RFE/RL Armenian Report – 07/29/2022

                                        Friday, 


Armenian Opposition To Continue Boycotting Parliament


Armenia - Opposition leader Ishkhan Saghatelian addresses a rally in Yerevan, 
.


Armenia’s two main opposition forces indicated on Friday that they will continue 
to boycott sessions of the National Assembly despite government threats to strip 
them of their parliament seats.

One of their leaders, Ishkhan Saghatelian, dismissed the threats as “blackmail” 
when he addressed supporters demonstrating in Yerevan against Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian.

“Once again I must repeat what I’ve been saying for the last three months: if 
the opposition returns to the parliament it will do so only go with its own 
agenda formed by the people in this square,” said Saghatelian. “That agenda is 
clear: Nikol’s departure and our efforts to counter threats to Armenia and 
Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and address vital issues facing them.”

“The clique controlling the National Assembly cannot draw us into its treasonous 
conspiracies with threats to strip us of our [parliament mandates,]” he told the 
crowd.

The 35 members of the 107-seat parliament representing the opposition Hayastan 
and Pativ Unem alliances began the boycott in April in advance of their daily 
demonstrations demanding Pashinian’s resignation. They failed to force him to 
step down before deciding in mid-June to scale back the protests sparked by 
Pashinian’s apparent readiness to make major concessions to Azerbaijan.

Saghatelian admitted that many opposition supporters are now “disheartened” by 
the failure to achieve regime change. But he said the opposition movement has 
succeeded in at least delaying a “new capitulation agreement” with Baku.

“We need to regroup, mobilize our forces, wage a prolonged struggle and chase 
victory … There is still no alternative to our fight in the streets,” declared 
the opposition leader.

Saghatelian also said that the opposition is unlikely to hold further rallies in 
August and plans instead to spend the next month reinforcing its regional 
chapters and organizing a “pan-Armenian” conference in Yerevan.



Armenian Central Bank Accused Of Forcing Out Oppositionist’s Brother

        • Artak Khulian

Armenia -- A statue symbolizing the national currency, the dram, outside the 
Central Bank building in Yerevan.


An opposition figure prosecuted on what he sees as politically motivated charges 
said on Friday that his brother holding a senior position in Armenia’s Central 
Bank was forced out because of his political activities.

Ara Chalabian has headed the bank’s Department of Corporate Services and 
Development for the last two years. He announced on Thursday that he is “no 
longer working at the Central Bank” but gave no reasons for his exit.

Armenian news websites claimed earlier this month that the bank chairman, Martin 
Galstian, has told Chalabian to resign, citing an order from Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian. An article subsequently posted on Hetq.am cited the brothers’ 
father as saying in a recent private conversation that Galstian told Chalabian 
that he himself will have to resign if the latter refuses to quit.

Chalabian’s indicted brother Avetik, who leads a small opposition party, 
effectively added his voice to these allegations when he spoke to journalists 
during his ongoing trial in Yerevan.

“They demanded that he quit,” he said. “When this criminal case passes its peak 
we will talk about that [in greater detail] because that demand was absolutely 
illegal. There are no grounds for forcing my brother out from his job.”

Armenia - Avetik Chalabian stands trial in Yerevan, July 26, 2022.

“While being a senior employee of the Central Bank he always maintained complete 
political neutrality and had nothing to do with my political activities,” added 
Avetik Chalabian.

The Central Bank again did not confirm or deny the alleged government pressure 
exerted on Ara Chalabian. Nor did it explain why he lost his job, saying that it 
cannot comment without his consent.

Pashinian’s office has likewise declined to comment on the allegations that the 
prime minister ordered the Central Bank governor to get rid of the 
oppositionist’s brother.

Avetik Chalabian was arrested on May 13 on charges of trying to pay university 
students to participate in daily anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan. He 
rejects the charges as government retribution for his active participation in 
the protests aimed at forcing Pashinian to resign.

The 49-year-old was released from custody on Wednesday one day after the start 
of his trial.



Armenia Set To Start Work On New Corridor To Karabakh

        • Susan Badalian

Armenia - A road sign at the entrance to the village of Kornidzor, June 7, 2022.


