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    Categories: 2023

RFE/RL Armenian Service – 07/03/2023

                                        Monday, July 3, 2023


U.S.-Mediated Talks Rejected By Karabakh Armenians

        • Nane Sahakian

Nagorno-Karabakh - Protesters hold a giant Armenian flag as they attend a rally 
in Stepanakert, December 25, 2022.


Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership turned down last month a U.S. offer to negotiate 
with Baku on the Armenian-populated region’s “integration” into Azerbaijan, a 
senior official in Stepanakert said on Monday.

“There was a proposal of a direct Stepanakert-Baku dialogue mediated by 
America,” Artur Harutiunian, the parliamentary leader of Karabakh’s ruling 
party, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “The issues that were supposed to be 
discussed were, in essence, an agenda pushed by Azerbaijan.”

This is why, he said, Stepanakert refused to attend the U.S.-mediated talks 
planned in an unnamed third country. The Karabakh leaders want to discuss 
instead the lifting of the Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor and other 
humanitarian issues, added Harutiunian.

The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda claimed in mid-June that the United 
States has issued an ultimatum to the Karabakh Armenians, saying that they must 
negotiate on Azerbaijan’s terms or risk a “use of force.” Official Moscow was 
quick to express concern over the report, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman 
Maria Zakharova effectively accusing Washington of resorting to “threats” and 
“blackmail.”

Commenting on the report, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said only that Washington 
welcomes any dialogue that could help to secure “the rights and security” of 
Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population.

The U.S. State Department raised eyebrows in Stepanakert and Yerevan in late May 
when it welcomed “amnesty” offered to Karabakh’s leaders by Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev on the condition of their “surrender” to Baku. The 
Armenian Foreign Ministry said Aliyev’s statement “contained clear threats” to 
Karabakh’s security.

Armenian opposition leaders and other critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
also denounced the State Department’s perceived pro-Azerbaijani stance. They 
said it was made possible by Pashinian’s recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty 
over Karabakh.

The Karabakh president, Arayik Harutiunian, said last week that Karabakh will 
continue to assert its right to self-determination despite mounting pressure 
from Azerbaijan.




Another Armenian Judge Fired For Criticizing Authorities

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia- Judge Davit Harutiunian speaks to journalists, Yerevan, June 19, 2023.


Another well-known judge was ousted on Monday after accusing Armenia’s 
government and state judicial watchdog headed by a political ally of Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian of seeking to control courts.

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) also accepted government demands to dismiss 
three other judges on the grounds that their past verdicts were overturned by 
the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Some Armenia legal experts regard 
these grounds as unconstitutional.

The Armenian Ministry of Justice initiated disciplinary proceedings against the 
other, more famous and respected judge, Davit Harutiunian, after he claimed that 
the SJC arbitrarily fires his colleagues at the behest of a single person.

“In my view, more than two dozen judges have been relieved of their duties in 
various illegal ways,” he told reporters two months ago.

The Ministry of Justice responded by accusing Harutiunian of discrediting the 
Armenian judiciary and jeopardizing its impartiality. The SJC, which is headed 
by former Justice Minister Karen Andreasian, decided to oust him after several 
hearings that were held behind the closed doors despite strong objections from 
the judge, his lawyers as well as journalists.

The SCJ did not immediately specify the reason for the decision. Andreasian 
refused to talk to the press both before and after its announcement.

Harutiunian condemned the decision while saying that he anticipated it. He said 
he will appeal to the ECHR and file a “crime report” against Andreasian with 
Armenian law-enforcement authorities over what he described as serious 
procedural violations committed by the SJC.

“The Supreme Judicial Council must set an example for judges,” Harutiunian told 
reporters. “But as we can see, the opposite is the case.”

Armenia - Karen Andreasian, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, chairs an SJC 
hearing in Yerevan, June 29, 2023.

The sackings of the judges are bound to stoke opposition allegations that 
Pashinian’s government is seeking to further curb judicial independence in 
Armenia under the guise of Western-backed “judicial reforms.” They highlight the 
Armenian authorities’ growing recourse to punitive measures against judges, 
which was facilitated by a 2021 which Andreasian had helped to enact in his 
previous capacity as justice minister. The number of disciplinary proceedings 
against them has risen sharply in the last two years.

