RFE/RL Armenian Report – 02/11/2022

                                        Friday, 


U.S. Envoy Reveals Meeting With Armenian Opposition Lawmakers


Armenia - U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy speaks with journalists, September 15, 
2021.


The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said on Friday that Ambassador Lynne Tracy met with 
Armenian opposition lawmakers earlier this week to “hear their concerns 
regarding recent judicial and political developments.”

“The Ambassador stressed U.S. support for Armenia’s democratic trajectory,” the 
embassy wrote on Twitter.

It did not name the deputies who met with Tracy. It said only that they are 
affiliated with the main opposition Hayastan bloc.

The bloc headed by former President Robert Kocharian did not issue any 
statements on the meeting held on Wednesday.

Hayastan and the other parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, issued a 
joint statement on February 3 strongly condemning criminal proceedings launched 
against a judge who freed a well-known opposition figure on January 26.

The judge, Boris Bakhshiyan, was arrested on Monday on charges stemming from 
another decision made by him recently. He rejects them as government 
retribution. Armenia’s Union of Judges and outgoing human rights ombudsman, 
Arman Tatoyan, have also deplored Bakhshiyan’s arrest.

In their statement, Hayastan and Pativ Unem demanded that the international 
community react to the “collapse of democracy in Armenia” and be “conscious of 
their share of responsibility.”


Armenia - Opposition supporters protest outside the EU Delegation office in 
Yerevan, .

In recent months, representatives of the two opposition groups have repeatedly 
accused Western powers of turning a blind eye to what they see as government 
crackdowns on opposition figures and independent-minded judges.

U.S. and European Union officials have not publicly echoed the Armenian 
opposition concerns. They regularly voice support for “reforms” promised or 
implemented by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration.

On Thursday, Tracy met with Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Artur Davtian. She 
stressed, among other things, “the importance of judicial independence and 
integrity,” according to the U.S. Embassy.

The ambassador’s meeting with Davtian came the day after Pashinian’s Civil 
Contract party pushed through the Armenian parliament last-minute legal 
amendments that will make it easier for law-enforcement authorities to indict 
and arrest judges.

Opposition lawmakers denounced the amendments as another blow to judicial 
independence.



Ex-Official Sees Few Benefits From Armenia’s Rail Link With Azerbaijan

        • Karlen Aslanian

Armenia - Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian at a cabinet meeting in 
Yerevan, 16Jun2016.


Armenia should not anticipate significant economic benefits from a planned rail 
link with Azerbaijan that could give it a new trade route to Russia, former 
Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian insisted on Friday.

“It will definitely not hurt, but it will not be a game changer given the 
structure of our economy,” Gabrielian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in an 
interview.

The two South Caucasus countries are due to establish transport links under the 
terms of a ceasefire that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and follow-up 
agreements also brokered by Russia. The agreements specifically commit Armenia 
to opening a transit road and railway that will connect Azerbaijan to its 
Nakhichevan exclave.

Armenia should in turn gain rail links with Russia, its main trading partner, 
and neighboring Iran via Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian regularly 
emphasizes this fact, predicting a massive boost to the Armenian economy.

“Shipping goods to Russia [by rail] through Baku doesn’t make much economic 
sense for us,” said Gabrielian, who served as deputy prime minister from 
2014-2018 and had held other senior positions in Armenia’s government and 
Central Bank since 1999. “This used to be our main trade route in Soviet times. 
But back then we transported metal ores and other heavy industrial output.”

“We don’t have such products [exported to Russia] now. Nor are we implementing 
large investment projects for which we need to import things from Russia,” he 
said.

Gabrielian argued that Armenian exports to Russia now mostly consist of 
beverages, prepared foodstuffs and fresh fruits and vegetables. It will be 
cheaper and quicker to deliver them through Georgia than Azerbaijan, he said.


Georgia - Armenian and other heavy trucks are lined up on a road leading to the 
Georgian-Russian border crossing at Upper Lars, 6May2016.

Most of Russian-Armenian trade, which totaled $2.6 billion last year, is carried 
out by trucks passing through the main Georgian-Russian border crossing at Upper 
Lars. Traffic through that mountainous pass is periodically blocked by bad 
weather, especially in winter months.

Gabrielian said that extensive road upgrades launched by the Georgian 
authorities in that area last year will eliminate this problem and make the 
Upper Lars road even more attractive to Armenian exporters and importers.

“So I don’t quite understand the economic rationale for that railroad,” added 
the 53-year-old economist, who is now the dean of the College of Business and 
Economics at the American University of Armenia.

Most Armenians appear to share this skepticism. According to a U.S.-funded 
opinion poll conducted late last year, only 5-6 percent of them think that the 
economic impact on their country of open borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey will 
be “definitely positive.”



