Thursday,
Yerevan Unfazed By Russia-West Tensions
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian speaks to journalists in
Yerevan 16Nov2017.
The latest upsurge in tensions between Russia and the West will not adversely
affect Armenia’s relations with the European Union and the United States, a
senior Armenian diplomat insisted on Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian said he specifically expects no
fresh hurdles to the ratification of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership
Agreement (CEPA) that was signed by Armenia and the EU last November.
The 350-page agreement highlighted Yerevan’s desire to deepen ties with the EU
while remaining part of Russian-led alliances of ex-Soviet states, notably the
Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica
Mogherini, said earlier this month that those ties are now closer than ever
before.
“The EU finds very important the fact that Armenia is the first Eurasian
Economic Union member state which opted for such profound cooperation with the
EU while sticking to its obligations to other integration structures,”
Kocharian told reporters.
Kocharian claimed other some of the other EEU member states are now looking
into the EU-Armenia dealings as a potential blueprint for their relations with
the 28-nation bloc. He refused to name them.
The mounting Russia-West tensions stem from the recent the poisoning in Britain
of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. The U.S., France and Germany
have effectively joined Britain in blaming Russia for the military-grade nerve
toxin attack. They have called it a clear breach of the Chemical Weapons
Convention and international law.
Moscow has denied any involvement in the poisoning.
Kocharian also seemed optimistic that no EU member state will block or impede
the CEPA’s implementation. “The fact that the EU signed the agreement means
that all EU member states had fully agreed to it,” he said.
The CEPA has to be ratified by Armenia’s parliament, the EU member states and
the European Parliament in order to fully come into force. But some of its key
provisions can be put into practice right after the Armenian ratification
expected next month.
No Political Prisoners In Armenia, Says Minister
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian holds a news conference in
Yerevan, 20 February 2018.
The Armenian authorities have not arrested or imprisoned anyone for political
reasons, Justice Minister Davit Harutiunian said on Thursday.
“I don’t agree that there are political prisoners in Armenia,” he told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Harutiunian dismissed a list of about a dozen imprisoned individuals drawn up
my some human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations.
“I am familiar with many such lists. I have also seen a list drawn up by an
international organization which described Nairi Hunanian as a political
prisoner,” he said, referring to the jailed leader of an armed group that
assassinated Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian and seven other officials in the
October 1999 attack on the Armenian parliament.
“Everything depends on standards and unfortunately the fact is that this term
[political prisoner] is very often used for political purposes,” added the
minister who has held senior state posts for the last two decades.
The individuals considered to be political prisoners by critics of the Armenian
government are mostly members or supporters of fringe opposition groups. One of
them, Zhirayr Sefilian, was sentenced this week to 10.5 years in prison on coup
charges which he strongly denies.
The lengthy prison sentence has been condemned by Armenian civic groups and
mainstream opposition leaders such as Nikol Pashinian, a leader of the Yelk
alliance.
Another Yelk leader, Edmon Marukian, on Thursday commented more cautiously on
the jail term handed to Sefilian. He said he will pass final judgment only
after looking into the verdict handed down by a Yerevan district court.
Marukian made clear at the same time that he believes that the verdict is
“connected” with Sefilian’s political activities.
The head of the European Union Delegation in Yerevan, Piotr Switalski, was
asked by reporters last September about the existence of political prisoners in
Armenia. “The European Union does not always necessarily share the views of
non-governmental organizations,” Switalski said. “On such issues, we are mainly
guided by decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights. As you know,
there are no people in Armenia who are qualified by [the Strasbourg court] as
political prisoners.”
No One Charged In Armenian Wildfire
• Anush Muradian
Armenia - A wildfire in the Khosrov Forest State Reserve, 14Aug2017.
After a five-month investigation, Armenian law-enforcement authorities have
decided not to prosecute anyone in connection with a massive wildfire in a
nature reserve southeast of Yerevan.
The fire in the Khosrov Forest State Reserve erupted in August and raged for at
least four days before being extinguished by Armenian emergency workers with
the help of a Russian firefighting plane. It burned at least 360 of hectares of
woodland.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee initially charged one unnamed person under an
article of the Criminal Code dealing with serious damage caused to a forest.
A spokeswoman for the law-enforcement agency, Sona Truzian, said on Thursday
that it has closed the criminal case for lack of any evidence of arson or human
negligence. She said investigators concluded that last summer’s drought and
unusually high air temperatures were the likely cause of the calamity.
Environment Protection Minister Artsvik Minasian said he has no reason to call
their findings into question. “I have confidence in the professionalism of our
law-enforcement bodies,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Armenia - Trees in the Khosrov Forest State Reserve burned by a wildfire,
14Aug2017.
Minasian stated as recently as in October that the cause of the blaze was
“definitely not natural.”
His ministry announced at the time that it has asked for and received aerial
photographs of the Khosrov reserve that were taken by U.S. surveillance
satellites the day after the fire broke out on August 12. It said it has
forwarded the images to the Investigative Committee.
Hakob Sanasarian, a veteran environment protection activist, said he does not
trust the committee’s conclusion and suspects a cover-up. Sanasarian also
slammed the Environment Protection Ministry, saying that it was not equipped to
contain the blaze and has failed to learn lessons.
Minasian argued that the ministry lacks funds to hire more staff for this and
other forests. He also said it has since acquired some types of new technical
equipment and revised its contingency plans for wildfires.
The Khosrov reserve occupies roughly 25,000 hectares of land. Around 9,000
hectares of it are forests originally planted during the reign of a 4th century
Armenian king, Khosrov III.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” claims that Prime Minister Karen Karapetian “voiced indirect
accusations against Serzh Sarkisian” in the Armenian parliament on Wednesday by
reiterating his belief that the continuing uncertainty about his political
future reflects negatively on economic activity in Armenia. Karapetian thus
again accused Sarkisian and the ruling HHK of hampering investments in the
Armenian economy, speculates the paper.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” describes as “sensational” the release on Wednesday of
transcripts of wiretapped phone calls that were made by radical opposition
gunmen after they seized a police station in Yerevan’s Erebuni district in July
2016. They were publicized by prosecutors at the trial of the leading members
of the armed group called Sasna Tsrer. “The conversations make it clear that
the group which seized the police base had one objective: to remove Nikol
Pashinian from the [surrounding] area and get the people rallying there closer
to the base,” comments the paper. It suggests that the release of this
important information may be aimed at preventing Pashinian’s Civil Contract
party and smaller opposition groups supportive of the jailed gunmen from
jointly trying to topple President Sarkisian.
“These wiretaps demonstrate that Sasna Tsrer’s actions targeted not only the
authorities but also politics as a whole,” writes “Zhamanak.” The paper too
points to possible cooperation between Pashinian and the gunmen’s backers. “Of
course, in Armenia’s modern history there have been quite a few cases where
political forces that had traded accusations subsequently became allies, at
least in the tactical sense,” it says. “But in this case we are witnessing a
qualitatively different situation and circumstances because they are about
accepting or not accepting politics in principle, rather than
political-tactical differences.”
“Hraparak” sees a clear division between opposition forces trying to stop Serzh
Sarkisian from extending his rule. Some of them, including the jailed Sasna
Tsrer leaders, stand for an “armed tough struggle” while the others, notably
Pashinian’s party, favor solely peaceful methods of political struggle,
editorializes the paper. It says that even peaceful protests will not make
Pashinian and his allies immune to arrest. “The bad thing is that in our
country virtually all avenues of political struggle lead to prisons,” it says.
“Things like civilized struggle, peaceful regime change and bloodless ouster of
a failed government do not materialize here.”
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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