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    Categories: 2022

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 02/15/2022

                                        Tuesday, 


Karabakh Soldier Wounded In Truce Violation


NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Armenian soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint on the road 
leading to Kalbacar, near the village of Charektar, November 25, 2020


Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijani forces of wounding a 
Karabakh Armenian soldier and also targeting local civilians in separate 
ceasefire violations on Tuesday.

Karabakh’s Defense Army said the conscript identified as Khachatur Khachatrian 
was hospitalized in serious condition after coming under Azerbaijani gunfire in 
the disputed territory’s “eastern border zone.”

The army said that it immediately alerted Russian peace keepers stationed in 
Karabakh about the incident.

“The situation at that section of the line of contact is stable at the moment,” 
it added in a statement.

According to the Karabakh authorities, the soldier was wounded less than an hour 
after Azerbaijani forces fired on farmers who cultivated land outside a village 
in eastern Karabakh close to the line of contact.

A statement released by the local prosecutor’s office said a tractor used by 
them was hit by the gunshots before Russian troops intervened to rescue the 
farmers.

The Azerbaijani government did not immediately comment on the incidents.

The authorities in Stepanakert have reported several such incidents in recent 
months. In October, a Karabakh farmer was shot dead while working in his orchard 
outside the town of Martakert. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed afterwards 
that he was killed “as a result of gunfire from the Azerbaijani side.”

Azerbaijani army units are also accused of regularly opening small arms fire at 
Karabakh villages close to the town of Shushi (Shusha) occupied by them during 
the 2020 war. A private house in one of those villages, Karmir Shuka, was 
damaged by Azerbaijani gunfire last week.

Karabakh officials say that such shootings are aimed at intimidating the 
territory’s ethnic Armenian population. Baku denies that.



Russian, Armenian FMs Discuss Ukraine Crisis


RUSSIA -- Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (left) meets with his 
Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, August 31, 2021


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat 
Mirzoyan discussed Russia’s continuing standoff with the West over Ukraine in a 
phone call on Tuesday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the two men engaged in a “detailed exchange of 
views” regarding “ongoing negotiations on security guarantees” demanded by 
Moscow from the United States and other Western powers.

“The importance of consistently upholding the principles of equal and 
indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic region was emphasized,” read a 
statement released by the ministry.

From Moscow’s perspective, “indivisible security” means that NATO must pledge 
not to admit Ukraine and to scale back its military presence near Russia’s 
borders. The U.S. and its NATO allies have rejected these demands amid growing 
fears of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine.

Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border but 
denies planning to invade the former Soviet republic.

Armenia, which has close political, military and economic ties with Russia, has 
not publicly taken sides in the conflict.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it is “closely monitoring 
developments in Ukraine.” It also indicated that Yerevan is not planning to 
evacuate Armenian diplomatic missions there.

Incidentally, the official Armenian readout of Mirzoyan’s call with Lavrov made 
no explicit mention of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It said they discussed the 
implementation of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow and 
Armenia’s normalization talks with Turkey.



Azerbaijan Vows To Arrest Karabakh Leader

        • Lusine Musayelian
        • Karlen Aslanian

Nagorno Karabakh - Arayik Harutiunian, president of Nagorno Karabakh, delivers a 
live video address from Stepanakert, November 10, 2020


The Azerbaijani authorities said on Tuesday that they intend to arrest and 
prosecute soon Ara Harutiunian, the Nagorno-Karabakh president.

“Harutiunian, who presents himself as the leader of a self-proclaimed regime, 
will be brought to justice by operational divisions and special services and 
intelligence agencies as quickly as possible,” a senior prosecutor, Nemat 
Avazov, told reporters in Baku.

He said that Harutiunian is wanted for his role in Armenian missile strikes on 
Azerbaijan’s second largest city of Gyanja carried out during the 2020 war over 
Karabakh.

The strikes, which reportedly left over two dozen civilians dead, followed 
relentless Azerbaijani shelling of Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert and other 
towns. The deadly shelling continued until Russia-brokered ceasefire stopped the 
six-week war in November 2020.

