X
    Categories: 2023

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 06/08/2023

                                        Thursday, June 8, 2023


Armenian Ex-Presidents Insist On Acquittal

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia - Former President Serzh Sarkisian talks to his lawyer during his trial 
in Yerevan, February 25, 2020.


Lawyers representing Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian said on Thursday that 
the former Armenian presidents standing trial on corruption charges will not 
invoke the statute of limitations and will continue fight for their acquittal.

They were indicted shortly after the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Nikol 
Pashinian to power. Kocharian was charged with receiving a hefty kickback from a 
businesswoman at the end of his 1998-2008 presidency, while Sarkisian stands 
accused of illegally granting a lucrative government contract to a longtime 
friend.

Both ex-presidents, who now lead major opposition groups, strongly deny the 
accusations, saying that they are part of a political vendetta waged against 
them by Pashinian. Their trials have being going on for years.

Lawyers for Kocharian and Sarkisian confirmed that the Armenian statute of 
limitations for the charges leveled against their clients has expired. This 
means that the latter can now cut short their trials and avoid prison sentences 
without being acquitted by courts. They will not go to jail even if they refuse 
to plea the statute of limitations.

“Such a thing cannot be discussed. We are fighting only for a not-guilty 
verdict,” Ruben Hakobian, one of Sarkisian’s lawyers, told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service. Hakobian said that the judge presiding over Sarkisian’s trial has not 
offered him such a settlement because he knows that the ex-president will reject 
it.

Armenia -- Former President Robert Kocharian arrives for a court hearing, 
Yerevan, February 18, 2020.

Hayk Alumian, a key member of Kocharian’s legal team, suggested that his client 
will hardly settle for anything less than acquittal.

“My impression until now has been that the choice of that [statute of 
limitation] option is very unlikely,” said Alumian.

The high-profile trials are therefore expected to continue in the months ahead. 
They could drag on further following the recent resignations of the trial 
prosecutors in both cases. The reasons for the resignations are not yet known.

Sarkisian’s trial was adjourned on Thursday after the presiding judge gave the 
new prosecutor one month to familiarize himself with details of the criminal 
case.




Armenian Task Force To Explore Nuclear Plant Options

        • Robert Zargarian

Armenia - The main control room of the Metsamor nuclear plant.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has formed a working group tasked with fleshing 
out his government’s ambitious plans to build a new nuclear power station in 
Armenia.
The ad hoc body will specifically explore the possibility of replacing the aging 
Metsamor nuclear plant by small modular reactors (SMRs) designed by U.S. 
companies.

Metsamor’s sole functioning reactor, which generates roughly 40 percent of 
Armenia’s electricity, went into service in 1980 and is due to be decommissioned 
in 2036. The Armenian government announced in April 2022 plans to build a new 
nuclear plant by that time.

The chief executive of Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom, which has helped 
to modernize Metsamor’s 420-megawatt reactor, visited Yerevan twice in the 
following weeks to discuss the project with Pashinian.

The United States has also shown an interest in the project, with U.S. Secretary 
of State Antony Blinken and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan signing in 
May 2022 a memorandum of understanding on “strategic nuclear cooperation” 
between their countries. A senior State Department official said last month that 
Washington is “assessing the feasibility” of the construction of an SMR plant in 
Armenia. She said the US technology could make the South Caucasus nation less 
dependent on Russia for energy.

Pashinian announced afterwards that an Armenian government delegation will visit 
the U.S. soon to take a close look at the SMRs. He suggested that they could be 
more affordable for Armenia than the much more powerful nuclear facilities built 
by Russia.

It is not yet clear whether the delegation will consist of members of the 
interagency task force set up by Pashinian on Tuesday. According to a relevant 
executive order signed by him, it must analyze various options for building the 
new facility, including the SMRs, and submit its findings to the prime 
minister’s staff within two months.

The 13-member working group headed by Deputy Minister of Territorial 
Administration and Infrastructures Hakob Vartanian will comprise deputy 
ministers of economy, environment and interior as well as other senior 
government officials.

The U.S. company NuScale Power Corp plans to build America’s first SMR plant at 
the Idaho National Laboratory by 2030. The demonstration facility will consist 
of six reactors with a combined capacity of 462 megawatts. The U.S. nuclear 
power regulator certified the design of NuScale’s reactor in January this year.




Armenian-Azerbaijani Talks In Washington Postponed (UPDATED)

        • Astghik Bedevian

U.S. - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts talks between the Armenian 
and Azerbaijani foreign minsters in Arlington, Virginia, May 4, 2023.


Azerbaijan has postponed fresh talks between its Foreign Minister Jeyhun 
Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan slated for next week, 
official Yerevan said on Thursday.

Bayramov and Mirzoyan were due to begin on June 12 a fresh round of negotiations 
in Washington to try to build on progress towards an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace 
treaty made by the two sides in recent weeks.

A spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry said the talks have been delayed 
“at the request of the Azerbaijani side.” She did not give a reason for the 
delay.

“The public will be duly notified of the new dates of the meeting,” she added in 
a short statement.

The Azerbaijani news agency Turan was the first to report earlier in the day 
that the Washington talks have been postponed. It cited unnamed diplomatic 
sources as attributing the postponement to a scheduling conflict and 
“logistical” issues.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry essentially confirmed the information. “We hope 
that the meeting will take place in the near future,” a ministry spokesman said, 
adding that the new date will be announced by the U.S. State Department.

“Regarding the exact date of the next round of talks, we don’t have any specific 
dates to announce at this time,” a State Department spokesperson said in written 
comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

The official also said Washington looks forward to again hosting 
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. “Direct dialogue is the key to resolving 
issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace,” added the official.

The two foreign ministers held four-day negotiations outside Washington one 
month ago. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President 
Ilham Aliyev met together with European Union chief Charles Michel a week later. 
They held two more meetings in the following weeks and are due to meet again in 
July.

The two sides say that despite Pashinian’s pledge to recognize Azerbaijani 
sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh through the peace treaty, they still disagree 
on other sticking points.

Armenia - U.S. Ambassador Kristina Kvien (right) visits Syunik province, June 8, 
2023.

Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and “the line of contact” around 
Karabakh have steadily increased over the last few weeks, with the sides 
accusing each other of violating the ceasefire on a virtually daily basis. 
Armenian officials and pundits claim that Baku is ratcheting them up in a bid to 
clinch more Armenian concessions.

Incidentally, the U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Kristina Kvien, visited on 
Thursday Armenia’s Syunik province bordering Azerbaijan. She said she “saw first 
hand the tense situation along the border” and “heard about pervasive security 
concerns from local officials, civil society.”

“Everyone deserves the safety and security a just and durable peace would 
bring,” tweeted Kvien.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 
Anna Tamamian: