Thursday, December 7, 2023 Yerevan, Baku Announce Prisoner Deal Armenia - A French military plane with eight Armenian prisoners of war freed by Azerbaijan on board is seen at Yerevan airport, February 7, 2022. Azerbaijan will free 32 Armenian prisoners of war in exchange for the release of two Azerbaijani soldiers detained in Armenia and Yerevan’s support for Baku’s bid to host the COP29 climate summit, the two sides announced late on Thursday. In a joint statement, the offices of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said the deal is the result of negotiations held by them. They pledged to discuss “more confidence-building measures in the near future.” “The two states reaffirm their intention to normalize relations and negotiate a peace treaty based on respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said the statement. Baku did not immediately identify the Armenian POWs that will be repatriated by it. A similar number of Armenian soldiers as well as eight current and former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh will remain in Azerbaijani captivity. The Azerbaijani servicemen to be freed by Yerevan are apparently the conscripts who were detained in April after crossing into Armenia’s Syunik province from Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. One of them was charged with murdering a Syunik resident one day before his detention. Armenia’s Court of Appeals sentenced him to life in prison earlier this week. The latest prisoner deal followed U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien’s visit to Baku. O’Brien’s discussed with Aliyev U.S. efforts to kick-start talks on the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. In what may have been a related development, a U.S. special envoy for the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks, Louis Bono, met with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Yerevan on Thursday. Head Of Armenian Anti-Graft Watchdog Removed From Office • Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Haykuhi Harutiunian, head of Commission on Prevention of Corruption, speaks at a seminar in Yerevan, February 8, 2023. The Armenian parliament effectively fired on Thursday the head of a state anti-corruption body who has investigated many pro-government lawmakers suspected of illicit enrichment, conflict of interest or other corrupt practices. Haykuhi Harutiunian was elected by the previous National Assembly as chairwoman of the Commission on Prevention of Corruption for a four-year term in November 2019. Armenia’s government and ruling Civil Contract party were expected to back her reelection until recently. However, Armenian media reported last month that during a meeting with Harutiunian held behind the closed doors some parliamentarians affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s party complained about the commission’s actions taken against them, their relatives or friends. Speaking in the parliament on Wednesday, Harutiunian said that “up to 25” Civil Contract deputies have been investigated for possible conflict of interest or inaccurate asset declarations submitted to the commission. Many pro-government deputies openly attacked Harutiunian during a two-day heated debate on her candidacy. Some of them claimed that members of her own family did not file such declarations for two years, while another said Harutiunian arranged for her sister to hold a “seminar” for the anti-graft watchdog’s members and staffers. “My sister has never participated in any activity financed by the commission,” a visibly angry Harutiunian insisted on Thursday. Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party talk on the parliament floor, Yerevan, March 1, 2023. She was also attacked by Arsen Torosian, another Pashinian ally who was investigated in 2020 in his then capacity as health minister. Harutiunian accused Torosian at the time of conflict of interest stemming from a lucrative procurement contract awarded by him to a company owned by his wife. Other commission members disagreed with her at the time. Torosian claimed on Thursday that the probe was politically motivated. “Ms. Harutiunian, if that campaign continues -- and it appears to be continuing -- please look for other heroes,” he said. “You are not my hero,” shot back the anti-corruption official. “I’m afraid you can never become one.” Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers defended Harutiunian. One of them, Artsvik Minasian, praised her “political will” to fight against corruption and accused the authorities of seeking to “usurp” the body scrutinizing the declared assets of the country’s leading state officials. Not surprisingly, the parliament’s pro-government majority blocked Harutiunian’s re-appointment by boycotting an ensuing vote. Several Armenian civic organizations expressed serious concern over such a prospect earlier this week. In a joint statement, they urged Civil Contract’s parliamentary group not to “succumb to the desires of a few members driven by self-interest” and to delay the vote. Pashinian has repeatedly claimed to have eliminated “systemic corruption” in Armenia. However, members of his entourage are increasingly accused by media outlets of enriching themselves or their cronies and breaking their anti-corruption promises given during the 2018 “velvet revolution.” There are also growing questions about integrity in public procurement administered by the current government. European Court Rules Against Ousted Armenian Judges • Naira Bulghadarian France - A view of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Janury 26, 2023. