Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Tsarukian’s Party Again Rules Out Coalition Deal With Pashinian
June 16, 2021
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukian speaks at an election
campaign rally in Aragatsotn province, June 15, 2021.
Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) reiterated on Wednesday that it
would not join a possible coalition government led by Nikol Pashinian after
Sunday’s general elections.
“Cooperation with Pashinian is out of the question,” a senior BHK
representative, Iveta Tonoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service during an election
campaign rally held by the opposition party in Vanadzor.
“The party is not discussing the possibility of any other coalition because
Prosperous Armenia is participating in the elections with a determination to win
and nominate Gagik Tsarukian’s candidacy [for the post of prime minister,]” she
said.
Pashinian and his Civil Contract party will have to look for coalition partners
if they fail to win a majority of seats in Armenia’s next parliament.
Tsarukian already stated late last month that he will not strike any
power-sharing agreements with Pashinian as a result of the upcoming elections.
He did not comment on the possibility of reaching a coalition agreement with
other major opposition forces participating in the snap polls.
The BHK came in a distant second in the last parliamentary elections held in
December 2018, winning 8.3 percent of the vote.
Tsarukian did not discuss internal political issues in his speech delivered at
the Vanadzor rally. Instead he again focused on socioeconomic and national
security issues.
The tycoon renewed his calls for further deepening Armenia’s ties with Russia
through a new bilateral “military-political” accord.
Tsarukian demanded Pashinian’s resignation in June last year, accusing the
Armenian prime minister of incompetence and misrule. Shortly afterwards he was
controversially prosecuted on that he sees as politically motivated charges. He
was arrested in September but freed on bail almost one month later.
Like other opposition groups, the BHK has blamed Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat
in the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh and demanded his resignation. It joined
late last year a grouping of opposition parties that staged street protests in a
bid topple the prime minister.
Kocharian Wants Stronger Russian Military Presence In Armenia
June 16, 2021
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian speaks at a campaign rally in
Armavir, June 14, 2021.
Russian should beef up its military presence in Armenia to counter the “Turkish
expansion” into the South Caucasus, former President Robert Kocharian said on
Wednesday.
“As well as rebuilding our armed forces we must also try to modernize the
Russian military presence here,” Kocharian, who now leads an opposition alliance
running in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, said during a campaign trip to
northwestern Shirak province bordering Turkey.
“This can and must be done especially considering ongoing developments in this
region,” he told supporters in the town of Artik. “We can see Turkey’s growing
role, it’s very obvious. And it’s also obvious that … the only country that can
deter the Turkish expansion is Russia.”
“For that reason, we need to start a very serious process with Russia to
strengthen their military presence here,” he said.
The Russian military presence has already been expanded following last autumn’s
Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia has specifically deployed
soldiers and border guards in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province to help the
Armenian military defend the region against possible Azerbaijani attacks.
Syunik borders Iran as well as districts southwest of Nagorno-Karabakh which
were retaken by Azerbaijan during and after the six-week war stopped by a
Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.
Armenia - Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin talks to Russian
soldiers deployed to Syunik, June 3, 2021.
Turkey provided crucial military and political support to Azerbaijan during the
fighting.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan underlined the very close ties between
the two states when he visited the Azerbaijani-controlled Karabakh town of
Shushi (Shusha) on Tuesday. Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev
signed there an agreement on “mutual military assistance.”
Earlier this year, Kocharian described Turkey as the number one security threat
to Armenia. He also made a case for his country “deeper integration” with
Russia, saying that only Moscow can help Armenia rebuild its armed forces.
“Along with the Russian military base [in Armenia] we must also increase our
weight and military might so that they reckon with us more,” the 66-year-old
ex-president, whose Hayastan bloc is one of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
main election challengers, said on Wednesday.
“We used to be a factor but have now become an appendage. We must do everything
to again become a factor in the region,” he said.
Pashinian has also vowed to deepen Russian-Armenian ties. He stated in April
that the Russian military presence is vital for Armenia’s national security and
should become stronger soon.
Ex-President’s Nephew Sentenced
June 16, 2021
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Narek Sarkisian is escorted by police officers at Yerevan airport
after being extradited from the Czech Republic, December 21, 2019.
A court in Yerevan on Wednesday convicted a nephew of former President Serzh
Sarkisian of illegal arms possession and drug trafficking and sentenced him to
five and a half years in prison.
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 there a year later.
Sarkisian pleaded guilty to the accusations when he went on trial last month. He
asked the presiding judge to conduct the trial under a so-called “accelerated
procedure” that does not involve questioning of witnesses and examination of
evidence presented by prosecutors.
One of his lawyers, Artur Pirvazian, said they will appeal against the verdict
because prosecutors altered the charges brought against his client after his
extradition to Armenia. Pirvazian claimed that the prosecutors had no right to
do that without Czech authorities’ permission.
The lawyer also said that if the prison sentence is upheld by higher courts
Sarkisian will remain in prison for only three and a half years because of
having already been under arrest for a total of two years.
Armenia’s Court of Appeals released Sarkisian from custody on bail last
November. The higher Court of Cassation overturned that ruling and allowed
investigators to send him back to jail in April.
Opposition Party Hopes For Hung Parliament
June 16, 2021
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Bright Armenia Party leader Edmon Marukian speaks at a campaign rally
in Vanadzor,June 16, 2021.
Edmon Marukian, the leader of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (BHK),
insisted on Wednesday that it would not cut a separate power-sharing deal with
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian or former President Robert Kocharian as a result
of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
Marukian said the LHK could only join a “government of national unity”
comprising all forces to be represented in Armenia’s next parliament.
“Our objective is to achieve a government of national unity,” he told supporters
at a campaign meeting in his hometown of Vanadzor.
“The balance of forces will depend on your voting,” he said. “No political force
must get more than 20-25 percent of votes. In that case we would be able to
proportionately form the government of national unity.”
“We rule out [separately] joining any of those two forces,” Marukian added,
referring to Pashinian’s Civil Contract Party and an opposition bloc led by
Kocharian.
The LHK leader deplored bitter accusations and threats traded by Pashinian and
Kocharian and another ex-president, Serzh Sarkisian, during the ongoing election
campaign. He said both sides are ignoring grave security and economic challenges
facing Armenia.
“For several days running, apart from speaking of violence, the incumbent prime
minister has been campaigning with a hammer,” complained Marukian. “Serzh
Sarkisian has said that he will bang a truncheon on the head of anyone attacking
him with a hammer, while Robert Kocharian had said earlier that he is inviting
[Pashinian] to a duel.”
“Dear compatriots, you must evaluate the behavior of these people,” said, adding
that such rhetoric could lead to post-election violent clashes between
supporters of the rival camps.
Marukian’s LHK is one of the two opposition parties represented in the outgoing
Armenian parliament. It garnered 6.4 percent of the vote in the last elections
held in 2018. Some observers believe that the party will struggle to clear the 5
percent vote threshold for remaining represented in the National Assembly this
time around.
In the current parliamentary race Marukian and his associates are positioning
themselves as a viable alternative to both the current government and the
ex-presidents’ blocs.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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