Friday, June 4, 2021 Tycoon Denies Link Between Pro-Government Stance, Business • Karlen Aslanian Armania - Businessman Khachatur Sukiasian speaks to RFE/RL, Yerevan, June 4, 2021. A wealthy businessman insisted on Friday that he is running for parliament on the ruling Civil Contract party’s ticket to help Armenia’s current government stay in power and continue its policies, rather than increase his fortune. The businessman, Khachatur Sukiasian, is fifth on Civil Contract’s list of candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Another prominent entrepreneur, Gurgen Arsenian, occupies 14th position on the list. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian repeatedly pledged to separate business from politics shortly after coming to power in May 2018. He declared that wealthy Armenian entrepreneurs no longer need to hold parliament seats in order to protect and expand their assets. In an interview with told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Sukiasian denied any contradiction between his participation in the elections and Pashinian’s statements. He said the prime minister referred to corrupt government officials who had enriched themselves while in office “at the expense of business owners.” Sukiasian also ruled out any potential conflicts of interest arising from his current political activities. “To be honest, I have not engaged in business since 2005,” he claimed. “I have mostly engaged in analyses. But of course, I’m a business owner.” “I thought a lot about whether or not to run [in the elections,]” said Sukiasian. “The number one [motive] was always this: so that there is a stable [parliamentary] majority and Armenia follows the same path for several more years.” He said he also wants to prevent Armenia’s former rulers from returning to power as a result of the snap elections scheduled for June 20. Sukiasian, 59, became one of the country’s richest men during the 1991-1998 rule of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian. He was reputedly close to some key members of Ter-Petrosian’s administration at the time. The tycoon openly backed Ter-Petrosian in a disputed February 2008 presidential election in which the ex-president was the main opposition candidate. He fled Armenia in March 2008 to escape arrest on charges stemming from post-election violence in Yerevan. He returned to the country in 2009 and rarely criticized then President Serzh Sarkisian in the following years. Arsenian, the other tycoon allied to Pashinian, led a small pro-government party and held a parliament seat in the 2000s when Armenia was ruled by Robert Kocharian, Sarkisian’s predecessor. Opposition blocs led by Kocharian and Sarkisian are among the main opposition forces challenging Pashinian and his party in the current parliamentary race. Kocharian’s Bloc Opens Hundreds Of Campaign Offices • Artak Khulian Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian (C) and other leaders of the newly established Hayastan alliance march through the center of Yerevan, May 9, 2021. An opposition alliance led by former President Robert Kocharian on Friday claimed to have opened about 800 campaign offices across Armenia for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Armen Gevorgian, the Hayastan (Armenia) alliance’s top campaign manager, said they will report to regional campaign headquarters also opened by the bloc. Kocharian and two opposition parties allied to him set up Hayastan on May 9 one day before the snap polls were formally scheduled for June 20. The bloc is expected to be one of the main challengers of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his Civil Contract party. Although campaigning for the polls will officially start on June 7, all major election contenders have effectively launched their campaigns. In particular, Kocharian has been holding meetings with members and supporters of his bloc in various parts of the country. Gevorgian said that Hayastan will be holding both indoor and outdoor rallies in the coming weeks. “Strangely enough, our supporters prefer indoor meetings which allow them to directly communicate with alliance representatives and leaders in a question-and-answer format,” Gevorgian told a news conference. Aram Vardevanian, Hayastan’s campaign spokesman, strongly denied allegations by some government loyalists that Kocharian’s bloc is getting ready to hand out cash to voters. He said it has alerted law-enforcement authorities about groups of government-linked “provocateurs” reportedly offering to buy votes on behalf of the bloc. “We have nothing to do with vote buying, fraud or any other activity of this kind. We are the first to strongly oppose that,” he said. Vardevanian claimed that the Armenian government itself is trying to buy votes with additional economic aid allocated to mostly rural communities in recent weeks. He singled out a government announcement about mowers and similar agricultural equipment donated to five remote villages earlier this week. Vahagn Aleksanian, a spokesman for Pashinian’s party, denied any connection between the aid and the elections. “Let them count how many community projects have been subsidized by the state for the last three years preceding this pre-election period,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Aleksanian said he too has heard rumors about vote buying planned by Hayastan. But he acknowledged that he has seen no evidence in support of those claims so far. Armenian Lawmaker Admits Stealing Reporter’s Phone • Satenik Hayrapetian Armenia -- Parliament deputy Hayk Sargsian speaks with journalists, November 29, 2019. A controversial pro-government parliamentarian admitted on Friday stealing the mobile phone of an Armenian journalist who filmed him in a street in Yerevan. The incident occurred on Thursday