Karabakh’s foreign minister, Davit Babayan, condemned the Azerbaijani official’s 
statement.

“This is part of Azerbaijan’s terrorist policy,” Babayan told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service from Stepanakert. “This could be expected. There is nothing new here.”

“With such actions, Azerbaijan is trying to spread fear [in Karabakh,]” he said. 
“They may also try to somehow harm Artsakh (Karabakh) officials or attack them.”

The Azerbaijani authorities already issued international arrest warrants for 
Harutiunian, Babayan and other Karabakh Armenian leaders shortly after the war.

Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General condemned the move at the time, 
saying that it has “taken measures” to prevent them from being placed on 
Interpol’s most wanted list.

Harutiunian has repeatedly visited Russia since then. Babayan expressed 
confidence that Moscow, which deployed 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Karabakh 
right after the war, will not help Baku apprehend him.



Armenian Minister Wants Mass Sackings Of Judges

        • Narine Ghalechian

Armenia - Justice Minister Karen Andreasian gives a press conference,November 
30, 2021.


A state body overseeing Armenian courts must dismiss scores of judges this year 
as part of judicial reforms proclaimed by the government, Justice Minister Karen 
Andreasian said on Tuesday.

Andreasian implied that they should include judges who have signed in recent 
weeks statements accusing the Armenian authorities of seeking to curb judicial 
independence in the country.

“If the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) is up to the task, then I promise you 
that within a year the vetting [of judges] in Armenia will be over and we will 
have the kind of judicial system that you want,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service.

The SJC is a nominally independent body empowered to fire judges or allow their 
arrest and prosecution. Such decisions have until now had to be backed by at 
least seven of the SJC’s ten members.

Under a bill passed by Armenia’s government-controlled parliament last week, 
five members will be enough to give the green light to punishing judges. Critics 
say Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration will use the bill to step up 
pressure on independent-minded judges reluctant to execute government orders or 
to get rid of them altogether.


Armenia -- A court building in Yerevan, June 9, 2020.

Andreasian stood by his earlier claims that at least 40 of the country’s judges 
are “corrupt” and must go. But he did not name them or offer any proof of the 
allegations.

The minister said instead: “There is some clan-based sentiment [within the 
judiciary.] For example, 93 judges signed some statement. I’m not saying that 
they all are corrupt. But I can see that 10, 20, 30 names are repeated when 
there is another action [by judges.]”

The 93 signatories mentioned by Andreasian reportedly demanded last week that 
the chairwoman of Armenia’s Court of Cassation, Lilit Tadevosian, call an 
emergency conference of judges. Their appeal followed the arrest of one of their 
colleagues.

The arrested judge, Boris Bakhshiyan, has said that he is prosecuted in 
retaliation for granting bail to a jailed opposition figure late last month. The 
leadership of Armenia’s Union of Judges has also decried his detention.

Prosecutors insist that the accusations leveled against Bakhshiyan are only 
connected with another decision which he made during an ongoing trial presided 
over by him.


Armenia -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian block the entrance to a 
district court building in Yerevan, May 20, 2019.

In recent months, Armenian opposition groups, lawyers and some judges have 
repeatedly accused Pashinian’s government of seeking to increase government 
influence on courts under the guise of judicial reforms. The authorities deny 
this, insisting that the reforms are aimed at increasing judicial independence.

Pashinian demanded a mandatory “vetting” of all judges in 2019, saying that many 
of them are linked to the country’s former rulers. But his government 
subsequently agreed to refrain from such a purge at the urging of legal experts 
from the Council of Europe.

A new law enacted in 2020 introduced instead a “verification of the integrity” 
of judges which is carried out by a state anti-corruption body.

Andreasian sought to revive the idea of judicial “vetting” after being appointed 
as justice minister in August. He stated later in 2021 that the vetting process 
has already begun with the help of Gagik Jahangirian, a former prosecutor 
controversially installed as acting head of the SJC last April.

Andreasian complained on Tuesday that the process has been slow so far for a 
number of reasons, including objections from “European structures.”


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Andranik Taslakhchian: