Tuesday,
Pashinian Warns Of New War With Azerbaijan
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks on state television,
Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has claimed that Azerbaijan is torpedoing peace
talks and preparing the ground for another war with Armenia.
“They are trying to create legitimacy for a new war,” he said in televised
remarks aired late on Monday. “Whether they plan the new war in three months,
three years or thirty years is a different issue.”
In that regard, Pashinian pointed to continuing Azerbaijani claims that Yerevan
is reluctant to negotiate a peace treaty with Baku, demarcate the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border and open it to commerce. He said that the
Azerbaijani side itself cancelled a fresh meeting of senior Armenian and
Azerbaijani officials which was due to take place in Brussels on Monday. It has
also not responded to an Armenian proposal to organize a face-to-face meeting of
the foreign ministers of the two states, he said.
On Sunday Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again implicitly threatened to
resort to military action. He said that Armenia will “regret it” if it delays
the border demarcation.
Aliyev voiced similar threats earlier this month when he warned Yerevan against
continuing to oppose the opening of a land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its
Nakhichevan exclave.
Armenian officials again ruled out such an extraterritorial corridor afterwards,
arguing that Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Russia call for only
conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Pashinian said on Monday that Baku itself is violating those agreements by
breaching the ceasefire regime in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and
continuing to hold dozens of Armenian prisoners.
Pashinian adopted a conciliatory policy towards Azerbaijan following Armenia’s
defeat in the 2020 war over Karabakh. He has since repeatedly promised that it
will usher in an “era of peaceful development” for Armenia and the entire region.
Pashinian sparked weeks of antigovernment protests in Yerevan after signaling in
April his readiness to “lower the bar” on the status of Karabakh acceptable to
Armenia. Armenian opposition leaders accused him of helping Azerbaijan regain
full control over the Armenian-populated territory.
One of those leaders, Ishkhan Saghatelian, claimed on Tuesday that Pashinian’s
warning about a new war with Azerbaijan is aimed at discouraging Armenians from
fighting for regime change. In a Facebook post, Saghatelian insisted that
Pashinian’s removal from power is on the contrary the only way to “save Armenia
and Artsakh from this destructive course.”
Opposition Leaders Set To Lose Parliament Posts
Armenia - Parliament vice-speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian leads an opposition
demonstration in Yerevan, May 18, 2022.
The ruling Civil Contract party moved on Tuesday to dismiss a deputy speaker of
the Armenian parliament and the chairman of one of its standing committees
affiliated with the main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Hayastan’s Ishkhan Saghatelian holds one of the three posts of vice-speaker
reserved for the opposition. The other opposition lawmaker, Vahe Hakobian,
chairs the parliament committee on economic affairs.
A representative of Civil Contract’s parliamentary group, which controls the
majority of seats in the National Assembly, said it has decided to strip them of
their posts because of their continuing boycott of parliament sessions.
Saghatelian, Hakobian and the 33 other deputies representing Hayastan and the
other parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, began the boycott in April in
advance of their daily demonstrations demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
resignation.
Under Armenian law, a lawmaker can lose their seat if they skip, for
“non-legitimate” reasons, at least half of parliament votes during a single
semi-annual session of the National Assembly. The final decision to that effect
is to be made by the Constitutional Court at the initiative of the parliament’s
leadership or at least one-fifth of the deputies.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian said on May 17 that he is considering
initiating such an appeal to the court. According to the parliament’s press
office, over a dozen opposition lawmakers could be formally accused of
absenteeism at that point.
Simonian told reporters on Tuesday morning that he and other pro-government
lawmakers will discuss the issue at a meeting later in the day.
After the meeting, the ruling party announced no decision to strip any
opposition parliamentarians of their seats. It said instead that Saghatelian and
Hakobian will only lose their posts.
Speaking shortly before that announcement, Saghatelian again dismissed the
government threats to terminate his and his colleagues’ membership of the
National Assembly.
“We are out to fight against that gang,” he told News.am. “For us, the
[parliamentary] mandate is only a tool for struggle. If the authorities want to
strip us of our mandates let them do that. That will not affect our struggle in
any way.”
Saghatelian announced earlier in the day that the opposition forces will hold
their next antigovernment rally on Friday.
Pashinian Admits Failure Of ‘Judicial Reforms’
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Parents of soldiers killed in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh protest
outside the Supreme Judicial Council building in Yerevan, May 26, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian acknowledged late on Monday that a scandal
sparked by leaked audio featuring Armenia’s top judicial officer has undermined
the credibility of judicial reforms declared by his administration.
But Pashinian did not say whether he believes Gagik Jahangirian, the
controversial acting head of the country’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC),
should resign.
Ruben Vartazarian, the SJC’s previous chairman, publicized on June 20 a
14-minute audio clip which he secretly recorded during a dinner meeting with
Jahangirian in February 2021. The meeting took place two months before
Vartazarian was controversially suspended by other SJC members amid rising
tensions with Pashinian.
