Tuesday, Pashinian’s Party Falls Short Of Two-Thirds Majority In New Parliament • Nane Sahakian Armenia - Former Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and senior members of his Civil Contract Party celebrate their election victory at a rally in Yerevan, June 21, 2021. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his Civil Contract party fell just short of winning a two-thirds majority in Armenia’s new parliament, the Central Election Commission (CEC) confirmed on Tuesday. According to the final results of the June 20 elections released by the CEC on Sunday, Civil Contract garnered about 54 percent of the vote. Two opposition alliances led by former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian trailed it with 21 percent and 5.2 percent respectively. The ruling party will control a significantly larger proportion of seats in the National Assembly thanks to the two dozen other election contenders that failed to clear the legal vote thresholds to enter the parliament. The latter will not be represented in the legislature despite polling a combined 20 percent of the vote. The CEC used a complex formula set by Armenian law to distribute the 107 seats in the new parliament. Civil Contract will have 71 seats, with the remaining 36 seats given to the two opposition forces. Kocharian’s Hayastan bloc will control 29 of them. The CEC chairman, Tigran Mukuchian, confirmed that Pashinian’s party will be one vote short of the two-thirds parliamentary majority required for amending the Armenian constitution, calling a referendum or impeaching the largely ceremonial president of the republic. Pashinian and his political allies have enjoyed such a majority in the outgoing Armenian parliament elected in 2018. The formula used for calculating the distribution of parliament seats includes a requirement that the opposition minority must control at least one-third of the National Assembly. The odd total number of the new parliament’s seats means that Pashinian’s party will get just under two-thirds of the seats. Vladimir Vartanian, a senior member of the outgoing parliament representing Civil Contract, complained about this fact, saying that the existing legal mechanism is flawed. Vartanian did not rule out the possibility of challenging it in the Constitutional Court. “I believe that a purely mathematical approach to this matter is not the best one,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Vartanian stressed at the same time that Pashinian’s political team will remain in a position to enact major laws that are defined as “constitutional bills” and need to be backed by at least 60 percent of the lawmakers. The opposition minority could block or at least delay their entry into force by asking the Constitutional Court to examine their conformity with the Armenian constitution. Kocharian said later on Tuesday that his bloc will have enough parliament seats to hold Pashinian’s administration in check and “achieve some of our goals.” Armenia To Join EU’s Common Aviation Area Armenia - Marshallers guide a plane that landed at Zvartnots international airport, Yerevan, January 15, 2021. The European Union announced on Tuesday that it will sign with the Armenian government later this year a deal that will further facilitate commercial flights between the EU and Armenia. The EU said its decision-making Council approved separate draft agreements with Armenia, Ukraine and Tunisia allowing the three countries to join the European Common Aviation Area, a single market for aviation services. “The three neighborhood agreements will remove market restrictions in relation to the EU’s neighboring countries and associate these countries with the EU’s internal aviation market, as they will adopt EU aviation standards and implement EU aviation rules,” it said in a statement. This will create “new opportunities” for airlines and travellers and “promote trade, tourism, investment and economic and social development,” said the statement. The Council also gave the green light to the signing of a similar deal with Qatar. “The four agreements are expected to be signed in autumn 2021,” the EU said, adding that they will have to be ratified by all of the bloc’s 27 member states. Armenia and the EU officially started negotiations on a Common Aviation Area agreement in April 2017. The EU Delegation in Yerevan said at the time that it will enable airlines to operate Armenia-EU routes “without any limitations.” Armenia’s former government lifted virtually all restrictions for European and other foreign carriers in 2013 when it liberalized the domestic aviation market. The South Caucasus country’s air traffic with the outside world grew rapidly in the following years, with more flight services launched between Yerevan and European cities. The current Armenian government managed to attract two low-cost European airlines in 2019. One of them, Ryanair launched flights to and from Yerevan in January 2020 while the other, Wizz Air, was due to follow suit in April 2020. However, the coronavirus pandemic forced both carriers to cancel the new flight services. In June 2020, the EU banned all seven airlines registered in Armenia from carrying out regular flights to EU member states, saying that they do not meet international safety standards. Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee downplayed the ban, arguing that only one local airline currently flies to Europe. At the same time the government agency pledged to take serious measures to address the EU concerns about flight safety. Armenian Governor Denies Political Sackings • Satenik Kaghzvantsian Armenia - Shirak Governor Hovhannes Harutiunian. The governor of Armenia’s northwestern Shirak province has denied allegations that he fired the directors of two local schools and a policlinic because they supported the main opposition Hayastan alliance in this month’s parliamentary elections. All three officials were sacked by the governor, Hovannes Harutiunian, in the run-up to the June 20 elections won by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. Both school principals said over the weekend that they have challenged Harutiunian’s decisions in court. Arpine Nikoghosian, who ran the provincial capital Gyumri’s School No. 38, claimed that she was fired because of being affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) Dashnaktsutyun is a key member of the opposition Hayastan bloc led by former President Robert Kocharian. The bloc finished second in the elections, according to their official results. Also dismissed were Karine Ghazarian, the principal of a school in the Shirak village of Geghanist, and Ayvaz Sukiasian, who managed Gyumri’s state Policlinic No. 1. They both declined to comment on their sackings. Ghazarian said only that she has asked a local court to annul her dismissal. Hovannes Asoyan, a Hayastan leader in Shirak, insisted that the three officials lost their jobs as a result of ongoing “political persecution” of the opposition group’s local activists and well-known supporters. Harutiunian, who is affiliated with the ruling party, denied that the sackings were politically motivated. “As regards dismissals and hiring of people, it’s a natural working process that cannot be linked to political processes,” the Shirak governor told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. Still, he did not clearly explain why he fired the two school principals and the policlinic chief. During the 12-day election campaign Pashinian pledged to “purge” the state bureaucracy and wage “political vendettas” against local government officials supporting the opposition. Shortly after the announcement of the election results, his chief of staff, Arsen Torosian, effectively demanded that elected heads of local communities supporting the opposition step down. Visiting Gyumri on June 23, Justice Minister Rustam Badasian said Pashinian’s administration is planning a “systemic vetting” of state officials. Armenian media outlets reported in the following days that several provincial governors are summoning pro-opposition village mayors and pressuring them to resign. One of those mayors claimed to have been beaten up inside the Lori provincial administration building moments after refusing to quit. Although the Lori governor, Aram Khachatrian, denied the assault, law-enforcement authorities launched a criminal investigation. The Hayastan leadership issued a statement last week condemning the pressure allegedly exerted on the local government officials as illegal. Biden Congratulates Armenians On ‘Successful’ Elections U.S. - US President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House on April 14, 2021 in Washington, DC, about the withdrawal of the remainder of US troops from Afghanistan. U.S. President Joe Biden commended Armenia on Tuesday for holding what he described as “successful” parliamentary elections on June 20. “Congratulations to the people of Armenia and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on successful parliamentary elections,” tweeted Biden. “Our partnership with Armenia is one of shared values and cooperation on democratic reform and conflict resolution -- we are committed to strengthening that partnership,” he said. The U.S. State Department issued a similar statement the day after the snap elections, which were called to end a serious political crisis caused by Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war with Azerbaijan. A department spokesman noted and welcomed a largely positive assessment of the Armenian authorities’ handling of the vote given by European observers. He also urged the Armenian opposition to accept the official election results that gave victory to Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. The two main opposition groups continued to reject the official results as fraudulent, however. They both are expected to ask the country’s Constitutional Court to overturn them. Former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan bloc, the official runner-up in the polls, has accused the European observers of turning a blind eye to violations which it said benefited the ruling party. Pashinian insisted on June 24 that the vote was free and fair. “We set a new standard,” he said. Pashinian’s office was quick to post Biden’s tweet on its website. It did not say whether the U.S. president has sent a formal congratulatory message to the Armenian premier. Armenia’s Central Election Commission reaffirmed its vote tally on Sunday. 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.