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    Categories: 2023

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 02/17/2023

                                        Friday, 


Opposition Leader Unimpressed By Turkish-Armenian Dialogue

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia -- Opposition leader Gegham Manukian at a news conference in Yerevan, 
December 20, 2021.


A senior member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance downplayed on Friday 
the significance of the latest Turkish-Armenian negotiations, saying that Ankara 
is sticking to its preconditions for normalizing relations with Yerevan.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan visited Turkey on Wednesday as the Armenian 
government sent more humanitarian aid to residents of a Turkish city ravaged by 
last week’s catastrophic earthquake. Mirzoyan said on Thursday that he and his 
Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu agreed to speed up efforts to normalize 
bilateral ties which began a year ago.

Parliament speaker Alen Simonian claimed on Friday that the two neighboring 
states are now “quite close” to establishing diplomatic relations and opening 
their border.

“If the Turkish side demonstrates sufficient will and resolve, I think that we 
will solve that issue,” Simonian told reporters.

Gegham Manukian, a lawmaker representing Hayastan, insisted, however, that 
Ankara only made “symbolic gestures” to Yerevan.

“The Armenian authorities are trying to present those gestures to their citizens 
as historic developments,” he said. “But as the joint news conference of 
Cavusoglu and Mirzoyan showed, Turkey is continuing to condition its relations 
with Armenia by negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia and to speak in the 
same language of preconditions.”

Manukian also dismissed Mirzoyan’s announcement that the Turkish-Armenian border 
could be opened to citizens of third countries before this summer. He argued 
that Turkish regions bordering Armenia are sparsely populated and attract few 
foreign tourists.

“Who is going to cross the entire territory of Turkey to reach Gyumri through 
the Margara bridge and then go to, say, Georgia, with their third-country 
passport?” he asked at a news conference.

Cavusoglu said after his talks with Mirzoyan that the assistance provided by 
Armenia could facilitate the normalization process. But he appeared to link that 
process to the outcome of Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.




Chief Of New Armenian Police Force Sacked

        • Narine Ghalechian

Armenia - Officers and vehicles of the newly established Patrol Service, 
Yerevan, July 8, 2021.


The chief of a Western-funded major division of the Armenian police has been 
sacked following an extraordinary traffic incident at Yerevan’s main square 
which sparked accusations of incompetence directed at its officers.

Colonel Artur Umrshatian has headed the Patrol Service since it was set up in 
2021 with financial and technical assistance provided by the United States and 
the European Union.

The new police force was meant to introduce Western standards in road policing, 
street patrol and crowd control in Armenia. Armenian and Western officials have 
described its creation as a key element of police reforms announced by Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration.

The Armenian Interior Ministry gave no reasons for Umrshatian’s sacking 
announced on Thursday. The ministry’s press service refused to comment on it 
afterwards.

The development came six days after a car raced chaotically through Yerevan’s 
central Republic Square, driving on its sidewalks and nearly running over 
pedestrians. On-duty Patrol Service officers reportedly took more than 20 
minutes to stop the large SUV despite firing gunshots at its wheels. Its 
apparently intoxicated driver managed to flee the scene but was arrested a few 
hours later.

The incident was caught on mobile phone cameras and widely circulated on social 
media, prompting a wave of criticism and ridicule from many users. Critics of 
the government claimed that it exposed a lack of professionalism within the 
Patrol Service whose officers reportedly have much higher wages than other 
security personnel in Armenia.

Armenia - Colonel Artur Umrshatian.

The Armenian police did not respond to the criticism. Still, two Patrol Service 
officers were fired earlier this week. One of them, Roman Mirzakhanian, was hit 
and injured by the car during the February 10 incident.

Daniel Ioannisian, a civic activist monitoring the police, deplored the ensuing 
sacking of Umrshatian. Ioannisian said that the latter was at the forefront of 
police reforms and prevented nepotism and other corrupt practices within the 
Patrol Service.

“There is resistance [to reforms] because Patrol Service officers treat officers 
of other security bodies and ordinary citizens equally on the streets of 
Yerevan,” he said. “Just recently, for example, a National Security Service 
lieutenant-colonel was stripped of his driving license.”

Ioannisian also claimed that for the same reason the Patrol Service personnel 
are subjected to disciplinary action more frequently than officers of other 
police divisions.

Ioannisian’s Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) and two other non-governmental 
organizations strongly criticized last month Pashinian’s decision to appoint 
Vahe Ghazarian, the national police chief and his reputed childhood friend, as 
interior minister. They pulled out of a government body coordinating police 
reforms in protest.

Over the past year, the Patrol Service has also faced allegations of 
ill-treatment of citizens. In particular, its officers clashed last November 
with several residents of Vanadzor after accusing them of interfering with 
Pashinian’s motorcade. One of those residents was hospitalized as a result.




Armenian Speaker Lauds Council Of Europe After Russian Criticism


Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen Simonian (right) meets Council of Europe 
Parliamentary Assembly co-rapporters, Yerevan, .


Just days after Russia spoke out against European involvement in efforts to 
resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, parliament speaker Alen Simonian 
praised Council of Europe officials on Friday for seeking an end to Azerbaijan’s 
blockade of the Lachin corridor.

Simonian met with Kimmo Kiljunen and Boriana Aberg, co-rapporteurs of the 
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), at the start of their 
fact-finding visit to Armenia. They are tasked with monitoring Armenia’s 
compliance with its membership commitments to the Strasbourg-based organization.

The PACE did not specify the purpose of the visit in a statement issued earlier 
this week. It said only that Kiljunen and Aberg will meet with senior officials 
in Yerevan and visit three Armenian towns close to the Azerbaijani border.

The press service of the Armenian parliament said the PACE representatives 
arrived in Armenia to “familiarize themselves with the situation created as a 
result of the illegal blockade” of Karabakh’s land link with Armenia.

“We highly appreciate the work and involvement of the Assembly and you as 
co-rapporteurs,” it quoted Simonian as telling them.

Simonian praised the co-rapporteurs for urging an immediate end to the blockade 
just days after Azerbaijani government-backed protesters halted traffic through 
the corridor on December 12. He also noted with satisfaction that a PACE 
committee will release on soon a report on “humanitarian consequences” of the 
blockade.

Russia - Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin meets Armenian 
parliament speaker Alen Simonian in Moscow, October 10, 2022
Simonian’s Russian counterpart, Vyacheslav Volodin attacked the PACE and the 
European Parliament on Monday, saying that these and other Western bodies can 
only fan tensions in the South Caucasus.

“And those who make statements in the direction of European institutions may 
simply lose the country,” Volodin, who is a close ally of Russian President 
Vladimir Putin, said in what appeared to be a stern warning to Yerevan.

The European Parliament urged Azerbaijan to “immediately reopen” the Lachin 
corridor in a January 19 resolution hailed by Armenian officials. The resolution 
also condemned the “inaction” of Russian peacekeeping forces in Karabakh and 
called for their “replacement with OSCE international peacekeepers.”

The European Union also irked Moscow last month when it agreed to deploy more 
than 100 monitors on Armenia’s volatile border with Azerbaijan. The Russian 
Foreign Ministry accused the EU of seeking to “push back Russia's mediation 
efforts at any cost.”


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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