Armenian Opposition To Boycott Karabakh War Inquiry

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Leaders of the opposition minority in the Armenian parliament talk 
during a failed session boycotted by the ruling Civil Contract party, Yerevan, 
November 15, 2021.


Armenia’s two main opposition forces have decided to boycott a parliamentary 
inquiry into the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, saying that it will be controlled 
by pro-government lawmakers and therefore cannot be objective.

The ruling Civil Contract party’s parliamentary group announced on Thursday the 
establishment of an ad hoc commission that will examine the causes of Armenia’s 
defeat in the war, assess the Armenian government’s and military’s actions and 
look into what had been done for national defense before the hostilities.

The parliamentary majority said it will appoint seven of the eleven members of 
the commission. The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs were offered to 
name the four other members.

Both blocs officially rejected the offer on Friday. In a joint statement, they 
argued that “the authorities cannot objectively investigate their own actions.”

“It is clear that the investigative commission will be engaged in staging the 
‘innocence’ of the authorities,” they said.

“Taking into account these and a number of other circumstances, the opposition 
Hayastan and Pativ Unem factions decided not to participate in the work of the 
investigative commission set up by the authorities,” added the statement.

Representatives of Hayastan and Pativ Unem said earlier that such a commission 
must be headed by an opposition lawmaker and that Civil Contract and the 
opposition must be equally represented in it.

Armen Khachatrian, a senior Civil Contract lawmaker, deplored the opposition 
boycott. “They are doing everything to question the legitimacy of the 
investigative commission,” Khachatrian told reporters.

“They are not interested in taking part in clarifying the objective reality,” he 
said. “They are interested in continuing to sling mud.”

Virtually all Armenian opposition groups hold Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
responsible for the outcome of the six-week war that left at least 3,800 
Armenian soldiers dead.

For his part, Pashinian has blamed former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh 
Sarkisian, who lead Hayastan and Pativ Unem respectively, for the defeat. 
Kocharian ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, while Sarkisian, his successor, lost 
power more than two years before the outbreak of the devastating war.



Court Extends Arrest Of Vanadzor Election Winner

        • Karine Simonian

Armenia - Former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon Aslanian at an election campaign meeting 
with voters in Vanadzor, November 23, 2021.


An Armenian court has extended the pre-trial arrest of the former mayor of 
Vanadzor who defeated the ruling Civil Contract party in a municipal election 
held in the country’s third largest city two months ago.

A bloc led by Mamikon Aslanian essentially won the election with about 39 
percent of the vote. Civil Contract party finished second with 25 percent, the 
most serious of setbacks suffered by it in local polls held in 36 communities 
across Armenia on December 5.

Aslanian was thus well-placed to regain his post lost in October. But he was 
arrested on December 15 on corruption charges rejected by him as politically 
motivated.

The court on Thursday allowed law-enforcement authorities to hold Aslanian in 
detention for two more months. His lawyers denounced the decision as baseless 
and said they will appeal it.

Prosecutors deny any political reasons behind the case. They claim that Aslanian 
illegally privatized municipal land during his five-year tenure.

Vanadzor’s new municipal council has still not been able to hold its inaugural 
session and elect the community head. Visiting the city earlier this week, 
Minister for Territorial Administration Gnel Sanosian downplayed the fact that 
it has had no mayor for over two months.


Armenia -- A street in Vanadzor, November 5, 2018.

Four other communities where Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party was defeated 
or failed to win outright on December 5 also remain in limbo.

In one such community comprising the town of Vartenis and surrounding villages, 
police cordoned off the municipal administration building in early January to 
prevent a local opposition figure, Aharon Khachatrian, from taking over as mayor.

Khachatrian was elected by 14 members of the 27-seat local council representing 
two opposition blocs. Armenia’s Administrative Court declared his election null 
and void last week following a lawsuit filed by the ruling party.

Khachatrian’s main ally was arrested shortly after the blocs led by two men 
reached a power-sharing agreement in December.


Armenia - Opposition supporters hold pictures of former Vanadzor Mayor Mamikon 
Aslanian and other arrested opposition members during a demonstration in 
Yerevan, December 17, 2021.

Opposition politicians and human rights campaigners in Yerevan have accused 
Pashinian of sabotaging the election of new heads of these communities to 
prevent them from falling under opposition control.

Arman Tatoyan, Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, similarly charged on December 
17 that opposition groups that did well there are being illegally pressured not 
to install their leaders or allies as mayors. Pashinian and his political allies 
deny this.

Last summer, the authorities also arrested the opposition-linked heads of four 
major communities of southeastern Syunik province. Two of them were set free in 
December after the Constitutional Court deemed their arrest illegal, saying that 
they were elected to the parliament and enjoy immunity from prosecution.

The two other Syunik mayors remain under arrest. A bloc led by one of them 
defeated Pashinian’s party by a wide margin in a local election held in October.


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