after Anush Dashtents, a correspondent for the Hraparak daily, approached the 28-year-old deputy, Hayk Sargsian, and other persons standing outside an office of Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party. Dashtents said Sargsian got angry when she switched on the phone’s camera and began asking him questions about Russian-mediated talks on the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani border dispute. “He jumped on me like a tiger, took the phone and tried to delete [the video,]” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Sargsian got into a car and left the scene after failing to delete it on the spot, Dashtents said, adding that she got her phone back about an hour later. The lawmaker essentially confirmed this account and defended his actions, accusing Dashtents of violating his privacy. “I said, ‘I’m sorry but I don’t want to answer your question,’” he told reporters. “Then that woman kept asking me questions and holding the phone in front of my face, as a result of which I took the phone and deleted the clip filmed by her.” Sargsian said he afterwards willingly gave the phone back to the journalist through one of his colleagues. Dashtents disputed that claim, saying that he returned the phone only after she alerted a “well-known” member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team. The Armenian police launched a preliminary inquiry into the incident. Dashtents was summoned to the police for questioning. Obstruction of journalistic work is a criminal offense in Armenia. Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech believes that Sargsian’s behavior breached a relevant article of the Armenian Criminal Code. “A person who cannot [properly] socialize with journalists and media has no right to engage in politics,” said Melikian. “Since this is not the first incident of its kind I believe that the leadership of the parliament must draw conclusions and discuss and evaluate it.” Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, also condemned Sargsian’s behavior as illegal. Sargsian, who is affiliated with Pashinian’s party, is no stranger to controversy. Earlier this year he wrested the microphone from another reporter who tried to interview him in the parliament building in Yerevan. Sargsian, whose twin brother Nairi is an aide to Pashinian, caused greater uproar last July when he partied with dozens of other young people at an Armenian lakeside resort in violation of coronavirus safety rules set by the government. The police fined him and shut down the summer beach club at the time. Yerevan Praises Russian Role In Armenian-Azeri Border Talks • Gayane Saribekian Armenia -- Arsen Torosian, the newly appointed chief of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's staff, attends a meeting in Yerevan chaired by Pashinian, January 19, 2021. Russia is doing its best to broker a peaceful solution to a continuing border dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a top aide to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Friday. Moscow hosted renewed talks between Armenian and Azerbaijani military officials for that purpose on Wednesday. No agreements were announced after that meeting. Arsen Torosian, the chief of Pashinian’s staff, said Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations will continue “at the highest level” but did not give any dates or other details. “They will continue so that we reach the kind of a settlement about which we have repeatedly spoken,” he told journalists. “Azerbaijani army units must leave Armenia’s sovereign territory, and that will happen.” Torosian downplayed the apparent lack of concrete results achieved in the talks so far. “Time is needed to assess achievements,” he said. “There have been results in the sense that at the highest level there is a mutual understanding with our sole security partner, Russia, as to what solution there must be [to the border dispute.] They are making every effort to ensure that it happens without a single gunshot.” The Russian and Armenian defense ministers met in Moscow last week to discuss the border crisis. The Armenian Defense Ministry said they agreed on “necessary steps” to resolve it but did not elaborate. The crisis erupted after Azerbaijani troops reportedly crossed several sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border three weeks ago, triggering an Armenian military buildup there. Armenia - Armenian soldiers take up positions on the border with Azerbaijan, May 17, 2021. The Armenian Defense Ministry repeatedly threatened later in May to take military action to force them to pull back. However, Pashinian effectively ruled out the use of force even after one Armenian soldier was killed and six others captured by Azerbaijani forces last week. Pashinian proposed May 27 that both sides withdraw their troops from the contested border areas and let Russia and/or the United States and France, the two other countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, deploy observers there. In a joint statement issued the following day, the French, Russian and U.S. mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group backed the proposed troop disengagement. But they did not specify whether their countries support the idea of an international observation mission. Torosian could not say if any of the mediating powers is ready to send observers. “I’m not the official who receives those reactions and I can’t give a complete answer,” he said. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry effectively turned down Pashinian’s proposal earlier this week. Baku denies violating Armenia’s territorial integrity and maintains that its troops took up positions on the Azerbaijani side of the frontier. 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.