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
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