RFE/RL Armenian Report – 06/28/2021

                                        Monday, 

Families Of Missing Soldiers Want Separate Commission To Deal With MIAs

        • Artak Khulian

Parents of missing Armenian soldiers in front of the government building in 
Yerevan, 


Families of Armenian servicemen who went missing in action (MIA) during last 
year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh have urged acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
to set up a separate commission to deal with the matter.

A group of missing soldiers’ parents said they made the suggestion at their 
meeting with Pashinian in his office on Monday.

The premier’s office did not release any statement on the meeting by late 
afternoon. But the missing soldiers’ parents said Pashinian had welcomed the 
idea.

“I demanded it and said, Mr. Prime Minister, let’s create a commission. He 
[Pashinian] said it was a great idea and that they would create one,” said Edik 
Arevshatian, whose son was deployed in a Nagorno-Karabakh district captured by 
Azerbaijani armed forces in October and has been missing since.

A DNA test has confirmed that Arevshatian’s son was among the dead, but the 
father claims he has gathered information suggesting that his son could still be 
alive and could be among Armenian captives in Azerbaijan.

“There can be no such thing… These children will come back. I will prove it by 
all means… Let’s create a commission, we will understand then who is to blame 
for it,” he said.

According to official data, the number of Armenian servicemen missing after the 
44-day war is 230. There are 142 unidentified bodies in morgue refrigerators in 
the towns of Metsamor, Martuni, Abovian, as well as in Yerevan. Some parents 
have also undergone DNA tests but still await answers.

The parents of MIAs say they are not satisfied with the work of the government. 
“I do not see any results. If someone does something and there is no result, it 
means they do their work wrong. This work must be reviewed to understand where 
mistakes, omissions have been made to correct them and get a result,” said 
Yeghishe Zakunts, a missing soldier’s father.

According to the latest data of the Ministry of Health, so far 3,777 bodies and 
remains have been subjected to forensic examinations; 106 bodies and remains are 
still being identified. Many of the samples have been examined several times, 
but these examinations have failed to identify the persons.

The ministry has told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that negotiations are being 
conducted with some foreign expert organizations to send damaged samples to them 
for examination.



Pashinian Aide ‘Regrets’ Lack Of Support From Yerevan Mayor

        • Marine Khachatrian
        • Harry Tamrazian

Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian


A senior member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration has 
effectively confirmed differences between the current ruling party and Yerevan 
Mayor Hayk Marutian that opposition media have speculated on for months.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun) on Sunday, Arayik 
Harutiunian, chief advisor to the prime minister, denied, however, any ongoing 
discussions about the future of the mayor.

“It is very much regretful that Mr. Marutian showed such an attitude before the 
elections, since the mayor, who was nominated by the Civil Contract party and My 
Step Alliance [of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian], did not express his public 
support for Civil Contract during the election campaign. I regret this, because 
the votes due to which Mr. Marutian became the mayor of Yerevan, was largely for 
the political party that will now form the government for the second time,” 
Harutiunian said.

The senior official said that no discussions were currently underway regarding 
the mayor, but added that members of the ruling party had the same attitude in 
this matter.

“We should understand how to act in such a situation in order to make decisions 
on this issue within our party, but so that the city and city authorities do not 
suffer from it,” Harutiunian added.

Harutiunian’s remarks sparked fresh speculations about Marutian’s possible 
resignation.

Marutian, a popular actor and producer who supported Pashinian during the 2018 
‘Velvet Revolution’ and was elected mayor of Yerevan later that year in an 
election where the pro-Pashinian alliance scored a landslide victory, would not 
comment publicly on various media speculations in recent months and weeks about 
his disillusionment with politics and plans to quit.

After the June 20 snap parliamentary elections in which the Pashinian party 
retained its majority in the National Assembly a number of media reports 
suggested that the government planned a change of the mayor of Yerevan – 
Armenia’s capital and largest city with a population of about a million people.

In a Facebook post in the wake of the elections addressed rather to the 
opposition chief of the prime minister’s staff Arsen Torosian called on elected 
community leaders that had supported other political parties and alliances to 
take note of the Pashinian party’s landslide victory and decide on whether they 
wanted to continue in office or resign.

The post has sparked criticism from the opposition that also claims that 
pressure has been put on some local elected officials, including mayors, to 
resign.

Several weeks before the early elections Marutian, a member of the Civil 
Contract party, publicly hinted that he would remain politically neutral during 
the elections. “I am not interested in elections, I am busy doing my work,” he 
said in May.

But during the June 22 session of the Yerevan Council of Elders, which is a 
municipal assembly of elected representatives, Marutian congratulated the 
citizens on “holding free and transparent elections.”

Hakob Karapetian, a spokesperson for the Yerevan Mayor’s Office, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service (Azatutyun) on Monday that Marutian has no intentions to resign.

“The mayor of Yerevan, together with his team, actively continues to work, 
continues to implement the mandate given to him by the people of Yerevan in 
September 2018. The mandate was given by the people of Yerevan for a period of 
five years,” Karapetian stressed.

Izabella Abgarian, a member of Yerevan’s Council of Elders who quit the ruling 
My Step faction last November, said she did not like what Harutiunian said about 
Marutian in an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

“Because it is not an internal party issue, they simply ought to respect the 
vote of the people,” she said.