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has dismissed an appeal filed more than three years ago by the former chairman and three other members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court against their dismissal engineered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. The judges came under strong government pressure to resign in 2019, with Pashinian accusing them of maintaining close ties to Armenia’s former government and impeding his “judicial reforms.” They did not bow to the pressure, leading Pashinian’s administration to enact controversial constitutional amendments a year later. The amendments extended a 12-year term limit to all nine members of the Constitutional Court, thereby mandating the immediate dismissal of three court justices who had taken the bench in the 1990s. They also required Hrayr Tovmasian to quit as court chairman while allowing him to remain a judge. Tovmasian and the three ousted judges -- Alvina Gyulumian, Felix Tokhian and Hrant Nazarian -- said the amendments are null and void because they were not sent to the Constitutional Court for examination prior to their passage. The Armenian opposition also accused Pashinian’s political team of violating this legal requirement. Armenia -- Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian reads out a court ruling, Yerevan, March 17, 2020. Tovmasian, Gyulumian, Tokhian and Nazarian went on to appeal to the ECHR, saying that they were forced out in violation of several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. One of those articles guarantees their “access to court.” In its long-awaited ruling made public on Thursday, the Strasbourg-based court refused to invalidate or challenge in any away their ouster, saying that it resulted from the constitutional changes “not directed against them specifically.” It claimed to have found no “evidence of the authorities singling out any of the applicants with negative remarks about their professional performance, personality or moral values.” Pashinian and his political allies never made secret of the fact that the amendments are designed to help them get rid of Constitutional Court members installed during former Presidents Serzh Sarkisian’s and Robert Kocharian’s rule. The prime minister stated in 2019 that they must resign because they do not “represent the people.” The ECHR ruling also cited statements on the issue made by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe in 2020. While largely backing the constitutional amendments, the commission criticized the Pashinian administration’s refusal to introduce a transitional period that would “allow for a gradual change in the composition of the court in order to avoid any abrupt and immediate change endangering the independence of this institution.” Tovmasian and his sacked colleagues did not immediately react to the ruling. Siranush Sahakian, a lawyer representing them, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that she is now examining the text and will comment later. Armenia -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian block the entrance to the Constitutional Court building in Yerevan, May 20, 2019. As a result of the 2020 amendments, two more Constitutional Court members resigned in the following years. The vast majority of the court’s current judges have been handpicked by Armenia’s current political leadership and confirmed by the parliament loyal to it. The Pashinian government has also installed virtually all members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a powerful body overseeing Armenian courts. The judicial watchdog is now headed by Karen Andreasian, Pashinian’s former justice minister who was affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party until September 2022. Over the past year, the SJC has fired a number of respected judges and launched disciplinary proceedings against others, stoking opposition allegations that Pashinian is seeking to further curb judicial independence in Armenia under the guise of Western-backed “judicial reforms.” Opposition leaders have accused the West of turning a blind eye to this for geopolitical reasons. Armenia, Azerbaijan ‘Not Discussing’ New Date For U.S.-Mediated Talks • Shoghik Galstian U.S. - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts talks between Foreign Minsters Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia and Jeyhun Bayramov of Azerbaijan in Arlington, May 4, 2023. Armenia and Azerbaijan have not yet agreed on a new date for fresh talks between their foreign ministers in Washington, Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian said on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to host the talks on November 20. However, Baku cancelled them in protest against what it called pro-Armenian statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia. Speaking during a congressional hearing in Washington on November 15, O’Brien condemned Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and warned Baku against attacking Armenia to open a land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave. Blinken telephoned Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev before sending O’Brien to Baku this week. The latter described his talks with Aliyev and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov as “positive and constructive.” “As I told President Aliyev … Secretary Blinken looks forward to hosting foreign ministers Bayramov and Mirzoyan in Washington soon for peace negotiations,” the U.S. diplomat tweeted early on Thursday. Simonian insisted that Yerevan and Baku are not even discussing yet possible time frames for those negotiations. “We have said that we are not refusing any meetings,” he told reporters. “The Azerbaijani side has declined at least three invitations [from Western mediators.] We hope that it will become more constructive.” Aliyev twice cancelled meetings with Pashinian which the European Union planned to organize in October. The two leaders were due to try to bridge their remaining differences on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. Aliyev cautioned on Wednesday that the treaty alone would not guarantee a lasting peace between the two South Caucasus nations. He said he wants to secure safeguards against Armenian “revanchism.” “In order to prevent revanchism, he should form a peace agenda together with us,” countered Simonian. “There is no other way.” 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.