Wednesday,
Armenian Opposition Activist Acquitted Of Assault Charge
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Riot police clash with opposition protesters in Yerevan, June 3, 2022.
An Armenian court on Wednesday acquitted a well-known opposition supporter of
assaulting a police officer during last year’s anti-government protests in
Yerevan.
The 37-year-old Igor Khachaturov actively participated in daily demonstrations
which Armenia’s main opposition groups began last May to demand Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s resignation over his readiness to make sweeping concessions to
Azerbaijan. The protests, which lasted for nearly two months, were marred by
several clashes between riot police and opposition supporters.
Khachaturov was arrested during one of those incidents and spent two months in
pre-trial detention. He strongly denied assault charges brought against him
before and during his trial.
The judge presiding over the trial, Tatevik Grigorian, found him not guilty in a
ruling hailed by opposition leaders. One of them, Artsvik Minasian, said that
prosecutors failed to present any evidence in support of the accusations based
on incriminating testimony given by a single policeman.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General said it will decide whether or not to
appeal against the verdict after receiving a copy of its full text from the
court.
Khachaturov is one of more than 50 opposition protesters who were charged with
resisting or assaulting riot police last year. Only he has been acquitted by
court so far.
By contrast, no police officers were prosecuted for using excessive force
against protesters even though about 60 oppositionists were formally recognized
by investigators as “victims” of police violence. Videos posted on social media
showed policemen punching protesters as the latter were dragged away and
arrested by other officers.
Igor Khachaturov’s father Yuri was the chief of the Armenian army’s General
Staff from 2008-2016. He served as secretary general of the Russian-led
Collective Security Treaty Organization when the current Armenian authorities
indicted him as well as former President Robert Kocharian in 2018 over their
alleged role in a 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. Armenia’s Constitutional
Court declared charges brought against them unconstitutional in 2021.
Yuri Khachaturov’s elder son Grigori is also an army general. He was arrested in
March this year on charges of money laundering denied by him.
Grigori Khachaturov was among four dozen high-ranking military officers who
accused Pashinian’s government of incompetence and misrule and demanded its
resignation in February 2021. The unprecedented demand was welcomed by the
Armenian opposition but condemned as a coup attempt by Pashinian.
Medical Evacuations From Karabakh Halted Due To Azeri Checkpoint
• Susan Badalian
Nagorno-Karabakh - A convoy of Red Cross vehicles is seen outside Stepanakert,
January 4, 2023.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on Wednesday that
it had to stop evacuating critically ill patients from Nagorno-Karabakh to
Armenia shortly after Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor late
last month.
The ICRC has transported scores of such persons to Armenian hospitals since Baku
effectively blocked Karabakh’s land link with Armenia in December. Only Red
Cross vehicles as well as convoys of Russian peacekeepers were able to pass
through the road.
Eteri Musayelian, a spokeswoman for the ICRC office in Stepanakert, told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the medical evacuations were suspended on April
29 due to the “new situation” created by the Azerbaijani checkpoint.
“In this new situation, we need to understand whether the terms remain the same
and whether they are acceptable to all,” explained Musayelian.
“We are now negotiating with all decision-makers because there need to be
agreements acceptable to all sides so that we can continue our humanitarian
mission as a neutral humanitarian organization,” she said without disclosing any
details of those negotiations.
Artak Beglarian, a Karabakh official stranded in Yerevan because of the
blockade, said Azerbaijan’s “dictatorial regime” blocked the evacuations and is
now trying to impose passport controls on Karabakh patients and Red Cross staff
passing through the Lachin corridor.
“30 patients waiting for transfer [to Armenia,]” Beglarian wrote on Twitter.
They include Karo, a 10-year-old Karabakh Armenian boy suffering from multiple
illnesses. According to his mother, Narine Danielian, Karo was due to be
transported to Armenia for urgent medical treatment on May 2 along with four
other children.
“Every minute is really critical for their life,” said Danielian.
Azerbaijan claims that its checkpoint was set up to stop the transfer of weapons
from Armenia to Karabakh.
The Armenian side has strongly denied any arms supplies and accused Baku of
another gross violation of a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the 2020
Armenian-Azerbaijani war. Russia and the United States have also criticized
Baku’s move.
Baku Also Reports Progress In Peace Talks With Yerevan
U.S. - US Secretary of State Sec Antony Blinken hosts talks between the Armenian
and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, May 1, 2023.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said on Wednesday that he and his
Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan made progress towards a peace treaty
between their nations during four-day negotiations held outside Washington last
week.
“It cannot be said that we fully reached an agreement as there are quite a lot
of differences between the positions of the parties,” he told reporters. “But
some points of the peace treaty were agreed upon in those negotiations. We took
a step forward.”
Bayramov did not shed light on those points.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who attended the opening and closing
sessions of the talks, likewise reported “tangible progress” made by Bayramov
and Mirzoyan. A U.S. State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, said on Monday
that the two ministers “agreed in principle to certain terms” of the peace deal
discussed by them.
“We believe that with additional goodwill and flexibility and compromise an
agreement is within reach,” Patel said, echoing Blinken’s earlier comments.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, cautioned on
Tuesday that the conflicting sides still disagree on key terms of the would-be
treaty. He said those relate to Azerbaijani recognition of Armenia’s existing
borders, an internationally supervised dialogue between Baku and Karabakh’s
leadership as well as “international guarantees” for the sides’ compliance with
their peace accord.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
are scheduled to meet in Brussels this Sunday in a bid to build on the apparent
progress in the peace process.
Bayramov stressed the importance of the upcoming summit. He suggested that it
could pave the way for a deal sought by Baku.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service later on Wednesday
that Bayramov and Mirzoyan will meet in Moscow on May 19 for further talks that
will be hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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