Thursday, August 4, 2022
Pro-Opposition Village Chief Arrested
• Karine Simonian
Armenia - Arsen Titanian, the mayor of Odzun village, May 25, 2018.
The opposition-linked mayor of a large village in Armenia’s northern Lori
province was arrested late on Wednesday ahead of local elections slated for this
fall.
A spokesman for state prosecutors told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Arsen
Titanian, who has run the village of Odzun since 2008, is suspected of failing
to declare all of his assets. He declined to give further details, saying that
the case is investigated by another law-enforcement agency, the Anti-Corruption
Committee.
The committee did not comment on the investigation on Thursday. It was not clear
whether it will press charges against Titanian.
Titanian, 52, is a current or former member of former President Serzh
Sarkisian’s Republican Party. He openly supported the main opposition Hayastan
bloc led by another ex-president, Robert Kocharian, during parliamentary
elections held in June 2021.
Just days after the elections, Titanian claimed to have been beaten up inside
the provincial administration building in Lori’s capital Vanadzor. He said he
was assaulted by about a dozen other men moments after rejecting Lori Governor
Aram Khachatrian’s demands to resign.
The Anti-Corruption Committee opened a criminal case but never charged anyone in
connection with the alleged incident. It stopped the probe two months later,
citing a lack of incriminating evidence.
Armenia - Lori Governor Aram Khachatrian.
Khachatrian, who is affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil
Contract party, admitted summoning Titanian to his office but denied demanding
his resignation or ordering his beating.
During the parliamentary race Pashinian pledged to wage “political vendettas”
against local government officials supporting the opposition. Shortly after his
party’s victory in the snap elections, Armenian media outlets reported that
several provincial governors, including Khachatrian, are pressuring such
officials to resign.
“These people must resign and again participate in [local] elections to see
whether or not people trust them,” the Lori governor told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service in the wake of the polls.
The elected heads of five Lori communities stepped down in the following weeks.
Odzun’s Titanian was not among them. He made clear at the time that he intends
to complete his fourth term in office in 2022.
With a population of more than 5,000, Odzun is one of the country’s largest
rural communities. It is now being merged with the nearby towns of Alaverdi and
Akhtala into a single community in accordance with a controversial government
bill approved by the Armenian parliament earlier this year.
The new, consolidated community is due to elect this fall a local council that
will in turn pick its chief executive. It is not clear whether the Odzun mayor
planned to participate in the ballot before his arrest.
U.S., EU Call For De-Escalation In Karabakh
U.S. -- U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price speaks during a press briefing
in Washington, February 8, 2021
The United States and the European Union have expressed serious concern over
deadly fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and urged the conflicting parties to
immediately de-escalate tensions.
“The United States is deeply concerned by and closely following reports of
intensive fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh, including casualties and the loss of
life,” Ned Price, the U.S. State Department spokesman, said late on Wednesday.
“We urge immediate steps to reduce tensions and avoid further escalation.”
“The recent increase in tensions underscores the need for a negotiated,
comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining issues related to or
resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” added Price.
An EU foreign policy spokesman likewise called for an “immediate cessation of
the hostilities” that broke out on Wednesday morning and left at least one
Azerbaijani and two Karabakh Armenian soldiers dead.
“It is essential to de-escalate, fully respect the ceasefire and return to the
negotiating table to seek negotiated solutions,” the official, Peter Stano, said
in a statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu discussed the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone on Thursday in a
phone call that focused on the war in Ukraine.
According to Price, Blinken reiterated Washington’s readiness to “engage
bilaterally, with likeminded partners, and through our role as an OSCE Minsk
Group Co-Chair to facilitate dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
Blinken held separate phone calls with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on July 25. He said afterwards that he
sees a “historic opportunity to achieve peace in the region.”
Azerbaijan Accused Of Seeking To Scrap Karabakh Ceasefire
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a cabinet meeting in Yerevan,
August 4, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday accused Azerbaijan of trying to walk
away from the Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the
Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.
Speaking the day after two Karabakh Armenian soldiers were killed and 19 others
wounded in fighting with Azerbaijani forces, Pashinian also urged Russia to do
more to prevent further ceasefire violations. He said that Baku has been
stepping up such violations despite the presence of Russian peacekeeping troops
in Karabakh.
“In these circumstances, it is becoming imperative to adjust details of the
[Russian] peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinian told a weekly
cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
“We expect that any attempt to cross the line of contact will be stopped by the
peacekeeping troops of the Russian Federation,” he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry effectively blamed the Azerbaijani side for
Wednesday’s hostilities in Karabakh that reportedly involved Azerbaijani drone
attacks and mortar fire. Its peacekeeping contingent intervened to halt the
fighting.
The Azerbaijani army admitted striking Karabakh Armenian positions as well as a
military base. It claimed that the attacks were launched in retaliation for the
killing of one of its soldiers. The authorities in Yerevan and Stepanakert
insist that the Azerbaijani “aggression” was unprovoked.
“Azerbaijan’s recourse to the escalation serves one purpose: to scrap the
regulations set by the [Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] statement of November 9,
2020,” charged Pashinian. Baku, he said, is unwilling to recognize the current
“line of contact” in Karabakh and the Lachin corridor connecting the disputed
territory to Armenia.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry insisted that Baku has fully complied with the
terms of the agreement and expects the same from Yerevan. It claimed that
Armenia has still not withdrawn its troops from Karabakh.
“There are no servicemen of the Republic of Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh,”
stressed Pashinian.
Nagorno-Karabakh - A view of the village of Aghavno and a road leading to
Armenia through the Lachin corridor, April 16, 2022.
The Armenian premier said that the latest armed incidents were sparked by
Azerbaijani demands for the closure of the existing Lachin road and the opening
of a new corridor connecting Armenia and Karabakh. He argued that the truce
accord requires Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia to work out before 2024 a joint
“plan” for the construction of a new Armenia-Karabakh road. No such plan has
been drawn up yet, he said.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said, however, that the three sides did agree
on the “route” of the new corridor early this year and accused Yerevan of
dragging out work on its Armenian sections.
Russia’s Security Council discussed the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone
at a meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin. According to Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov, the council stressed “the urgent need to implement all
provisions” of the Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire deal brokered by Putin.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry similarly urged all parties to
respect the ceasefire and “show restraint.” It said that the Russian
peacekeepers are “making every effort to stabilize the situation on the ground.”
“Active work with both sides is carried out through all channels and at all
levels, including the country’s top leadership,” the statement said, adding that
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is “in close contact with his Azerbaijani and
Armenian counterparts.”
The conflicting sides reported no further significant ceasefire violations in
Karabakh as of Thursday afternoon. Speaking in the morning, Pashinian said that
although there are no “active hostilities” there now, the situation remains
“extremely tense.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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