Wednesday,
Karabakh Leaders Slam EU’s Michel
Nagorno-Karabakh - The main government building in Stepanakert, 8Jul2011.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership has accused European Council President Charles
Michel of undermining the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination after
the latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit hosted by him in Brussels.
Michel said early on Monday that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to “advance discussions” on a
comprehensive peace treaty between their countries. He said he told them that it
is “necessary that the rights and security of the ethnic Armenian population in
Karabakh be addressed.”
Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, on Wednesday described Michel’s
remarks are “extremely unacceptable.” He said they are at odds with the “demands
and aspirations of the Armenians of Artsakh (Karabakh)” based on their right to
self-determination.
Four of the five political groups represented in the Karabakh parliament,
including Harutiunian’s party, also denounced Michel in a joint statement
released late on Tuesday. They said the European Union’s top official
effectively portrayed Karabakh’s population as an ethnic minority not eligible
for independent statehood.
Pashinian downplayed Michel’s remark on Wednesday, saying that the EU leader
simply chose wording which he thought will satisfy both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Just how accurate it was is a subject of different discussion,” the prime
minister told the Armenian parliament.
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel meets with Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian ahead of an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Brussels,
May 22, 2022.
Harutiunian revealed that he met with Pashinian early this week to discuss the
results of Sunday’s summit. He said Pashinian assured him that he will not sign
any peace deals with Baku without consulting with the Karabakh leadership.
Pashinian caused uproar in Armenia and Karabakh after his previous meeting with
Aliyev held in Brussels on April 6. He declared that the international community
is pressing Armenia to scale back its demands on Karabakh’s status and recognize
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
He signaled Yerevan’s intention to make such concessions, fuelling more
opposition allegations that he has agreed to Azerbaijani control over Karabakh.
The authorities in Stepanakert also deplored that statement.
Faced with daily anti-government protests in Yerevan, Pashinian and other
Armenian officials have said in recent weeks that the question of Karabakh’s
status must be on the agenda of planned talks on the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace
accord. But they have not publicly clarified whether Yerevan will insist on the
principle of self-determination of peoples.
Armenian Opposition Keeps Up Protests
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate outside the presidential palace in
Yerevan, .
The Armenian opposition on Wednesday blocked more government buildings in
Yerevan and pledged to continue its daily street protests aimed at toppling
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Pashinian said, meanwhile, that the “civil disobedience” campaign launched by
the country’s leading opposition forces on May 1 has failed to attract public
support.
“This is not against the authorities anymore, this is against the public,” he
said of the protests involving blockages of major streets and government
buildings.
“They [the opposition forces] have the following logic: ‘You don’t join us, so
you should spend more time in traffic jams, we will cause you more
inconvenience,’” he added during the Armenian government’s question-and-answer
session in the parliament.
Pashinian addressed the National Assembly hours after opposition leaders and
their supporters blocked the entrances to the presidential palace and the
adjacent building of Armenia’s Security Council for nearly three hours. Riot
police pushed back back some of the protesters who tried to scale a fence
surrounding the palace.
President Vahagn Khachaturian, who was installed by the government-controlled
parliament earlier this year, was not in the building. He is currently attending
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Armenia - Opposition leader Ishkhan Saghatelian appeals to protesters outside
the presidential palace in Yerevan, .
The opposition launched the campaign after Pashinian indicated last month his
readiness to “lower the bar” on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh acceptable to
Armenia.” Opposition leaders say the premier is prepared to help Azerbaijan
regain full control over Karabakh.
“We have at least managed to thwart a timetable through which the authorities
planned to surrender the country,” one of them, Ishkhan Saghatelian, told
reporters on Wednesday.
Saghatelian said he remains confident that the opposition will succeed in
forcing Pashinian to step down. It will “keep up the tempo and step up the
pressure” on the government, he said.
Later in the day, a larger number of opposition supporters rallied in Yerevan’s
southern Shengavit district before marching to the city center where the
opposition set up a tent camp on May 1.