Armenia is due to start building next month the Armenian section of a new 
highway that will replace the existing corridor connecting it with 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

The five-kilometer-wide Lachin corridor became Karabakh’s sole overland link to 
Armenia following the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. Armenian forces pulled out of 
the rest of the wider Lachin district under the terms of the Russian-brokered 
ceasefire that stopped the six-week hostilities.

The truce accord calls for the construction by 2024 of a new Armenia-Karabakh 
highway that will bypass the town of Lachin and two Armenian-populated villages 
located within the current corridor protected by Russian peacekeeping troops.

Azerbaijani and Turkish construction firms have been rapidly building a 
32-kilomer-long highway that will link up to new road sections in Armenia and 
Karabakh.

Armenia’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures said on 
Friday that work on the Armenian section will start in August.

In late June, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet allocated funding for a 
geodetic survey and map design needed for the road’s construction. A group of 
surveyors and other construction specialists were afterwards spotted near 
Kornidzor, an Armenian village close to the Lachin district.

“Surveyors came and took measurements in an area through which [the road] will 
pass,” Lusine Karamian, an official from the village administration, told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

“According to our information, the road will pass through fields adjacent to 
Kornidzor, said Karamian.

Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, sought to allay concerns about the 
loss of the current Lachin corridor and its security implications when he 
addressed local legislators in June. He stressed that the route of the bypass 
road built by Azerbaijan was approved by Karabakh’s leadership.

For many residents of Armenian and Karabakh villages located along the planned 
new corridor, those security concerns outweigh its potential economic impact on 
their communities. As one of them put it, “If you can tell me what will happen 
tomorrow, I will tell you whether or not the [new] road will be good for us.”



Former Yerevan Mayor May Face Criminal Charges

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia -- Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian speaks to journalists, February 15, 2019.


An Armenian government agency has asked prosecutors to investigate its 
allegations of serious financial irregularities committed by Yerevan’s municipal 
administration during former Mayor Hayk Marutian’s tenure.

Marutian was ousted by the city council last December after falling out with 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Just days after his removal, the State Oversight 
Service (SOS), which is headed by a staunch Pashinian loyalist, began auditing 
the municipality’s financial operations.

The SOS claimed late on Thursday to have found evidence of various “violations” 
worth a combined 8.5 billion drams ($20 million). It said the bulk of the 
alleged financial damage to the state resulted from a miscalculation of 
Yerevan’s property and land tax base.

The SOS said nothing about Marutian’s involvement in the alleged irregularities. 
Nor did it clarify whether it believes the ex-mayor or other Yerevan officials 
personally benefited from them.

The government agency sent the findings of its inspection to Armenia’s Office of 
the Prosecutor-General. The law-enforcement agency will now look into them and 
decide whether they warrant a formal criminal investigation.

Marutian did not react to the allegations as of Friday afternoon. There was also 
no reaction from Yerevan’s current mayor, Hrachya Sargsian. The latter served as 
a deputy mayor during Marutian’s tenure.

Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (L) and his My Step bloc's mayoral 
candidate Hayk Marutian attend an election campaign rally in Yerevan, 20 
September 2018.

Marutian, who used to be a close political ally of Pashinian, commented 
scathingly on July 1 after several pro-government websites alleged that the 
mayor’s office embezzled or misused otherwise as much as $40 million on his 
watch. He suggested that the allegations are aimed at discouraging him from 
participating in the next municipal elections.

“Guys -- and also girls -- I have made no decision yet on participating or not 
participating in the next Yerevan elections. You can breathe a sigh of relief 
and calm down,” the ex-mayor wrote on Facebook.

Marutian himself accused Pashinian’s administration of corruption on December 22 
as Yerevan’s Council of Elders deposed him in a vote of no confidence initiated 
by its pro-government majority.

He claimed that during his three-year tenure he routinely received phone calls 
from unnamed “various officials” asking for construction permits, land 
allocations, tax advantages and other privileges for “people close to them.” He 
did not name any of them, saying only that he rejected all such requests.

Marutian, 45, is a former TV comedian who actively participated in the “velvet 
revolution” that brought Pashinian to power in May 2018. Pashinian chose the 
popular entertainer to lead his bloc’s list of candidates in the last municipal 
elections held in September 2018

Relations between the two men deteriorated after the 2020 war over 
Nagorno-Karabakh. Marutian increasingly distanced himself from the prime 
minister’s political team and pointedly declined to support it during snap 
parliamentary elections held in June 2021.


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