Wednesday, Ryanair Confirms Plans To Fly To Armenia IRELAND-- A Ryanair Boeing 737 landing at Dublin Airport, September 28, 2017. A senior executive of Ryanair on Wednesday reportedly confirmed the Irish budget airline’s plans to launch regular flights between Europe and Armenia. Ryanair’s chief commercial officer, David O’Brien, and director of route development, Kate Sherry, discussed the matter with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during a visit to Yerevan. An Armenian government statement cited O’Brien as telling Pashinian that Ryanair “intends to enter the Armenian aviation market soon” and is now negotiating with Armenia’s civil aviation authority and main airport operator for that purpose. He presented concrete flights planned by the airline and its “tariff policy” for them, said the statement. Armenia -- Senior Ryanair executives, David O'Brien (R) and Kate Sherry, meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, . Pashinian welcomed those plans, saying that Ryanair flights to and from Armenia would benefit the country’s tourism industry. He expressed hope that the two sides will work out a “concrete variant of mutually beneficial cooperation.” O’Brien and Sherry held a separate dinner meeting on Tuesday with Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian and Tatevik Revazian, the head of the Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Committee. Revazian negotiated with Ryanair representatives in Dublin early this year before announcing in March that the Irish carrier is planning to fly to Armenia. Revazian, who was also present at Pashinian’s meeting the visiting Ryanair executives, announced in July that Ryanair as well as another Western low-cost airline, Wizz Air, are ready to launch flight services next year if they are granted financial concessions. Armenia -- Tatevik Revazian, head of the Civil Aviation Committee, at a news conference in Yerevan, July 15, 2019. She said the Civil Aviation Committee is already drafting a bill that would exempt them from a fixed $21 tax levied from every air ticket sold in the country. The government agency also hopes to convince an Argentine company managing Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport to offer them discounts for airport ground services, she added. The cost of air travel to and from Armenia has already decreased since the liberalization in 2013 of the domestic civil aviation sector. This has contributed to a steady growth of the country’s international air traffic. The total number of passengers processed by the international airports in Yerevan and Gyumri rose by around 10 percent in the first half of this year. Karabakh, OSCE Officials Discuss Fate Of Armenian POW In Azerbaijan • Marine Khachatrian Nagorno Karabakh - Bako Sahakian (R), president of Nagorno Karabakh, meets with Andrzej Kasprzyk, personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office, in Stepanakert, March 7, 2018. Nagorno-Karabakh’s leaders have discussed with a senior official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe the fate of an Armenian soldier who was taken prisoner by Azerbaijani forces last week. The 19-year-old conscript, Arayik Ghazarian, was detained on August 12 after crossing the Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” around Karabakh in still unclear circumstances. The Azerbaijani military said Ghazarian claimed to have deserted his unit because of being systematically mistreated by his comrades. Armenia’s Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan denied that, saying that that the soldier probably strayed into Azerbaijani-controlled territory by accident. Nagorno-Karabakh’s president, foreign minister and top military commander raised the issue with Andrzej Kasprzyk, the longtime head of a small OSCE mission monitoring the ceasefire regime in the Karabakh conflict zone, in separate meetings held in Stepanakert on Tuesday. “I can’t go into details but all issues were discussed,” said Davit Babayan, a spokesman for President Bako Sahakian. “These are both humanitarian and political issues and they just had to be discussed. Of course, we are first and foremost interested in the fate of our compatriot.” According to his press office, Masis Mayilian, the Karabakh foreign minister, and Kasprzyk talked about “possibilities of repatriating” Ghazarian. The issue was also on the agenda of Kasprzyk’s meeting with General Karen Abrahamian, the commander of Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army. On Monday, the Azerbaijani authorities allowed representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit the soldier in custody. An ICRC spokeswoman in Yerevan, Zara Amatuni, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that they spoke to Ghazarian and inquired about his health and detention conditions. Amatuni said the ICRC is also ready to help the prisoner of war communicate with his family in Armenia. Investigators Stand By Corruption Charges Against Armenian Official • Naira Bulghadarian Armenia -- Davit Sanasarian, head of the State Oversight Service, attends a cabinet meeting in Yerevan, April 18, 2019. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has completed a criminal investigation that led to corruption charges brought against a senior government official who actively participated in last year’s “Velvet Revolution.” The NSS indicted Davit Sanasarian, the head of the State Oversight Service (SOS), in April while investigating alleged corrupt practices within the anti-corruption government agency. It arrested two other senior SOS officials in February, saying that they attempted to cash in on government-funded supplies of medical equipment to three hospitals. Sanasarian was charged with abusing his powers to help his subordinates enrich themselves and a private company linked to them. The official, who was suspended as SOS chief as a result, has repeatedly rejected the accusations as “fabricated.” Sanasarian’s lawyer, Inessa Petrosian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Wednesday that the NSS probe is over. She said that the investigators essentially stand by the accusations of abuse of power leveled against her client. Sanasarian and the two other SOS officials will go on trial if the indictments are formally endorsed by prosecutors. Sanasarian, 35, is a former opposition and civic activist who had for years accused Armenia’s former leaders of corruption. He was actively involved in last year’s revolution which succeeded in large measure because of widespread popular frustration with graft. Sanasarian’s supporters, among them leaders of some Western-funded non-governmental organizations, have strongly defended him, denouncing the NSS and Vanetsian in particular. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian hit back at the critics in April. He said that they place their personal relationships with Sanasarian above the rule of law. Press Review “Hraparak” says that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s plans to allow the relaunch of the Amulsar gold mining project mark his firs unpopular decision made in office. The paper says that Pashinian is thus ignoring vehement objections from environmental and other groups that helped him to come to power in May 2018. “This can be described as the first rift between those who blocked streets [during the “Velvet Revolution”] and those who came to power,” it says. “In this case, the choice was made [by Pashinian] in favor of business and investments. This is the first serious test for the authorities and Nikol Pashinian in particular.” “Aravot” deplores the “hypocrisy” of individuals involved in the controversy surrounding the Amulsar project. The paper specifically hits out at those residents of a village close to Amulsar who had willingly sold their agricultural land plots to the project operator, the Lydian International company, at high prices but are now protesting against gold mining in the area. “The locals who did business with Lydian were happy with the sums paid to them and used that money to buy homes and cars in Yerevan,” editorializes the paper. “Now many of them have become enthusiastic ecologists … If you are so patriotic you should not have sold your lands in the first place.” Lragir.am complains that Pashinian’s “historic” speech delivered in Stepanakert early this month has already been forgotten and offset by other developments. The publication claims that the speech was first “shattered” by a scandalous media report about the alleged involvement of a Karabakh general in the 2008 crackdown on opposition protesters in Yerevan. It says Pashinian’s detractors dealt further blows to important statements made by him in the Karabakh capital. (Lilit Harutiunian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org