In the recording full of profanities uttered by him, Jahangirian can be heard
seemingly warning Vartazarian to resign or face criminal charges.
Jahangirian claimed late last week that he simply tried to trick Vartazarian
into resigning as head of the state body that nominates judges and can also
dismiss them. He dismissed calls for his resignation voiced by opposition and
civil society groups.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a meeting with senior
law-enforcement and judicial officials, Yerevan, November 30, 2020.
Pashinian did not comment on those calls when he was asked about the scandal
during a live televised appearance. Instead, he attacked Vartazarian, saying
that the recording also raised questions about the former SJC chairman.
“I always say that our biggest problem is the judicial system, that we don’t
have real successes here,” Pashinian told Armenian Public Television.
Asked whether the leaked audio scandal has cast a shadow over his declared
judicial reforms, Pashinian said: “I think so.” He expressed hope that an
Armenian law-enforcement agency will properly investigate the content of the
recording and its implications.
The Investigative Committee reportedly interrogated Vartazarian on June 23. But
it has still not opened a formal criminal case in connection with Jahangirian’s
secretly recorded comments.
Critics say Jahangirian must be not only sacked but also prosecuted for what
they see as blackmail and illegal interference in the work of law-enforcement
bodies.
The SJC indicated last week that it will not even launch disciplinary
proceedings against its embattled head. But one of its members, Davit
Khachaturian, announced on Monday that the judicial watchdog has set up a
working group that will look into the leaked audio and determine whether it
warrants such proceedings.
Armenia - Ruben Vartazarian, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, at a news
conference in Yerevan, June 20, 2022.
The SJC formally deposed Vartazarian as its chairman and member on June 23. The
official reason for the move was a recent newspaper interview in which he
claimed that Jahangirian joined the watchdog in January 2021 in breach of
Armenian law.
Vartazarian fell out with Pashinian in late 2020 as the prime minister’s
political allies accused him of encouraging Armenian courts to free arrested
government critics. Vartazarian denied the accusations. He says that he was
indicted and suspended in April 2021 as part of government efforts to replace
him with Jahangirian, a former prosecutor widely seen as a figure loyal to
Pashinian.
Pashinian’s political opponents dismiss his stated efforts to reform the
Armenian judiciary as a smokescreen for increasing government influence on
courts. Pashinian and his political allies say the reforms are on the contrary
aimed at strengthening judicial independence.
U.S. Reports Russian Boycott Of Talks On Karabakh
• Tatevik Lazarian
US - The Department of State building in Washington, DC, April 20, 2020.
Russia has boycotted a multilateral discussion on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
initiated by the United States within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, the
U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.
“The U.S. OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair spoke with her counterparts today to discuss
the future of Nagorno-Karabakh,” tweeted the department’s Bureau of European and
Eurasian Affairs.
“It's unfortunate the Russian Co-Chair [of the Minsk Group] did not accept the
invitation. We look forward to the Minsk Group’s continuing work,” it said.
The State Department division did not specify who else took part in that
discussion or give any other details.
The U.S., Russia and France have for decades jointly tried to broker an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord in their capacity as the co-chairs of the
Minsk Group. According to Russian officials, Washington and Paris stopped
working with Moscow in that format following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Armenia -- The U.S. and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and other
diplomats meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, December
14, 2020.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried denied the Russian claims when
she visited Yerevan on June 18. She told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the
Minsk Group remains a “very important format” for Washington.
The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed Donfried’s assurances on June 22. A
ministry spokeswoman said the U.S. and France caused “irreparable damage” to the
mediating format as a result of their broader attempts to isolate Russia on the
international stage.
Visiting Baku two days later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted
that “the Minsk Group stopped its activities at the initiative of the American
and French co-chairs.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian suggested on Monday that Lavrov’s comments
contradict one of the provisions of his joint declaration with Russian President
Vladimir Putin adopted in April. It stresses “the importance of using the
potential and experience of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship institute in
accordance with its international mandate.”
ARMENIA - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) is about to meet with
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan, June 9, 2022.
“I think that this contradiction needs to be clarified,” Pashinian said, adding
that the Minsk Group is not dead.
Incidentally, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, met
with the group’s the French co-chair, Brice Roquefeuil, in Paris on Tuesday. A
statement by the council said the two men agreed on the need for achieving a
comprehensive Karabakh settlement “under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmanship.”
In recent weeks, Armenia’s leaders have called on the U.S., Russian and French
mediators to resume their joint peace efforts.
By contrast, Azerbaijani officials and President Ilham Aliyev in particular have
repeatedly questioned the need for the group’s continued existence. Aliyev has
said that Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 war with Armenia put an end to the
Karabakh conflict.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry urged Yerevan
to “stop wasting time on restoring a format the effectiveness of which was
always low.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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