nagorno-Karabakh -- An Armenian Defense Ministry photo that purportedly shows
fragments of a Turkish-manufactured combat drone shot down in Nagorno-Karabakh,
October 22, 2020.
Canada has formally banned the export of drone technology to Turkey, citing
“credible evidence” that it was used by Azerbaijan during last year’s war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Canadian government suspended export permits for such technology in early
October one week after the outbreak of large-scale fighting between Armenian and
Azerbaijani forces. It pledged to investigate reports that Turkish-manufactured
Bayraktar TB2 combat drones heavily used by the Azerbaijani army are equipped
with imaging and targeting systems made by L3Harris Wescam, a Canada-based firm.
“Following this review, which found credible evidence that Canadian technology
exported to Turkey was used in Nagorno-Karabakh, today I am announcing the
cancellation of permits that were suspended in the fall of 2020,” Canada’s
Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement issued on Monday.
“This use was not consistent with Canadian foreign policy, nor end-use
assurances given by Turkey,” Garneau said, adding that he raised his concerns
with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier in the day.
Cavusoglu reportedly criticized the embargo and urged Canada to reconsider it.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- An Armenian Defense Ministry photo that purportedly shows a
Turkish-manufactured combat drone shot down in Nagorno-Karabakh, October 20,
2020.
Armenia did not immediately react to Ottawa’s decision to scrap export permits
to Turkey altogether.
Yerevan had welcomed the suspension of such exports in October and urged other
Western countries to follow Canada’s example.
Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army claimed to have shot down several Bayraktar
drones during the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on
November 10.
The Armenian Defense Ministry released in late October photographs of what it
described as fragments of such unmanned aerial vehicles. One of the photos
purportedly showed a drone’s largely intact camera system.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- An Armenian Defense Ministry photo that purportedly shows
the camera system of a Turkish-manufactured combat drone shot down in
Nagorno-Karabakh, October 20, 2020.
“It was manufactured by the Canadian company Wescam in June 2020 and installed
on Bayraktar TB2 in September 2020,” a ministry spokeswoman said at the time.
Canada had first suspended export licenses for such equipment in 2019 during
Turkish military activities in Syria. The restrictions were then eased but
re-imposed during the Karabakh war.
According to exports data cited by the Reuters news agency, Turkey’s military
exports to Azerbaijan rose six-fold last year, with sales of drones and other
military equipment rising to $77 million in September 2020 alone. Most of the
purchased drones, rocket launchers, ammunition and other weapons were delivered
after July.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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