“The mayor was elected by the people of Yerevan. Let’s not forget about the 
independence of local government bodies. Our list of candidates was headed by 
Hayk Marutian, not Nikol Pashinian, and people in Yerevan voted for Hayk 
Marutian and his program, which he is implementing. And I think it will be 
unfair to the people of Yerevan if the party makes a party decision,” she added.

Emin Yeritsian, the head of the Union of Communities of Armenia, meanwhile, 
stressed that the issue of the mayor of Yerevan should in any case be decided by 
the Council of Elders. “No one from the outside can make changes unless it is 
decided by the Council of Elders,” he said.



Armenia, Azerbaijan Accuse Each Other Of Border Shooting


Armenian soldiers taking up positions on the border with Azerbaijan, May 17, 
2021.


Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of opening fire at eastern and 
north-eastern sections of their border amid a continuing standoff between their 
troops since incidents in May.

On Monday, Armenia’s Ministry of Defense denied accusations from Azerbaijan that 
Armenian servicemen opened fire at Azerbaijani army positions in the 
northeastern Tavush province in an incident that Baku claims happened late on 
June 27.

“This is another disinformation. The Armenian Armed Forces did not fire a single 
shot towards the Azerbaijani positions,” the Armenian Ministry of Defense said 
in a statement.

Earlier, Armenia denied Azerbaijan’s claims that its armed forces located in the 
eastern Gegharkunik province fired at Azerbaijani military positions. Moreover, 
Armenia accused Azerbaijan’s armed forces of firing indiscriminately towards the 
positions of its troops in the region.

The latest incidents come amid continuing discussions about the deployment of 
Russian troops in Gegharkunik to prevent a further escalation of the situation 
at the restive border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Under acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s decision, an Armenian government 
delegation is currently in Moscow to negotiate the issue of the expansion of 
Russia’s military base in Armenia.

Russian border-guards were already deployed at different sections of the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border in the southern Syunik province after last year’s 
war in Nagorno-Karabakh in which Baku recaptured several districts around the 
Armenian-populated region to restore its land border with Armenia in the south.

Armenia says Azerbaijani troops crossed several sections of the border on May 
12-14 and advanced a few kilometers into Syunik and Gegharkunik, part of which 
borders on the Kelbajar district that was also retaken by Azerbaijan following 
the 44-day war.

At least one Armenian soldier has been killed in a border shooting incident 
since then. Dozens of soldiers on both sides were injured in reported brawls 
between the two opposing sides in which no firearms were used.

International partners of Armenia and Azerbaijan have urged both sides to 
disengage their troops and get down to delimitating and demarcating their 
borders to avoid any further escalation.

Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian indicated in late May that he 
was ready to sign a Russian-brokered deal to set up a committee for the purpose 
on condition that Azerbaijan withdraws its troops from what Yerevan says is 
sovereign Armenian territory.

Pashinian made that statement several days after Armenia formally appealed to 
the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization to hold consultations on 
its border dispute with Azerbaijan.



Armenian Election Body Rejects Opposition Demands To Annul June 20 Vote Results

        • Gayane Saribekian
        • Harry Tamrazian

Armenia- A session of the Central Electoral Commission,27June, 2021


Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission has officially summed up the results of 
the June 20 snap parliamentary elections, reaffirming the landslide victory 
scored by acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party and 
rejecting opposition demands for annulling the results.

According to the final results published on Sunday, Pashinian’s party received 
53.91 percent of the votes, while the Hayastan Alliance of former President 
Robert Kocharian and the Pativ Unem Alliance affiliated with former President 
Serzh Sarkisian got 21.9 percent and 5.22 percent of the vote, respectively.

While not clearing the 7-percent threshold set for alliances to enter 
parliament, Pativ Unem has been allowed to be represented in the next parliament 
as the force that finished third in the race.

According to the Central Electoral Commission, the results will translate into 
71 seats in parliament for Civil Contract, while Hayastan and Pativ Unem will 
control 29 and 7 mandates in the 107-seat National Assembly.

The alliances of the two former presidents as well as the Zartonk 
National-Christian Party, which did not clear the 5-percent threshold for 
political parties, had applied to the Central Electoral Commission with a demand 
to declare the election results invalid.

Presenting their grievances, the opposition groups claimed that the alleged 
violations had a significant impact on the vote results.

They, in particular, claimed that Pashinian violated the constitution by 
continuing to act as prime minister after May 10 when the Armenian parliament 
was dissolved. They also referred to the alleged use of administrative resources 
by the ruling party, Pashinian’s “hate speech” and “calls for violence” during 
the election campaign, prosecutions against opposition members and other alleged 
violations on election day that they claimed had an impact on the outcome of the 
vote.

The Central Electoral Commission rejected the demands of the opposition groups, 
reaffirming the results of the vote.

The Kocharian-led Hayastan Alliance has said it will challenge the election 
results in the Constitutional Court.

Both opposition alliances say they have not yet made their final decision on 
whether they will pick the mandates.

International observers gave largely a positive assessment of the Armenian 
authorities’ handling of the parliamentary elections in their statements that 
followed the June 20 vote.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service late last week, Eoghan Murphy, 
head of the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission in Armenia, said that 
incidents observed by them during Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections did not 
impact the validity of their results.

“It was a competitive election. People could campaign freely, candidates were 
able to go and organize events and they organized events. But also the voters 
had choice in the number of parties running and voters were able to attend 
events if they wanted to attend events. And when it came to election day, people 
were able to go out and vote in a well-managed process where they could cast 
their vote, and that vote would be both respected and reflected in the overall 
results,” Murphy said.


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.

 

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS