Tuesday, June 22, 2021 U.S. Urges Acceptance Of Armenian Vote Results June 22, 2021 U.S. -- U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price speaks during a press briefing at the State Department in Washington, February 8, 2021 The United States has called on the Armenian opposition to accept official results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections that gave victory to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his party. “The United States congratulates the people of Armenia on their June 20 parliamentary elections,” a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, Ned Price, said in a statement released late on Monday. Price noted and welcomed a largely positive assessment of the Armenian authorities’ handling of the snap election given by European observers earlier in the day. “We urge Armenians of all political affiliations to respect the results of these elections once certified, employ the legal election grievance process to address issues of concern, and avoid political retaliation as Armenia continues to pursue a sovereign, democratic, peaceful, and prosperous future,” he said. Price also praised the Pashinian government’s track record and said Washington looks forward to working with it to “grow our bilateral relationship and cooperation.” “We commend Armenia for the progress it has made with respect to reforms and anti-corruption efforts and encourage Armenia to continue along this path, in line with the aspirations of the Armenian people, as expressed in the spring of 2018,” he said. In its official reaction to the polls, the European Union also cited the preliminary findings of the more than 330 election observers that were mostly deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). “The European Union calls on all political forces to now work together in order to effectively tackle the challenges Armenia is confronted with, in the interest of the Armenian citizens,” an EU foreign policy spokesperson said on Tuesday. The OSCE-led mission described the elections as “competitive and generally very well-managed” and said they were “assessed positively overall” by its monitors. Pashinian and his political team have portrayed this verdict as further proof of their freedom and fairness. The two leading opposition groups that challenged Pashinian’s Civil Contract party in the tense parliamentary race have rejected the official vote results as fraudulent. Armenia - Voters at a polling station in Yerevan, June 20, 2021. Former President Robert Kocharian’s Hayastan bloc, the official runner-up in the polls, accused the European observers of turning a blind eye to many vote irregularities that benefited the ruling party. In a statement issued late on Monday, the bloc charged that the observer mission ignored its complaints about Pashinian’s pre-election “hate speech” and “compelling evidence” of abuse of administrative resources and harassment of Hayastan activists by the Armenian authorities. Kocharian said on Tuesday that police rounded up 60 Hayastan proxies and campaign activists and held them in custody for several hours during Sunday’s voting. He claimed that this was done to facilitate fraud at polling stations. Pativ Unem, the other opposition bloc that won seats in Armenia’s new parliament, also reported police raids on its campaign offices and mass detentions of its activists on Saturday and Sunday. Armenian law-enforcement bodies have opened criminal cases against several dozen members of these and other opposition groups accused of trying to buy votes. It is not yet clear if they will press charges against any government officials who opposition representatives say have forced their subordinates to vote for Pashinian’s party or fired public sector employees openly supporting the opposition. Armenia Sees Russian Troop Deployment In Another Border Region June 22, 2021 • Artak Khulian ARMENIA -- Armenian soldiers walk in a trench at an Armenian-Azerbaijani border section near the village of Sotk in Gegharkunik province, June 18, 2021 Russia will likely deploy troops in another Armenian region bordering Azerbaijan, Armenia’s top army general said on Tuesday. Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian, the chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff, said Moscow and Yerevan are close to reaching a relevant agreement. “As soon as there is a final agreement in terms of time frames and technical issues there will be a further announcement,” he told reporters. Davtian expressed confidence that Russian border guards will be deployed to Armenia’s Gegharkunik province. It borders the Kelbajar district west of Nagorno-Karabakh which was retaken by Azerbaijan following the autumn war. Azerbaijani troops crossed several sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and advanced a few kilometers into Gegharkunik and another province, Syunik, on May 12-14. Yerevan has repeatedly demanded their withdrawal since then. Baku insists that its troops took positions on the Azerbaijani side of the frontier. Gegharkunik’s governor, Gnel Sanosian, announced the impending deployment of Russian border guards there late on Monday. He said that it will be followed by the withdrawal of Armenian and Azerbaijani forces from contested border portions. Davtian did not confirm the planned troop disengagement mentioned by Sanosian. “Negotiations are taking place with the Russian side because there are still issues,” he said. “Our goal is to have Azerbaijani forces withdraw from our territory without any clashes.” It is not clear whether Russian military personnel could also be dispatched to the disputed border section in Syunik. Russia already deployed army soldiers and border guards elsewhere in Syunik following the Armenian-Azerbaijani war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November. Russia’s and Armenia’s defense ministers discussed further Russian deployments in a January 16 phone call. They again spoke by phone on Monday. “Sergei Shoigu and Vagharshak Harutiunian discussed the situation at Armenian-Azerbaijani border sections in Gegharkunik and Syunik and ways of resolving it,” the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement. It gave no details. Kocharian’s Bloc To Take Up Parliament Seats Despite Fraud Claims June 22, 2021 Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian holds a post-election news conference in Yerevan, June 22, 2021. Former President Robert Kocharian indicated on Tuesday that his opposition Hayastan (Armenia) alliance will accept the parliament seats won by it in the weekend general elections despite challenging their official results in court. Kocharian said the bloc, which finished second in the snap elections, will use its presence in Armenia’s new parliament to step up its struggle against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. “Our struggle will become much more intense. Parliamentary levers will allow us to work much more actively in other directions,” he told a joint news conference with the leaders of the Dashnaktsutyun and Resurgent Armenia parties affiliated with the bloc. “We will fight against this regime by all possible means, both in and outside the parliament,” said Dashnaktsutyun’s Ishkhan Saghatelian. According to the Central Election Commission, Pashinian’s Civil Contract party won almost 54 percent of the vote and retained its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. Hayastan came in a distant second with 21 percent, followed by former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Pativ Unem bloc, which got 5.2 percent. The 22 other election contenders fared worse and will not be represented in the new parliament. Civil Contract is expected to control 71 seats in the 107-member parliament, compared with 29 and 7 seats won by Kocharian’s and Sarkisian’s blocs respectively. Both blocs have rejected the official results as fraudulent, with Hayastan planning to ask Armenia’s Constitutional Court to overturn them. It is not yet clear whether Pativ Unem will also appeal to the court. ARMENIA -- Members of a local election commission count votes at a polling station in Yerevan, June 20, 2021 Some supporters of the two opposition forces have urged them to refuse to take up their parliament seats in protest. Kocharian argued against such a boycott, saying that presence in the parliament will give Hayastan “additional and substantial levers” to challenge Pashinian’s government and eventually cause its downfall. “You will see in what corruption deals these authorities are mired, especially in state procurements and a number of other spheres,” he said. The 66-year-old ex-president, who topped his bloc’s list of election candidates, said that he himself will likely cede his parliament seat to another Hayastan member. “I’m a man of the executive branch. I don’t quite imagine myself in a legislative body,” he explained. While claiming that the ruling party secured its landslide victory thanks to a widespread abuse of administrative resources and other “mass irregularities,” Kocharian described the official results as “unexpected.” He admitted that many Armenians voted for Pashinian because they did not want their former rulers to return to power. In that regard, he complained that he and his political allies did not have enough time to campaign in villages across the country where Civil Contract secured the highest percentage of votes. Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian greets supporters during a rally in Yerevan, June 21, 2021. Pashinian and his allies celebrated their victory with a rally held in Yerevan late on Monday. Addressing supporters, the prime minister declared the end of a serious political crisis sparked last November by Armenia’s defeat in the war with Azerbaijan. Citing the “extremely serious” post-war challenges facing his country, Pashinian said he and his political opponents must end personal insults and tone down “unnecessary aggression and feud.” He expressed readiness to embark on a “dialogue” with opposition forces. But in a clear reference to the two ex-presidents, he went on to state that they must “immediately” negotiate with his administration on “returning what was stolen from the people” or risk a crackdown by law-enforcement authorities. Kocharian construed this statement as a clear sign that the reelected premier has no intention to change his confrontational policies and attitudes towards the opposition. The political crisis in the country is therefore not over, he said. “If they carry on with the same style, the same vendettas and keep up the internal political tensions, then I have no doubts that Armenia will face yet another pre-term election, and it will not take long,” added the Hayastan leader. During the 12-day election campaign Pashinian pledged to “purge” the state bureaucracy and wage “political vendettas” against local government officials supporting the opposition. He repeatedly brandished a hammer meant to symbolize a popular “steel mandate” which he said he needs in order to continue ruling Armenia with a more firm hand. The Armenian human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, denounced that campaign rhetoric. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.