Envoy Inspects Russian Troops In Strategic Armenian Region
Armenian - Russian border guards stationed in Syunik province are inspected by
Russian Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin, .
Russia’s ambassador to Armenia, Sergei Kopyrkin, inspected on Tuesday Russian
troops stationed in Syunik at the start of his latest visit to the Armenian
province bordering Iran and Azerbaijan.
According to the Russian Embassy in Yerevan, Kopyrkin visited two Russian
military outposts at local sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and spoke
with Russian border guards serving there about their “day-to-day combat and
training activities”.
The commander of the border guards deployed in the strategically important area
briefed him on “the operational situation developing in this section of the
Armenian border,” the embassy said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The statement said that at the entrance to Syunik’s administrative center Kapan
Kopyrkin was greeted by unnamed officials from the municipal administration. It
said they thanked Russia for its contribution to the region’s security and
economic development.
Moscow deployed soldiers and border guards to Syunik during and after the 2020
war in Nagorno-Karabakh to help the Armenian military defend the province
against possible Azerbaijani attacks.
Armenia - Russian Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin meets with Russian military
personnel in Syunik, .
Armenia and Azerbaijan are to reopen their border to commercial and passenger
traffic under the terms of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped their
six-week war in November 2020. The deal specifically commits Yerevan to opening
rail and road links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly claimed that it calls for an
exterritorial land corridor that would pass through Syunik. Armenian leaders
deny this, saying that Azerbaijani citizens and cargo cannot be exempt from
Armenian border controls.
Iran has likewise stated that Armenia must have full control and sovereignty
over all roads passing through its territory. Tehran underscored its interest in
Syunik when it announced last December its decision to open an Iranian consulate
in Kapan.
The U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Lynne Tracy, also visited Syunik on Tuesday.
According to the provincial administration, she discussed with Syunik Governor
Robert Ghukasian ways of supporting the region through socioeconomic and
educational projects.
Armenian Parliament Approves Another ‘Curb On Press Freedom’
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party attend a session of
parliament, Yerevan, February 9, 2022.
Ignoring strong objections from press freedom groups, pro-government lawmakers
pushed through Armenia’s parliament on Wednesday a bill that empowered state
bodies to withdraw the accreditation of journalists.
An Armenian law on mass media has until now not allowed the parliament, the
prime minister’s office and other government agencies to revoke such
accreditations typically valid for one year.
Under amendments to the law drafted by two deputies from Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, the authorities will now be able to strip
reporters of their press credentials if they are deemed to have violated
“working rules” of relevant bodies twice within a year.
The amendments prompted strong criticism from many journalists and media experts
when they were first circulated in April. Critics believe that the authorities
want to bar “undesirable” journalists from covering parliament sessions, cabinet
meetings and other major events.
“Today they may not like the behavior of journalists, tomorrow they may not like
the way journalists are dressed, and afterwards they may not like press coverage
and criticism of their work,” Ashot Melikian of the Yerevan-based Committee to
Protect Freedom of Speech said after the parliament controlled by the ruling
party approved the amendments in the first reading.
Speaking during a parliament debate on Tuesday, Civil Contract’s Artur
Hovannisian, a co-author of the legislation, again denied that it constitutes a
new restriction on press freedom in Armenia. He argued that media outlets will
be able to quickly replace their reporters stripped of accreditation.
The pro-government lawmaker said earlier that the amendments are primarily
directed at parliamentary correspondents. He claimed that they have frequently
insulted and even “threatened” members of the National Assembly.
Pashinian’s political team had already been denounced by Armenian media
associations as well as Western watchdogs such as Freedom House and Amnesty
International for tripling maximum legal fines for “slander” and making it a
crime to insult state officials.
Dozens of government critics have been prosecuted for offending Pashinian and
other officials since the corresponding amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code
took effect last September.
Pashinian’s party was also widely criticized for seriously restricting last
summer journalists’ freedom of movements inside the parliament building in
Yerevan.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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