Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Armenian Opposition To Boycott Presidential Inauguration
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Senor lawmakers from the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances
talk during a parliament session in Yerevan, August 24, 2021.
The two opposition alliances represented in the Armenian parliament said on
Wednesday that they will boycott the inauguration ceremony of the country’s new
president elected by lawmakers last week.
The deputies representing the Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances already
boycotted the two rounds of balloting through which the pro-government majority
in the National Assembly installed Minister of High-Tech Industry Vahagn
Khachatrian as president. They said he does not meet constitutional provisions
requiring the presidency to be a “really neutral institution consolidating the
society.”
Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanian said on Wednesday that Khachatrian himself has
admitted being a member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team.
“He is Nikol Pashinian’s president,” Mamijanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“We see no reason to attend the inauguration ceremony of Nikol Pashinian’s
presidency.”
“They did not elect a president of the Republic of Armenia,” agreed Hayastan’s
Ishkhan Saghatelian. “They just installed a member of their team as president.
Therefore, we are not and will not be part of that process.”
Artur Hovannisian, a senior lawmaker from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party,
denounced the opposition boycott. “I believe that the opposition deputies are
being disrespectful towards the Armenian statehood,” he said.
Just like his predecessor Armen Sarkissian, who unexpectedly resigned in
January, Khachatrian will have largely ceremonial powers. Addressing the
National Assembly before the votes, the 62-year-old economist made clear that he
will be helping the Armenian government implement its domestic and foreign
policies.
Khachatrian will be sworn in on Sunday during a special session of the
parliament that will also be attended by Armenian dignitaries and foreign
diplomats.
A parliament spokesperson said that all former presidents of the republic,
including Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, have also been invited to the
ceremony. Kocharian and Sarkisian lead Hayastan and Pativ Unem respectively.
Sarkisian’s office said that he will not attend Khachatrian’s inauguration.
Saghatelian was confident that Kocharian will also boycott it.
Levon Ter-Petrosian, another ex-president critical of Pashinian, is also
unlikely to accept the invitation. Khachatrian was a senior member of
Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party until joining the current
government last August.
The HAK’s deputy chairman, Levon Zurabian, took a dim view of Khachatrian’s
election last week. He described the new president as an “obedient stooge” of
Pashinian.
Baku Accused Of Blocking Gas Supply To Karabakh
• Susan Badalian
Nagorno Karabakh - A view of Stepanakert, November 27, 2020.
Officials in Stepanakert on Wednesday accused Azerbaijan of obstructing repairs
on the sole pipeline that supplies natural gas to Nagorno-Karabakh.
The gas supplies from Armenia were cut off on Monday night after a section of
the pipeline passing through Azerbaijani-controlled territory was knocked out by
an apparent explosion.
The accident left Karabakh’s households, schools and other entities without
heating. It also forced local bakeries and other vital businesses reliant on gas
to suspend their work.
The authorities in Stepanakert said that for the second consecutive day the
Azerbaijani side did not allow Karabakh sappers and utility workers to access
the presumed site of the accident, ascertain its causes and finds ways of
restoring the gas supplies.
Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, said it therefore remains
unclear what caused the disruption. The pipeline may well have been blown up by
Azerbaijani forces, he said, adding that some Stepanakert residents heard on
Monday the sound of a powerful explosion coming from the area around the
Azerbaijani-controlled town of Shushi (Shusha).
Karabakh’s National Security Service likewise said that it is looking into the
possibility of an Azerbaijani sabotage attack.
Azerbaijani officials made no statements on the accident as of Wednesday
afternoon. Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Karabakh reportedly
discussed with them ways of restoring the gas supplies.
The disruption followed an increase in truce violations along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” in and around Karabakh. Stepanian claimed
that it could be part of Baku’s broader efforts to intimidate the Karabakh
Armenians and cause them to leave the territory.
Azeri Mortar Fire Reported In Karabakh (UPDATED)
Nagorno-Karabakh - A view of the village of Khramort.
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have accused Azerbaijan of shelling several
local villages in continuing efforts to force their ethnic Armenian residents to
flee their homes.
The prosecutor’s office in Stepanakert said on Wednesday evening that the
Azerbaijani army is “actively” using mortars and automatic weapons to target the
rural communities, mostly located in Karabakh’s east, as well as local roads.
The gunfire forced local farmers to suspend “all types of agricultural work,” it
added in a statement.
No casualties were reported.
Karabakh’s Defense Army said earlier in the day that Azerbaijani forces fired
mortars towards the village of Khramort for the second consecutive night on
Tuesday. Nobody was hurt as a result, it said.
In another statement issued afterwards, the Defense Army said Azerbaijani forces
also opened mortar fire at another village in eastern Karabakh, Khnushinak.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that its troops did not target any
civilian areas or infrastructure in Karabakh. It said they only shot back at
Karabakh Armenian forces which it claimed violated the ceasefire on Tuesday and
Wednesday morning.
Located roughly 30 kilometers east of Stepanakert, Khramort borders the Aghdam
district handed back to Azerbaijan following the 2020 war. It is home to more
than 100 families.
Nagorno-Karabakh - A handout photo purportedly shows fragments of an Azerbaijani
mortar shell that landed in a village in eastern Karabakh, March 9, 2022.
Tensions around the village rose in mid-February when Azerbaijani troops
reportedly wounded a Karabakh Armenian soldier and fired on local farmers
cultivating their land. A tractor used by them was hit by the gunshots before
Russian peacekeeping forces intervened to rescue the farmers.
Baku claimed that the latter fortified Armenian military positions in the area
under the guise of agricultural work. Karabakh officials shrugged off the claim.
Later in February, Azerbaijani troops broadcast through loudspeakers placed on
their positions an Armenian-language message telling Khramort residents to stop
working in their orchards and leave “Azerbaijan’s territory.” “Or else, force
will be used against you,” it warned.
The menacing broadcasts ended a few days later, after negotiations held by
Russian peacekeepers and the Azerbaijani side.
The Russians had to intervene again at the weekend to stop exchanges of
automatic gunfire between Azerbaijani and Karabakh Armenian forces deployed
outside Khramort.
Nagorno-Karabakh - A Russian soldier of the peacekeeping force controls a
vehicle at a checkpoint on a road outside Stepanakert, November 26, 2020.
The Karabakh Defense Army reported the first Azerbaijani mortar fire on Monday
evening. Khramort residents interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service spoke of
several explosions near their homes.
“I worked in our garden with my children,” said Hasmik Andrian, a local woman.
“The blast was very strong. They said it was a mortar. We got very scared.”
“Every time we go to bed we fear that they will attack, strike the village
overnight,” she said. “Every time we wake up in the morning we thank God for
having slept safely and for the fact that nothing happened, that my kids are
with me.”
Like many other people in Khramort, Andrian wants a permanent Russian military
presence in or around the village. “If there are Russian posts here we will
sleep normally,” she said.
Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, charged on Tuesday that the
reported shelling of Khramort was part of Baku’s efforts to intimidate the
Karabakh Armenians and force them to leave the disputed territory.
In recent months, Azerbaijani army units have also been accused of regularly
opening small arms fire at other Karabakh villages. In one of them, Karmir
Shuka, a private house was damaged by gunfire in early February.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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