Last December, the SJC controversially fired a judge married to a vocal critic 
of the government. The judge, Anna Pilosian, was officially punished for 
excessive delays in the publication of verdicts handed down by her in four civil 
cases.

Another Yerevan judge, Zaruhi Nakhshkarian, openly criticized Pilosian’s 
sacking. Nakhshkarian lost her job in February because of that. Her ouster was 
also initiated by the Ministry of Justice.

As justice minister, Andreasian repeatedly called for a mandatory “vetting” of 
Armenian judges, an idea that prompted serious misgivings from European legal 
experts. In February 2022, he stated that the SJC must fire scores of judges, 
including those who openly accused the authorities of pressuring courts.

Andreasian was affiliated with Pashinian’s Civil Contract party until becoming a 
member and then the head of the SJC in October. Another member of the judicial 
watchdog resigned a few days after his appointment, saying that the SJC can no 
longer protect judicial independence.




Karabakh Ballot Initiative Launched In Armenia

        • Robert Zargarian

Armenia - Citizens sign a petition on Nagorno-Karabakh in Yerevan, June 29, 2023.


A group of Armenian political activists and public figures have begun collecting 
signatures in support of their demands for making it a crime to recognize 
Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.

They also want to criminalize any government decision to stop campaigning for 
greater international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman 
Turkey.

The ballot initiative dubbed Hayakve (Armenian vote) follows Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian’s recent pledge to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over 
Karabakh through an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. His statement has been 
strongly condemned by the Armenian opposition and Karabakh’s leadership.

Avetik Chalabian, an opposition figure coordinating the initiative, said on 
Monday that Pashinian made a “verbal statement that has no legal force” and that 
Hayake aims to prevent him from formalizing his far-reaching plans.

Hayakve is specifically seeking two new articles of the Armenian Criminal Code 
which would make recognition of Karabakh’s incorporation into Azerbaijan and 
renunciation of the genocide recognition campaign crimes punishable by between 
10 and 15 years in prison. Chalabian argued that this would be in line with a 
1990 declaration of independence adopted by Armenia’s first post-Communist 
parliament.

Armenian law requires the parliament to debate any initiative backed by at least 
50,000 citizens. A petition signed by at least 300,000 Armenians must be put on 
a referendum.

The current National Assembly is controlled by Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, 
suggesting that the referendum is the only realistic way of enacting the 
amendments demanded by Hayakve and endorsed by many opposition leaders.

Chalabian said he and other individuals leading the ballot initiative, among 
them several well-known artists and intellectuals, will release weekly updates 
on the number of signatures collected by them. He did not say how many citizens 
have already backed the effort with their signatures.

Some mainstream opposition groups pledged earlier this month to stage street 
protests against what they see as a “new capitulation” deal with Azerbaijan 
planned by Pashinian.




Armenian Government Denies Ending Contacts With Karabakh Leaders


Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with Arayik Harutiunian, the 
Karabakh president, in Yerevan, October 12, 2022.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday dismissed through a spokeswoman reports 
that he and other senior Armenian government officials have ended regular 
contacts with Nagorno-Karabakh’s leaders.

“In connection with these claims that have nothing to do with reality, we 
consider it important to underline that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has 
repeatedly mentioned intensive daily contacts with [Karabakh President] Arayik 
Harutiunian,” Pashinian’s press secretary, Nazeli Baghdasarian wrote on Facebook.

Baghdasarian also dismissed allegations that Azerbaijan’s eight-month blockade 
of Karabakh is now “off the agenda of the Armenian government.”

The “rumors” denied by her apparently include a weekend Facebook post by a 
prominent Armenian investigative journalist.

“I spoke today with two Artsakh officials,” wrote Edik Baghadasarian. “They were 
very upset not with the fact that food and medicine are running out but the fact 
that Armenian officials do not answer their phone calls anymore.”

A rift between Pashinian’s government and Karabakh’s leadership has steadily 
deepened ever since the Armenian premier stopped championing the Karabakh 
Armenians’ right to self-determination more than a year ago.

Pashinian drew strong condemnation from the authorities in Stepanakert after he 
pledged in May to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh through an 
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty currently discussed by Yerevan and Baku.

“As for Armenia or various international bodies, I want to make clear that 
nobody can strip us of our right to self-determination, an international norm,” 
Harutiunian said last week.



Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS