Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Turkish, Armenian Officials Meet Again
-Ruben Rubinian (left) and Serdar Kilic.
Special envoys of Turkey and Armenia met in Vienna on Tuesday for the third
round of negotiations on normalizing relations between the two neighboring
states.
In identical statements, the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries gave few
details of the talks held by veteran Turkish diplomat Serdar Kilic and Ruben
Rubinian, a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament.
“The Special Representatives reaffirmed the declared goal of achieving full
normalization between their respective countries through this process,” read the
statements. “In this sense, they had sincere and productive exchange of concrete
views and discussed possible steps that can be undertaken for tangible progress
in this direction.”
“They reiterated their agreement to continue the process without preconditions,”
added the statement.
Kilic and Rubinian held their first meeting in Moscow on January 14. Armenia’s
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan afterwards voiced cautious optimism over the
success of the dialogue welcomed by Russia, the United States and the European
Union.
Mirzoyan traveled to Turkey and met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu in March. Cavusoglu described the talks as “very productive.”
Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Cavusoglu has repeatedly
said that his government coordinates the Turkish-Armenian normalization talks
with Baku.
Anti-Government Protests Continue In Armenia
• Narine Ghalechian
• Karine Simonian
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in France Square, Yerevan, May 3,
2022.
Major anti-government protests continued in Armenia for the third consecutive
day on Tuesday, with opposition leaders vowing that there will be no letup in
their efforts to oust Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Groups of opposition activists again briefly blocked streets across Yerevan in
the morning and thousands of other people rallied in the evening in the city’s
France Square where opposition forces set up a tent camp on Sunday. Protests
also erupted in other parts of the country.
One of the opposition leaders, Ishkhan Saghatelian, said that the campaign is
gaining momentum. “Our struggle is unstoppable,” he said at the evening rally.
As was the case on Monday, riot police were quick to forcibly end the street
blockades in the Armenian capital, detaining more than 200 protesters in the
process.
As security forces clashed with protesters disrupting traffic, a larger number
of other demonstrators led by several opposition lawmakers marched through the
city center to try to drum up greater support for their campaign. They entered
one of the buildings of Yerevan State University to urge more students to
boycott classes and demand Pashinian’s resignation.
“We have one goal: to stop this spate of defeats so that our country doesn’t
fall apart,” said Artur Vanetsian, an opposition leader who headed Armenia’s
National Security Service from 2018-2019.
Armenia - Police arrest an opposition protester in Yerevan, May 3, 2022.
The country’s two main opposition alliances, which organized the protests,
accuse Pashinian of planning to let Azerbaijan take full control over
Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinian’s political allies deny this.
Some of the citizens who stood by and watched the morning protests were not
convinced by the opposition push for regime change.
“In democratic countries governments are formed through elections. Period,” one
man told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“They didn’t get [a majority of] votes ten months ago. What do they want now?”
he said, referring to snap parliamentary elections won by the ruling Civil
Contract party.
“I’m not a big fan of Mr. Pashinian, but these guys must specify their first,
second and third steps [after regime change,]” said another Yerevan resident.
The opposition took its campaign to other parts of the country on Tuesday. The
Armenian police reported 14 arrests there.
News reports said that protesters blocked several regional highways. An RFE/RL
reporter witnessed one such blockage outside Armenia’s third largest city of
Vanadzor.
Armenia - An opposition rally in Vanadzor, May 3, 2022
Despite a lack of police intervention, the protesters reopened the
Vanadzor-Yerevan highway to traffic shortly afterwards. As one of them
explained: “We would have kept it blocked for five hours if we had wanted to,
but we don’t need that because it’s Vanadzor residents who suffer from such
inconvenience.”
Other opposition supporters marched through Vanadzor’s central avenue to voice
support for the opposition demands. They repeatedly jostled with police officers
escorting the crowd.
Meanwhile, the Armenian parliament speaker, Alen Simonian, insisted that the
ongoing protests have not plunged the country into another political crisis.
“I respect the activities of our [opposition] colleagues, even though they
frequently resort to insults and aggression,” Simonian said during a session of
the National Assembly boycotted by opposition deputies.
Other pro-government parliamentarians again accused the opposition of exploiting
the Karabakh issue in a bid to seize power. They reiterated that Pashinian’s
political foes do not enjoy popular support.
Top Security Official Accused Of Attacking Journalists
• Artak Khulian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Security forces disperse opposition protesters blocking a street in
Yerevan, May 2, 2022.
