RFE/RL Armenian Service – 09/11/2023

                                        Monday, 

Erdogan, Pashinian Discuss Karabakh Tensions


Czech Republic- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Turkish President 
Recep Tayyip Erdogan meet in Prague, October 6, 2022.


Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian discussed rising tensions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in a 
phone call on Monday.

In virtually identical readouts of the call, the press offices of the two 
leaders said they agreed that lasting peace and stability “will contribute to 
the development and prosperity of all countries of the region.” They pledged to 
“continue diplomatic efforts in this direction,” added the statements. No other 
details were reported.

Erdogan criticized “Armenia’s actions in Karabakh” on Sunday when he announced 
his intention to talk to Pashinian. He pointed to the weekend election of a new 
Karabakh president strongly condemned by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Erdogan spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by phone on Saturday. His 
conversations with the two leaders came amid the increased risk of another 
upsurge in violence in the conflict zone.

Yerevan said last week that Azerbaijani troops have been massing along the 
Karabakh “line of contact” and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in possible 
preparation for another military offensive. For its part, Baku alleged growing 
Armenian “military provocations.” Erdogan likewise denounced Yerevan’s 
“provocative” moves earlier this month.

Azerbaijan’s top army general, Kerim Valiyev, arrived in Turkey earlier on 
Sunday for fresh talks with top Turkish military officials. Turkey provided 
decisive military support to Azerbaijan during the 2020 war in Karabakh.

Pashinian offered to hold “urgent” talks with Aliyev during weekend phone calls 
with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the leaders of Germany, France 
and Iran. It is not clear whether he also tried to phone Russian President 
Vladimir Putin.

Russian-Armenian relations have deteriorated further this month due to what 
Moscow sees as “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by Yerevan. The Russian 
Foreign Ministry summoned the Armenian ambassador on Friday to hand him an 
extraordinary note of protest.




U.S., Armenian Troops Start Joint Drills

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia - U.S. and Armenian troops start a joint exercise at the Zar training 
ground near Yerevan, .


The U.S. and Armenian militaries began on Monday a joint military exercise in 
Armenia strongly criticized by Russia, the South Caucasus nation’s longtime ally.

The Eagle Partner 2023 exercise, scheduled for September 11-20, reportedly 
involves 85 U.S. and 175 Armenian soldiers. According to the Armenian Defense 
Ministry, they will simulate a joint peacekeeping operation in an imaginary 
conflict zone at two training grounds. One of those facilities belongs to the 
Armenian army’s special peacekeeping brigade.

"Exercise Eagle Partner's opening ceremony has kicked off," a spokesperson for 
U.S. Army Europe and Africa told the AFP news agency.

The Defense Ministry in Yerevan issued a statement on and photos of the ceremony 
later in the day. It was attended by Lieutenant-General Eduard Asrian, the chief 
of the Armenian army’s General Staff.

The ministry announced the drills last week amid Armenia’s unprecedented 
tensions with Russia. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stoked the tensions with a 
newspaper interview in which he declared that his government is trying to 
“diversify our security policy” because Armenia’s reliance on Russia for defense 
and security has proved a “strategic mistake.”

Russia condemned Pashinian’s remarks. The Russian Foreign Ministry listed them 
and the U.S.-Armenian drills among Yerevan’s “unfriendly” actions in a note of 
protest handed to the Armenian ambassador in Moscow on Friday.

“I don’t think [the exercise] is good for anyone, including Armenia,” Russian 
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the weekend. “Wherever the Americans 
showed up -- you know, they have hundreds of bases around the world -- it didn't 
lead to anything good.”

The Armenian government did not respond to the criticism. Only one 
pro-government lawmaker, Gagik Melkonian, agreed on Monday to comment, saying 
that Lavrov “always wants to destroy our country.” Melkonian also claimed that 
Russian-Armenian relations have deteriorated because Yerevan is no longer 
willing to let Moscow “make decisions for us.”

Meanwhile, Armenian opposition parliamentarians expressed serious concern over 
consequences of what they see as a far-reaching reorientation of Armenian 
foreign policy. They said that Pashinian is increasing Turkey’s influence in the 
region and thus further jeopardizing Armenia’s security.

“They are trying to turn to the West,” said Artur Khachatrian of the opposition 
Hayastan alliance. “But I think that when they look to the West they will see 
Turkey. France is not visible for Armenia. Neither is the United States. It’s 
Russia and Turkey that have traditionally fought for this region.”




Public Workers ‘Forced To Attend’ Ruling Party Rallies In Yerevan

        • Naira Bulghadarian
        • Anush Mkrtchian

Armenia - The ruling Civil Contract party's mayoral candidate Tigran Avinian 
speaks 
during a campaign rally in Yerevan, September 5, 2023.


Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract is facing more allegations of electoral foul 
play after scores of schoolteachers and other public sector employees were 
spotted attending its mayoral candidate Tigran Avinian’s campaign rallies in 
Yerevan.

A civic activist, Artur Chakhoyan, publicized on Friday a video of himself 
posing as an Avinian campaign worker and talking to many participants of one 
such rally held in the city’s Nor Nork district. They told him that they are 
part of entire staffs of schools, kindergartens and local government bodies that 
went to the gathering during their work hours. Other participants turned out to 
be employees of a private aqua park located in Nor Nork.

Chakhoyan suggested that the party headed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is 
forcing public workers to join Avinian’s rallies in hopes of boosting his 
chances in the municipal elections scheduled for September 17. The Independent 
Observer, a coalition of local election monitors, forwarded his video to 
prosecutors, demanding a criminal investigation.

The Office of the Prosecutor-General said later on Friday that it is looking 
into the 20-minute footage posted on Facebook. But as of Monday evening, it 
remained unclear whether law-enforcement authorities will open a formal inquiry. 
Forcing or paying people to attend a rally is a criminal offense in Armenia.

Armenia - People attend the ruling Civil Contract party's campaign rally in 
Yerevan's Nor Nork district, September 8, 2023.

The Independent Observer’s Vardine Grigorian said the authorities must clarify 
whether the public workers were indeed forced to attend the Nor Nork event.

“It’s very likely that they were taken to the rally in an organized manner,” 
Grigorian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Other major election contenders portrayed the scandalous video as further proof 
that Civil Contract is abusing its administrative resources during the mayoral 
race. They said Pashinian’s political team is resorting to the kind of illegal 
practices which it had decried prior to coming to power in the 2018 “velvet 
revolution.”

“Unfortunately, our concerns are being borne out one by one,” said Hayk 
Marutian, a former Yerevan mayor ousted by Pashinian’s party in December 2021. 
“The Civil Contract party is no longer inferior to the former 
election-falsifying authorities in terms of fraud and abuse of administrative 
resources.”

Armenia - Former Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian speaks to journalists, August 30, 
2023.

Avinian did not comment on the scandal sparked by his Nor Nork rally. The ruling 
party’s mayoral candidate denied any foul play, alleged by his political rivals 
and civil society, when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday. “They 
are looking for small crumbs in a big field,” he said.

Also on Thursday, Daniel Ioannisian of the Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) 
expressed serious concern over a “very high concentration” of public workers at 
Avinian’s campaign rallies.

“We can see a disproportionate percentage of school, kindergarten and medical 
personnel there,” said Ioannisian. “In two cases, we have reason to assert that 
they were forcibly brought [to the rallies.”

The UIC earlier accused Civil Contract of abusing its government levers in the 
months leading up to the Yerevan election campaign. Pashinian’s party denied the 
accusations before filing a defamation suit against the Western-funded 
non-governmental organization late last month.



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