Friday,
Top Russian General Again Visits Armenia
Armenia - Colonel-General Sergei Istrakov (C), the deputy chief of the Russian
military’s General Staff, meets with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian,
Yerevan, .
A top Russian army general met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Friday
during a fresh visit to Armenia aimed at deepening Russia’s already close
military ties with its main regional ally.
Colonel-General Sergei Istrakov, the deputy chief of the Russian military’s
General Staff, and high-ranking Russian officers accompanying him arrived in
Yerevan earlier this week for further “staff negotiations” between the armed
forces of the two states.
Istrakov held separate talks with Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian and
his Armenian opposite number, Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian, on Tuesday and
Wednesday respectively.
According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, he discussed with Davtian the agenda
of the negotiations. The two generals also “mapped out the scale and directions
of the upcoming work,” the ministry said in a statement.
A Russian military delegation headed by Istrakov already held weeklong “staff
negotiations” with the Armenian army’s top brass in January. Harutiunian said
afterwards the talks were aimed at “assisting us in the reform and modernization
of Armenia’s armed forces.”
“A very serious emphasis was put on the military-technical component of the
matter,” the minister told the RIA Novosti news agency, referring to arms
acquisitions.
The Armenian government announced plans to further deepen Russian-Armenian
military ties shortly after the six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh stopped by a
Russian-brokered ceasefire last November. Moscow has since deployed troops in
Armenia’s Syunik province bordering districts southwest of Karabakh retaken by
Azerbaijan during and after the hostilities.
Yerevan requested additional Russian troop deployments along Armenia’s border
with Azerbaijan after Azerbaijani forces reportedly crossed several sections of
the frontier and advanced a few kilometers into Syunik and another Armenian
province, Gegharkunik, in May.
Pashinian’s press office said that the prime minister and Istrakov discussed,
among other things, “the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.” It gave
no details.
A statement by the office said they also talked about regional security and the
“agenda” of Russian-Armenian military cooperation praised by Pashinian.
Arrests Of Armenian Opposition Mayors Continue
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Goris Mayor Arush Arushanian.
Law-enforcement authorities arrested on Friday the elected heads of two more
communities of Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province affiliated with the main
opposition Hayastan bloc.
Four other local government officials were arrested earlier this month on
different charges condemned by the bloc as politically motivated.
The latest detainees run the Syunik communities comprising the towns of Goris
and Sisian and surrounding villages.
Goris’s Arush Arushanian, was remanded in pre-trial custody after being charged
with trying to buy votes ahead of the June 20 parliamentary elections.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) claims that Arushanian ordered the head
of a village close to Goris to provide financial aid to local residents who will
promise to vote for Hayastan. It says that the village chief, Lusine Avetian,
refused to do that.
Avetian herself was arrested about two weeks ago for allocating such aid from
the community budget to several villagers in May. The SIS says that the cash
handouts ranging from 100,000 drams to 220,000 drams ($200-$440) per person were
vote bribes.
Arushanian strongly denied the accusations when he spoke to journalists before a
Yerevan court allowed investigators to arrest him. He said the poverty benefits
approved by the local council were allocated on a regular basis and had nothing
to do with the elections.
“The law stipulates that every year sums equivalent to 5 percent of our budget …
must be provided to socially vulnerable families,” said Arushanian.
According to Arushanian’s lawyer, Armen Melkonian, the charges brought against
his client are based on Avetian’s “contradictory testimony.” Melkonian said he
will challenge the Goris mayor’s pre-trial detention in Armenia’s Court of
Appeals.
The head of the Sisian community, Artur Sargsian, was detained overnight by
another law-enforcement agency. The Investigative Committee charged him with
abuse of power and forgery of official documents.
One of the two other arrested Syunik mayors, Manvel Paramazian, ran the town of
Kajaran, while the other, Mkhitar Zakarian, headed a larger community comprising
the towns of Meghri and Agarak and nearby villages. Like Arushanian and
Sargsian, they are senior members of Hayastan.
The bloc led by former President Robert Kocharian finished second in the snap
elections won by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party. It has condemned the
arrests, saying that the Armenian authorities are trying to suppress the
country’s leading opposition force.
The arrested mayors were already charged with other crimes this winter. They
were among the heads of more than a dozen Syunik communities who issued in
December statements condemning Pashinian’s handling of the autumn war with
Azerbaijan and demanding his resignation.
Some of them encouraged supporters to disrupt Pashinian’s December visit to
Syunik. The prime minister faced angry protests when he finally toured Goris,
Agarak, Meghri and the provincial capital Kapan in May.
During the election campaign Pashinian vowed to wage “political vendettas”
against local government officials supporting the opposition.
U.S. Reaffirms Support For ‘Lasting’ Karabakh Settlement
• Astghik Bedevian
JORDAN -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken gives a press conference in the
Jordanian capital Amman,May 26, 2021
The United States has pledged to continue to seek a peaceful resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh together with Russia and France, the two other co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group.
In written comments to VOA’s Armenian Service, the State Department reaffirmed
U.S. support for “the Minsk Group Co-Chairs process.” It said Washington remains
committed to helping Armenia and Azerbaijan achieve a “lasting settlement to the
conflict” based on the principles of territorial integrity of states, people’s
right to self-determination, and non-use of force.
The three principles have been at the heart of peace proposals jointly made by
the U.S., Russian and French mediators since 2007.
The Karabakh conflict was on the agenda of U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken’s talks with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held in
Washington on Tuesday. Le Drian said they discussed “our joint action as
co-chairs of the Minsk Group to help achieve lasting peace between Armenia and
Azerbaijan.”
Blinken also discussed the conflict with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
in a phone call on Tuesday.
“The Secretary highlighted U.S. support for the Minsk Group Co-Chairs process
aimed at a lasting political settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” said
a State Department spokesman. “He encouraged Armenia to engage constructively at
the OSCE.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again insisted on Wednesday that Baku
“unilaterally” resolved the Karabakh dispute with its victory in the six-week
war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November. He said claims to the
contrary are “wrong and risky.”
Pashinian dismissed Aliyev’s claims on Thursday, pointing to a joint statement
issued in April by the U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the Minsk
Group.
The statement urged Baku and Yerevan to resume high-level negotiations on a
“comprehensive and sustainable” settlement. It said the mediators “reiterate
their proposal to organize direct bilateral consultations under their auspices.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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