Armenian press freedom groups have condemned the head of a security agency that
provides bodyguards to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other senior officials
for reportedly assaulting two journalists during an opposition demonstration in
Yerevan.
Sargis Hovannisian of the State Protection Service (SPS) was approached by a
cameraman and a reporter for the news website Mediahub.am on Monday as he
apparently issued orders to security forces confronting opposition protesters at
a major street intersection.
Videos circulated online showed Hovannisian shouting at the female reporter,
Nare Gnuni, before hitting her microphone. Gnuni said he also kicked the
cameraman, Arman Gharajian.
“He said quite angrily, ‘Turn away the camera, don’t film me.’ At that point the
cameraman simply replied, ‘I will film,’” Gnuni told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The Mediahub.am crew was also threatened and shoved by another SPS officer who
accompanied Hovannisian at the scene.
The incident was witnessed by an official from human rights ombudswoman Kristine
Grigorian’s staff. Grigorian called the SPS chief’s actions unacceptable.
Eight media associations strongly condemned them in a joint statement release
late on Monday. They said that Hovannisian, whose agency is primarily in charge
of Pashinian’s personal security, must be investigated and held accountable.
Hovannisian was already caught on camera kicking an opposition protester in
Yerevan last year.
Responding to the latest outcry, the Office of the Prosecutor-General instructed
another law-enforcement body to look into a video of the incident and determine
whether the high-ranking officer broke the law.
The prosecutors also ordered a separate inquiry into a police officer who
repeatedly punched a protester as the latter was arrested in the city center on
Monday.
Ombudswoman Grigorian criticized the policeman as well. She said the police also
used disproportionate force against other participants of anti-government
protests detained in recent days.
Blinken Lauds Pashinian’s ‘Flexible’ Karabakh Policy
U.S. - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Armenia's Foreign
MInister Ararat Mirzoyan in Washington, May 2, 2022.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
conciliatory position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after holding talks with
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Washington on Monday.
He also said that the United States and Armenia are now working to “strengthen
and deepen” their relations through a “strategic dialogue” that was launched in
2019 but subsequently suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Blinken and Mirzoyan signed after their meeting a memorandum of understanding on
“strategic civil nuclear cooperation” between their countries.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Blinken welcomed “democratic reforms”
implemented by the Armenian government as well as its ongoing dialogue with
Azerbaijan. In that regard, he expressed “real appreciation for the vision and
the courage and the flexibility that the prime minister and Armenia have been
showing in this process.”
Addressing the Armenian parliament on April 13, Pashinian said said the
international community is pressing Armenia to scale back its demands on the
status of Nagorno-Karabakh and recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. He
signaled Yerevan’s intention to make such concessions to Baku.
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel, Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev begin a trilateral
meeting in Brussels, April 6, 2022.
The European Union praised the “forward-looking” speech delivered by Pashinian
one week after he met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Brussels for
talks hosted by the EU’s top official, Charles Michel. Blinken spoke with the
Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders by phone on the eve of the talks.
Pashinian’s discourse stoked Armenian opposition allegations that he has agreed
to restore Azerbaijani control over Karabakh. Armenia’s leading opposition
groups launched late last week daily street protests aimed at toppling the prime
minister.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Mirzoyan and Blinken discussed,
among other things, planned negotiations on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty
and the upcoming creation of a commission tasked with demarcating the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
These issues were also on the agenda of Mirzoyan’s separate meeting with U.S.
Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland held in Washington earlier on Monday.
ARMENIA - Police officers restrain participants of an anti-government
demonstration in Yerevan, May 3, 2022.
“In this context, the Foreign Minister of Armenia stressed the importance of
resuming the work of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship,” read a statement
released by Mirozyan’s press office.
The group dealing with the Karabakh conflict has long been led by the United
States, Russia and France. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on April
8 that Washington and Paris stopped cooperating with Moscow in that format
following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. U.S. and French officials have not
denied that.
Lavrov also accused the West of trying to hijack Russian efforts to broker peace
between Armenia and Azerbaijan as part of the ongoing geopolitical standoff over
Ukraine.
Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed Russia’s key role in
the peace process in a joint declaration issued after their face-to-face talks
held on April 19.
In a further sign that Moscow wants to wrest back the initiative in that
process, Lavrov has reportedly offered to hold a trilateral meeting with his
Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts next week. Mirzoyan accepted the proposal
in an April 29 phone call with Russia’s top diplomat.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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